The Thin Blue Ride: TEXAS TEST FLIGHT

Ride report: 61.7 miles, 603.7 total miles, 14.3 mph avg, 4,337 calories, 2,557 ft. climbing.

A different day than all the rest. From the time I left the KOA in Leander until I arrived in Creedmore, there was little in the way of back country roads. Some - just not many. In the main because the first probably 35-40 miles took me thru downtown Austin and out the South side of the city. It takes a while to get away from a city that large. However, I can report that Uhland is about as far away from the “city” as one can get. It’s interesting - we can see the water tower for Kyle, Tx. (Where Susan had the RV water heater replaced right along I-35) but there’s not much to say about Uhland. Well, except for the folks at the Lutheran Church here being quite helpful and letting us set up camp in their parking lot for the night. Very nice of them.

There was no Susan lunch break today. Which is unfortunate. We were talking last night and both really enjoy getting to spend a bit of time together midway thru the day’s ride. But there was nothing to be done about it today as there was no way she was bringing the RV thru the middle of Austin. Her teamsters buddies told her there was extra pay for that sorta route and since she’s doing this for free, she went around the East side of town. So I had lunch (if one can refer to an Italian sandwich in a plastic sleeve bought from a cooler and warmed in a microwave as, “lunch”) at the Valero Station at the West End of Lake Austin Boulevard. Italians everywhere should be outraged at this injustice.

As anticipated the wind was mostly in my face today. Late in the ride it shifted to a cross wind out of the West, but it was so late as to make the distinction meaningless. If the wind doesn’t stay outta the South for the next three days as promised (giving me a tail wind for most of the ride up to Fredericksburg) I will be much displeased with “Accu”weather. More on this situation as it develops.

Anyway - enough blather from me. I don’t have a lot of pics today since the country (what there was of it) was largely unremarkable. But regardless, on to the pics...

I rode thru what has to be a pretty pricey neighborhood just NW of downtown Austin. The roads were wide, the houses big, as you can see by the pic. Interestingly, it was here that I encountered a new steepest grade of the trip - this according to Garmin. So, I zoomed down this one (very) steep hill trying to maintain as much speed as I could to get up the other side - which appeared equally as steep. I think I was going maybe 35 when I bottomed out - it was steep but short. Then when I started up the other side I pretty much had to dump the cassette and get in my lowest gear almost immediately. The reader should know by now that when I'm grinding up a hill my head is down. Anyway, when I opened my eyes (Yes they're sometimes closed when I'm going 5 mph - how much can go wrong at that speed?), there was Garmin staring me in the face and telling me: 25%. I didn't believe it and assumed it must have something to do with how rapidly I started up the hill what with the speed I carried into it. But even when I was grinding it still read anywhere between 23-25%. That, boys and girls, is steep.

There were two or three miles (?) of this. Downtown Austin. Pleasantly flat.

Me in downtown Austin. Except for this pic, the traffic wasn't bad at all. Was a little busy right here though. That said, motorists were all very polite. I was a little edgy riding past parked cars - didn't wanna get doored. If ya don't know, use your imagination...

Me on the river bridge. It took a bit to find the road that led over the bridge. I think it must be closed to vehicular traffic having been replaced by the more modern bridge you can just make out in the background. But the sidewalk was still open for bicyclists.

The Colorado river from the bridge. It looks a lot different here than it did from where we stayed farther up-river when we were last in Austin.

I ran into these two guys on the bridge and chatted em up for a few minutes. Turns out they're both from Germany though the younger (the son) is working in Austin and his Dad is over for a visit. We had a great conversation.