Day 273 April 28, 2017 Austin to San Marcos, TX

We enjoyed the heck out of Austin, and had a great visit in Grand Rapids. The downside of all that was that we took an entire month off from riding. The bill for that came due on our ride yesterday. We were so beat after the ride that neither of us had the energy to blog, so I am blogging 4/28 on 4/29.

Cool building in Austin. The top lights up at night.


Views of Austin while driving on I-35.




They are also into murals in Austin. Here is the most recent, as well as some others.




Even on houses.


Sixth St is THE venue for music, restaurants, and bars. The street was named "Pecan St" in the past. The city values its history, and its "weirdness." There are signs all over stating, "Keep Austin weird." This plaque is on 6th St.


Us on the third floor of the Iron Cactus on 6th St, having lunch.


We took a tour of Austin, and one of the cool things we saw was a graffiti park. The story we were told was that some rich guy wanted to build his mansion here, but things went wrong for him, and only the cement footings were completed.










Work in progress.


While in Austin we also connected with my cousin, Greg, whom I had not seen since around 1975. Greg and his wife Janet had us over for a marvelous smoked brisket and chicken dinner. We talked so much over multiple glasses of wine that we forgot to take any pictures. Great evening.

We ended up leaving our bike in a 5x10 storage closet while we returned to Grand Rapids. The closet was only 4 miles from our motel, so we didn't need to rent a car to retrieve it when we returned.




On to the ride. Route for 4/28: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/20655683

The ride from Austin to San Marcos kicked our collective butts. We had trouble with our rear derailleur all day. The middle gears would skip and spontaneously change. We stopped at a bike shop in Buda for a professional adjustment, but the problem, while it got better, did not totally resolve. I suspect the cassette needs replacement. It does have over 12,000 mile on it. The first 15 miles had most of the steeper climbing; after those fifteen miles, we discovered that one of the wheels on the trailer was rubbing against the trailer body, sort of a drag brake. We also had a 12-15 mph headwind. We counted the headwind a mixed blessing. Temperatures were in the 90's.

First attempt to fix the gears. Cool name for a bike shop.


Immense flower stalks on two cactus.


Terrain looks flat here, but it's not.


Fixing a flat on the trailer. This is also where we took a 30 minute shade break, and where Margaret discovered she was out of water.


Slow but steady upgrades were the rule from mile 15 to 25.


We passed a high school football stadium. They do take football seriously in Texas.


That was the last picture we took that day. We had two more shade rests to combat overheating. I bonked with only 0.6 miles to go, but after some ShotBlocks and another rest in the shade, we finally arrived at our motel after being a little over eight hours on the road. Sigh.

Tomorrow is a short day due to motel spacing. I can't say that I am sorry about that.

Tomorrow's ride: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/20721818