Austin marks the end of the serious hill climbing for our
trip, it is a city with much to do for those who want to explore, and is a
point that gives hope to those that would like to end their stay here in Texas,
as there is only a few days of Texas left after Austin. Texas
is a full 1/3 of the entire trip in mileage.
The significance of this city has split the group up more than any other
thing along the trip. Rich arrived in Austin
yesterday, Chris, Eric and Joe arrived today, although each is staying at a
different place, and the rest of the group will roll in tomorrow. Austin
is also the one layover stop where we will get to rest a full two days, instead
of the usual one day. Those arriveing
early wanted to extend their time off even further by pushing to get into town
as soon as possible.
The official overnight stop for the group tonight is not Austin
but Johnson City . Joe, the oldest rider on the trip at 70, and
Eric, the youngest at 22, decided yesterday to push on through to Austin . Looming over this plan was the weather
forecast - windy and a high probability of rain in the morning. Both reserved the option to stop in Johnson
City if things didn’t work out. Waking early in the morning, we found the
skies clear and the stars shinning brightly.
Never could trust the weather forecast.
But then the sky changed in an instant.
The dark clouds moved across the starry sky as if they where a blanket
being pulled across a bed. Things did
not look good. The two decided they
would try anyway, stopping in town for a quick bite to eat at McDonalds before
heading out. They skies remained
overcast all morning and into the early afternoon, but the rains never came.
Reaching Johnson City by 11:30 AM, a 42 mile ride behind
them in a little over three hours, they stopped at Fat Boy Burgers for a bite
of lunch – a great big juicy burger to help fuel them on the rest of their ride
having decided to push on to Austin. It
was one of the best burgers ever!
The section from Johnson City
to Austin was far more difficult
than the first half of the ride. The
climbing intensified and the winds increased.
Along the ride, about 15 miles outside Johnson City ,
one encountered the dreaded slimy road hazard that we have been warned
about. This one section of road is
almost constantly under an inch or more of water and tends to get very
slipper. Apparently riders have gotten
hurt in the past trying to ride there bikes through this running water and
therefore it is recommended that you walk them. To make matters worse, the
hazard is at the bottom of a fast decent, followed immediately by a steep
climb. Having to stop early on a great decent and having to start a climb from
a stop is doubly painful. Ouch.
Joe noted that trying to keep up with a 22 young rider is
like trying to thread a rope through a sawing needle – in the dark. The one is impossible. But the other, threading the rope through the needle may prove to be easier. Joe would occasionally catch up with Eric,
usually when Eric stopped to eat a sandwich or a snack. About 10 miles outside of Austin, at the
first convenient store since leaving Johnson City, the two travelers had a
snack and then parted as each is headed for a different evening stopping
point. Eric is staying with Rich, and Joe
at a LaQuinta less than two miles from the hostel where the entire group will
reunite on Monday.
The ride through the city was not relaxing. The main roads are busy and do not feel
safe as the traffic zooms by at a high speed and close. Whenever they could, Adventure Cycling routed
us onto less busy side roads and streets, but when working your way through a
large city, encounters with high traffic areas is going to be hard to avoid.
It was time to leave the official route in order to reach
the hotel, so Joe decided to rely on his GPS
to find him a route. Has anyone ever had
those fun times when the GPS picked the
route? First the GPS
took him down a ‘street’ that was nothing more than a dirt walking path. Many young people where using it as a short
cut away from traffic. Being away from
traffic felt great, but what wasn’t great was when the GPS
indicated to turn right onto a street that ran over the dirt path and one that required
walking the bike up a steep embankment.
If that wasn’t enough, the end of the embankment was separated from the
street by a guard rail that required removing most of the bags in order to be able to lift the heavy bike over it. It all worked out.
The route picked by the GPS
was right through the ACL Music Festival, a
yearly event in Austin , the “live
musical capital of the world”, and the very reason why our group delayed entry
by a day since the hostel was fully booked.
A rather interesting event to ride through, hear and witness, but at the
end of a 93 mile day, one only wanted to get to the hotel. Check out https://www.aclfestival.com/experience/
to see what it was like.
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