It was nice to sleep in this morning and not be rudely awoken by a cell phone alarm clock. This is a pet peeve of mine, why can cell phone companies not have a standard ring tone or a standard alarm sound? Because now when I wake up I am forced to feel like I am in the starting gates of a horse race.
Anyways after getting some breakfast in me I was off to the races. I decided that I was going to make the trek into town and visit Mellow Johnnies. Because of New Orleans I was nervous about it because I had built up such an expectation. Almost immediately Austin superseded everything I had thought. Everywhere I turned I had a bike path that took me to where I wanted to go. Even better most of the routes are tree lined and have these really cool businesses lining them. You would ride past a botanical garden and then 10 feet later you would see a Rasta styled grill in this super cool old building. The whole city had a great vibe because it had the perfect mix of new and old.
About the only place where that mix of new and old did not carry over to were the people. Everyone here seems to be very fit and young. After passing through Alabama and Louisiana where you would be hard pressed to find someone under 40 it is a pleasant change.
That brings us to the bike shop. My heart was beating almost as fast as the day I separated from Gregg on day one. I was nervous about what laid behind these doors. I walked in and was greeted by a radio shack TT bike. That automatically put my nerves at ease. Then my tunnel vision opened up and I had one of my few bikegasams. I did not know which bike to look at first because the shop had everything. I mean a hand built Naked bike (from Vancouver Island), a old colnago steel frame with record 11, or the multiple tour de France wining bike hanging around the shop. I saw the stair leading down but I wanted to save that for last. So I walked around the shop and around every corner was something amazing. I mean what other place would you see 12 team radio shack race bikes just hanging from a wall. I got the chance to actually pick up popvitches bike. I fully anticipated in buying a few jerseys because I knew they would have a mellow johnnies one, a Texas one, and a radio shack one. But then I encountered choices because they had about 5 different options for each. It was hard for me to not go completely crazy and end the tour right here by making myself go bankrupt.
When I started to ride out I decided to turn around for no reason, and then I saw it. I had the perfect view of the city line. I could see everything from the old congressional building to the new sky scrapers it was just amazing. Austin would defiantly be a place I would come back to visit and spend some more time.
That being said I still an mot looking forward to west Texas because it is going to be 5 days of just ruthless riding with huge gaps between everything. Hopefully wearing the lone star on my back will give me star power like in rock band and make me rocket up the hills.
To summarize the day I can just say it was amazing. Everywhere I turned and got off the road by 20-50 feet I was left awe struck because this city is just amazing.
Trip Distance: 33.18km
Ride Time: 1:41hr
Avg. Speed: 19.61km/h
Total Distance: 14183km
Total Ride Time: 656hr
Destination: Austin, Texas
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You definately deserved a good day today, Ev,and I am glad you got it.
ReplyDeleteThe bike shop was amazing and you managed to escape with no bankrupcy filings...great!
You picked up your souveniers...and now it is back to the day to day business of riding.
Stay hydrated ( Everything in Texas is big, boy...but you need to stay on top of hydration/planning/ nutrition/ accomodation ) and wind your your home to us.
What an adventure!! When you come home, I plan to retire and become your pubicist, as we tell the real tale of your adventure ( the good the bad and the ugly...too bad that title is taken becuz it would describe this tale to a tee, eh?! ). You are amazing.
Love you.