Livestrong Teams Up with TrueHeart at the Great Castell Kayak Race
The Texas Hill Country Hosts Great Race
by Ross Vick
Castell Texas -- It was a cool; no strike that; it was a rather warmish Saturday in the Texas Hill Country. A Saturday that saw the Llano (pronounced LAN-oh)River full of colorful kayaks and even more so kayakers, helping raise money and awareness for the Livestrong Foundation's efforts to find a cure for cancer and to support those fighting the fight.
It was coolish in the water however. And the shade provide by scub oaks was just the thing for the crowd of participants and supporters in this Hill Country retreat. Hosted by the ever energetic and gracious Jerialice Arsenault, the Great Castell Kayak Race boosted the population of this Texas community five fold.
Entertainment was provided by the two Davids "Dave's not here, man:" David Byboth and David Lewis Morgan. Also I was honored to play a full hour set just before the fireworks provided by Joe King Carrasco began after the awards ceremony. If the afternoon and race was any indication it was surely a night to remember.
However, I admit, I had another appointment to cap off what was a busy day for me and my manager and driver, Taylor Vick. We started out at 8AM driving through the fabulous Texas Hill Country from Kingsland near the headwaters of Lake LBJ to Kerrville where we met with Josh at KRVL and did a live on air interview segment with Josh and he spun a couple of TrueHeart tracks: "Lay Me Down" and our first single: "The Road." Our MySpace Hits jumped today, so I suspect we may have a few new Hill Country fans. We drove from Kerrville back up to Castell for the concert there and then we headed over to Mason to meet with our frinds at SandStone Cellars. Their new wine offering the "III" is outstanding as I can attest as we not only left CD's and swag for the proprieters Scott and Manny but we collected a case for our own enjoyment of the "I" Syrah and the "III." And to top it all off, we headed back to Kingsland --we drove a couple of hundred miles all told-- to enjoy a spectacular tenderloin smoked with pecan on the shore of Lake LBJ prepared by our host for the weekend Leigh and Chuck Smith. And the real kicker was a 1985 magnum of Silver Oak Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. I thought Chuck was going to start weeping. We decanted the Silver Oak for about an hour--tasting sips here and there all the while to make sure it was "opening up" properly. Oh, it was truly special. However, as that was coming to full bloom, we cheated and opened a bottle of the Sandstone Cellars III--a fabulous blend of red varietals that was delightful right out of the bottle, but it too "opened up" as the stars emerged and was what my less sophisticated friends call "Killer." Actually that's how I described it too. We're going to cellar our half case and enjoy it for the next 6 years to see how the grape reacts to time. The makers call it a New World style wine, and I really enjoyed it--if you like a bold Zin it's right up your alley. I was getting hints of leather, tobacco and spice like clove, but the darn stuff is so smooth and robust with berries on the nose and has a sweet but not too much so finish so that you never really taste any "heat" or alcohol. Wow. It's sensational. It's really a fun passion. And the best part of partaking in this hobby is that the wine is so fine, no asprin or advil are needed before bed time. Woo Hoo to that.
It was a great weekend, one that would not have happened without the hard work of my manager and daughter Taylor, to whom I cannot thank enough for her patience with her old man. And it was her bottle of Silver Oak we enjoyed as she was born in 1985 and it was her graduation from The University of Miami that was the occassion which allowed us to partake in this celebration--albiet a year late.
Texas wines can hold their own with the Napa, Willamette or French. You just have to know what to look for.
So as the new week begins I am in awe of the great work being done by the Lance Armstrong Livestrong foundation, the QuadW Foundation, Jerialice and the folks at Castell and being a part of all of that was a blast. We've got a full schedule ahead of us for the coming week plus and then it's time to get ready for our trip to Oregon and the Abbey Road Farms concert and celebration July 4th!
