A day of rest in Austin

Rest Day, April 29th, Austin, TX

We spent the morning eating fresh bagels and fixing the spokes on my bike. Walt took some jumping pictures with us (Kon didn't quite get off the ground, but Walt got some air) then we headed to the Bicycle Sport Shop where the bike mechanic spent some time truing my wheel and tuning up my bike, which has really made a difference for me. We then went to the Capital building, where we took a tour, and of course, took jumping pictures. Next we hit up the Austin Public Library for blog updates and finished off the afternoon with a short ride from Walt's house to our friend Jon's house (who we had met a few days earlier on the road to Leakey), escorted by Walt with a quick tour of the "sights to see" along the way! We spent a lovely evening with Jon and his girlfriend, Becky, with a short walk around Barton Springs and dinner at the Whole Foods headquarters in Austin. Thank you to Walt, Jon and Becky for making our short rest day in Austin so much fun!

Day #24, April 30th: Austin to La Grange, TX, 81.5 miles

After a delightful breakfast of pancakes we were fueled up for our day. We had a strong headwind as we rode SE out of Austin and we rode the whole day to cover just over 80 miles. In Bastrop, Kon conveniently got a flat tire outside of the Dairy Queen, so we rested with lunch and Blizzards. A few miles later, we met Ellen and Lowell, a retired couple riding a tandem bicycle from San Francisco to their home in Ohio. We are certainly inspired by the many touring bicyclists that we see along the road! We arrived in La Grange around 7:30 pm and the BBQ shop downtown that was recommended to us was closed, much to Kon's dismay. We settled for $5 footlong Subway sandwiches (one of our staple meals) and spent a quiet evening at an RV park near the Colorado River.

Day #25, May 1st: La Grange to Navasota, TX, 75 miles

As we were packing up camp, we met Kevin, a cyclist who had started on our same route 3 days before us, and happened to camp in the same RV park the evening before without knowing it. Kevin is originally from Wisconsin, but has been living in Anchorage, AK for the last 7 years or so where he has worked as a technical writer and is working on his MBA. He has completed the Trans-America route (the most classic bike route across the US), so it was fun to talk with him about cycle touring and hear his stories and tips. Kon installed his new cycle computer in the morning so from now on our miles are what we actually traveled, not the mileage from our maps. The wind had turned a bit and today it was in our favor. We stopped for lunch in Independence and met up with Kevin there (he had ridden ahead of us for the majority of the day). The three of us biked together into the town of Navasota, where we rode back and forth across town looking for BBQ. In the end found good BBQ at a gas station convenience store, which unfortunately was under renovation with the insulation was being taken down from the ceiling and all of the workers wearing masks .... I wasn't super excited about the surroundings, but the food was good and we didn't get sick.

Quick history of "Jumping Pictures"

Jumping pictures were introduced to us less than a year ago by my friend Nicole and her fiance Kyle. Nicole and Kyle took an incredible road trip last year through the NW and had amazing pictures of the two of them jumping in beautiful scenic places. We were inspired! Our first attempt at jumping pictures was last fall on a 2 night backpacking trip through the Enchantment Lakes area outside of Leavenworth -- we didn't get any pictures of the two of us in the air, all of our pictures were of us squatting. A few weeks later, we took a day hike with Nicole and Kyle and they shared their secrets (it is all about knowing the timer on your camera, the camera angle, and lifting your feet as high as possible so it looks like you can jump high). Since then, we've been addicted -- and it is so much fun!

We hope that our pictures inspire you to try taking some jumping pictures of your own -- send them to us by email if you get the chance: kessler.konrad@gmail.com, stacymkessler@gmail.com

One of our many failed, yet funny attempts

Dad, have you been to Johnson City?

Bulletin outside of Johnson City grocery store

Dad, have you been here before?

Day #23, April 28th: Boerne to Austin, TX, 110 miles

After resting well at the Best Western in Boerne, we made an early 7:30 am start toward Austin. The wind was non-existent for most of the morning and the difference between riding with a head wind vs no wind is INCREDIBLE -- a head wind is completely demoralizing and not much fun to ride in AT ALL. Anyway, made good time through rolling hills to the small town of Blanco, then rode north to Johnson City (the home of Lynden B Johnson) where we had the most terrible service at the Dairy Queen. From there we took small roads straight east into Austin, arriving downtown before 7 pm. Our warm showers host for the night was Walt Tashnick, a very friendly retired Air Force navigator who not only housed us for the night but also took us to dinner at his son's sports bar and made us dessert! We enjoyed his company and rested well after a long day!

Pretty view of the Guadalupe River

As Texas turns (or doesn't, but it really is a big state)

Day 20, April 25: Amistad Reservoir to Montell, TX; ~80 miles

We rode into Del Rio and needed to go to the bike shop for extra spokes for Stacy's bike. We ended up waiting outside for 30-45 min (we were a little early and the guy opening the store was quite a bit late). We got spokes and then traveled to Bracketville and on to Montell. In Montell we stayed with yet another Rogers family. This time it was with Liz (Stacy has since dubbed Liz as "the West Texas cycle touring hospitality coordinator") and Steet's (both in past posts) mom, Freida. Also living there are Alice (Street and Liz's younger sister) and Anne Marie (hoping I spelled that right...Alice's daughter)

It was a little like a party at their house with neighbors and friends as well as two vagabond cyclists (that's us). We ate great food and were very entertained by all.

Pictured are: me, Stacy, Diane, Alice, Anne Marie, Claire, and David.

Positive development of the day: Since starting this trip we have had extensive trouble breaking spokes on Stacy's bike. It didn't make sense to me, as she is so small and the trailer helps to take a lot of weight off the rear wheel. Today I spoke by phone with a bike mechanic who told me that the spokes were likely of poor quality. We now think that we can replace the spokes with some of higher quality when in Austin and have a bike shop true the wheels to improve our chances of avoiding broken spokes. I now think that the spokes I have already replaced (around 12-15 of them) have only been helping our situation and will reduce the number we have to replace when we get to Austin.

Day 21, April 26: Montell, TX to Bandera ("Cowboy Capital of the World"), TX; ~88 miles

We made our start a little before 8 am and made a number of changes to our route today. About 25 miles into our ride we met Jon. We will have pictures of Jon in a later blog, but we don't have any right now. He is from Austin and was traveling by bike from Camp Wood back to Austin. He shared ideas about his route and convinced us to do the same (we were easily convinced when he told us the hills would be less drastic). We saw him a few times during the day, and then we lost him for a while after we took a wrong turn and went about 2 miles out of our way. He had gone swimming in the meantime, so he caught up to us again with about 40 miles left to get to Bandera. We rode and visited with him and ended up getting to eat dinner with him in Bandera. Also in Bandera we joined Jon at a country and western dance (I only observed, but Stacy shuffled in the sawdust with Jon a little). I now wish we had a picture of the event, but alas I forgot the camera yet again. Overall the day was great and tiring, but the highlight was easily meeting Jon (we are going to meet up with Jon again in Austin, so more will follow).

Day 22, April 27: Bandera, TX to Boerne (pronounced "Burny"), TX; ~25 miles

Today has been a new low point in the weather category. We got a decent start this AM, but the wind has been so strong directly into our faces that we decided the we could not make it the extra 40-50 miles to the next town of size. We are now staying in our first motel of the trip and using the computer here. It feels a little like cheating to me, but I'm married now, so apparently I'm allowed and even encouraged to do things a little different from what I am used to. I think the rest will be welcomed by our bodies. Stacy is excited.

We also tried to get to a church service today, but we were unable to find any with an evening service in Boerne. We were busy fighting the wind during the morning services. Maybe God was trying to tell us something.

TEXAS HILL COUNTRY PHOTO:

Quite a bit hillier than we expected, but very beautiful.

Great times in TEXAS!

Day 17, April 22: Lawrence Wood Picnic Area (between Kent and McDonald Observatory) to Alpine, TX; ~49 miles

This was really the last chilly morning we have had. We started climbing and passed the University of Texas McDonald Observatory. It is cool looking (a little difficult to see in the photo), but we learned that you don't get to look through the big telescopes unless you come in the evening for a "Star Party". We would have considered trying to get there, but these only happen on certain nights of the week, and our night near the area was not one of them...maybe at a later date.

We continued down the hills through Ft. Davis and into Alpine. We arrived in the early afternoon, and Stacy did our most recent blog update while I went to the bike shop (this happened after we first took care of the important business...DQ for Blizzards...biking across the country allows for tremendous ice cream intake without affecting my beautiful physique). In Alpine we were fortunate enough to get to stay with Liz Rogers (sister to Street Rogers whom Stacy mentioned in the past blog post). She took us out for fancy dinner and we got to sleep in a bed at her house...she is a warmshowers.org contact...and a great one at that...Thanks.

Day 18, April 23: Alpine, TX to Sanderson, TX; ~85 miles

We left Liz's house early in the morning, and it seems that we have now entered the humid country. Stacy felt "sticky" all day and did not enjoy it at all (she reminded me a number of times). We had thought that we might get rain overnight or in the morning, but it did not arrive. Instead, we got to ride into a stiff headwind all day...wahoo! We ate some "fried pies", very tasty, when we passed through Marathon at the bakery where Stacy is sitting in the photo. We got to Sanderson later than we had hoped (after getting to wait for about 20 minutes for the last cars of the day to do their practice time trial on the road...Sanderson is home to the Big Bend Open Road Race...fast cars on a closed road that usually has very little traffic).

Although we had left Liz's house in the AM, we arrived at her house in the PM. She has another house in Sanderson which she opens to touring cyclists...Thanks! There we met Oris, a 73 year old man who is very experienced cycle tourist. He had some great wisdom about touring to share and is very friendly (you can find his info at crazyguyonabike.com and search for Oris). We slept great yet again.


Day 19, April 24: Sanderson, TX to Amistad Reservoir (~10 miles west of Del Rio, TX); ~110 miles

Today was a push. We had a headwind most of the day, but it was not super strong, so we were able to make good time. It was hot, and it seemed there was not much to see (maybe I was just working too hard). We finally got into camp around 9 pm, and I was totally exhausted.

BONUS PICTURE:

here is some stylish road kill...and you may notice the oversized chip seal on the road...it has inspired a song with ever evolving verses:


I don't like rough pavement
I prefer it when it's smooth
I don't like this pavement
It shakes me through and through

I like it best without chip seal (long note)
Thats the way I like it to feel (long note)

The day is real nice
But I'm wearing a frown
This rough pavement
Is bringing me down

I don't like rough pavement
I prefer it when it's smooth
I don't like this pavement
I shakes me through and through

I have written more verses, but I can't seem to remember them unless I am on the bike and riding the rough stuff.

Leaps over Emory Pass

Day #12, April 17th: Silver City, NM to Arrey, NM, 79 miles

Today we hit the highest point on our trip, climbing Emory pass at 8,228 ft. It was an exciting day for me -- starting with a bloody nose during the morning, terrible belly aches the entire day, and then the excitment of reaching the top of the pass just before 3 pm in the afternoon. We dropped 3,800 ft over 35 miles after the pass - which made up for the average of 6 miles an hour we made during the climb!

Day #13, April 18th: Arrey, NM to Anthony, NM, 80.5 miles

We had a brilliant breakfast in the small town of Hatch, NM in a small Mexican restaurant. This area is agricultural, so we spent the day riding past cattle ranches, pecan groves, and chili pepper farms. We rode into Las Cruces and did a few errands -- I have been breaking rear wheel spokes so we try to get those fixed in the towns with bike shops. We ended the day in Anthony, NM, visiting a dear friend we met last year in Xela, Guatemala, Patricia. Patricia is doing volunteer work through the Catholic church working with new immigrants and border issues. It was a delight to catch up with her and her friends, another Patricia and Sally -- share good food and to see the small town of Anthony, which although is in the US, feels like Mexico.

Day #14, April 19th: Anthony, NM to Fort Hancock, TX, 76.5 miles

We shared a delicious breakfast with Patricia, Patricia, and Sally, practiced some jumping pictures and then we were off to bike through El Paso. Kon and I have both been struck by the beauty of NM and west TX. There are mountains here!! Our route for the last two days followed the Rio Grande. Along the way, we've seen numerous border patrol vehicles, and stopped at border patrol stations. It is hard to imagine, that just south of the river, is Mexico.

We stayed in Fort Hancock with Street and Melloy Rogers, who were connected with by their sister who is a "warm showers" host. Street and Melloy live in a beautiful home on a farm and treated us like family.

Day #15, April 20th: Fort Hancock, TX to Sierra Blanca, TX, 36 miles

This morning we woke up to a big tasty breakfast and then went to the Fort Hancock Baptist Church with Street and Melloy. We were happy to be able to attend church, sing, and to hear a message. We felt SO welcomed by everyone. We had a great pot roast lunch, said goodbye to our new friends, and then climbed a short hill to Sierra Blanca where we stayed with another family, Cindy and Bill Love, who we had met at church earlier that same day. We spent the evening talking and eating good food. What fortune to have 3 nights in a row in homes with great people, showers, beds, and delicious meals!!

Day #16, April 21st: Sierra Blanca, TX to Lawrence Wood Picnic Area (between Kent and McDonald Observatory), 99.5 miles

We started with a big breakfast to fuel up for the day with Cindy and Bill. Said another goodbye, and had a nice wind at our backs as we traveled along I-10 through Van Horn and Kent. A friendly man in a truck pulled over for us and asked if we wanted a ride. When we told him that we were biking to Florida, he put his hands on his cowboy hat in disbelief and said he could take us to Odessa, TX (about 150 miles down the road!). The people here have been SO friendly and wonderful to us! When we arrived in Kent, we decided we were making such good time that we should continue on ... the wind wasn't as much in our favor and we had some hills to climb. We eventually pulled into the picnic area at 8:30 pm, completely exhausted!

Blood, Guts, and Glory...

Bloody nose, upset guts, and the glory reaching the high point of our trip--Emory Pass, NM 8,228 ft. all in one day.

more fun in the sun

So, now it is my turn. It seems that we don't often find time to update the blog, but when we do, we update a lot all in one day.

First, here are a couple pictures that Stacy promised of us jumping at Chase Field (home of the Arizona Diamondbacks) where we watched a game with my cousin Tucker and his wife Tauni. They are shown exhibiting theirleaping prowess with us (Tucker is jumping with me and Tauni with Stacy in case the photos are too dark to pick that out).

































And now on to the updates...

Day #10, April 15: Thatcher, AZ to Buckhorn, NM 83 miles

This day was a low point for me. We knew it would be long, so we got up early and started while it was still chilly. We were making pretty good time until the climbing started. We had one pretty hefty climb of nearly 2000 ft. before dropping to start another climb. Before the first climb I got to replace 3 broken spokes on Stacy's rear wheel (they all seemed to break at nearly the same time...I think it is due to my stellar truing talents as Stacy is not large enough to cause such damage), so things were not off to a perfect start. We went through a small town call Three Way, AZ and then started the second climb of the day (over 2500 ft...and much steeper than the first, not to mention the weather had warmed up considerably in the meantime).
The climb went well with the exception of one broken spoke on each of our rear wheels. We had also not expected to be climbing for so long or in such heat, so we were tearing through the water we had with blazing speed. There is a 45 mile stretch without water, and I began to worry that we may run out of our nearly 2 gallons before camping for the night. My worries were needless as we crossed into NM (check out the air Stacy is catching) and made it to Buckhorn, NM (a small town with an RV park, convenience store, and WATER) before dark.


Day #11, April 16 (today...so far) Buckhorn, NM to Silver City, NM 37 miles

Today we awoke early, and it was quite chilly outside. We started our ride with more clothes on than we have worn on this trip to date. We rode without event and reached Silver City, NM by a little after 1 in the afternoon. Since we have been here, Stacy updated our blog one time while I spent considerable time at the bike shop pictured (Gila Hike and Bike). The folks there were awesome. They helped repair both of our rear wheels and let me use some of their tools. We hung out in the park for a bit and then went to Western New Mexico University campus and used their computers. We had dinner and are now at Tsama's (pronounced Chama) house. Tsama is hosting us through www.warmshowers.org ...a website for bike travelers. Today was nice, we really enjoyed meeting the friendly people in Silver City, and we are getting excited for our climb tomorrow (over our high point at just over 8000 ft.).

Thanks for reading, thanks for your thoughts and prayers, and I hope this finds you all well.

later,

Palo Verde, CA to Thatcher, AZ

Alright, we've gotten quite behind on this blog, and I have less than an hour at the library in Silver City, NM to catch up. So here we go ....

Day #4, April 7: Palo Verde, CA to Hope, AZ, 78 miles

We met a father/son pair of Canadians (Ian and Taran) at the camp ground in Palo Verde who have ridden down the west coast from BC to San Diego and are now ridding east to Houston, TX. We crossed the state line from CA to AZ - and had to take a CA jumping picture because we didn't get one in San Diego. We stayed at a LOVELY RV park in Hope, AZ with the cleanest showers I've seen so far - so nice, I'd consider retiring there .... Kon had sweet hair from his bike helmet when we stopped for dinner at Kofa Cafe, outside of Hope.

Day #5, April 8: Hope, AZ to Surprise, AZ, 98 miles

We had a LONG day of riding. Ate dinner at the Golden Corral in Surprise, and slept in the corner of an RV park on gravel. Road through the town of Wickenburg which was quite nice with an old-fashioned downtown and a homemade ice cream shop.

Day #6, April 9: Surprise, AZ to Chandler, AZ, 35 miles

Rest Day, April 10 and 11 in Chandler AZ

Stayed with my Aunt Kathy, Uncle Bill and cousins, Kyle and Collin for a day, then Kon's friends Jarid and Staci with their children, Ben (4) and Kaiya (2) for two nights. Enjoyed catching up with everyone, eating good food, and resting our sore bottoms.

Day #7, April 12: Chandler, AZ to Mesa, AZ, 27 miles

Biked out to Mesa against a strong headwind to spend a day with Kon's cousin Tucker and wife Tauni. Have pictures to post of us jumping at a Diamondbacks game where the D-backs beat the Rockies 10-3, but the pictures are vertical and I can't get them to turn rightside up on this computer -- so that will have to wait for another day!

Day#8, April 13: Mesa, AZ to Globe, AZ, 60 miles

This was by far my hardest day. We had a strong head wind leaving Mesa so it was really slow going. We had to pedal hard to go downhill. Stopped in the small town of Superior for lunch and ice cream. Then biked over a steep pass (4500 ft or so) on a narrow road with no shoulder, but 2 lanes for uphill traffic. It wouldn't have been too bad, except we had a number of unkind drivers (some in big RVs pulling trailers) that didn't give us any room, even when they had an extra lane. Needless to say, I was quite shaken up - and to make matters worse a strong wing blew me into the guardrail. After some tears, Kon helped me pull it together and we had a nice evening in Globe, where the RV park owner let us shower in her home, and Dan, a kind retired man, took us out to breakfast the next morning -- both of which made a bad day, look much better!

Day #9, April 14: Globe, AZ to Thatcher, AZ, 75 miles

We biked through the San Carlos Apache Reservation, which is BEAUTIFUL with mountains all around and pretty hills and valleys. We had a strong head wind again, which made us work for each mile. We met up with Ian and Taran again today and rode with them for a stretch of the day. They let us crash their campsite in the evening at the RV park in Thatcher, and we set up our tent right next to theirs. It is great fun to meet and share stories with other riders!

Well, I have 5 minutes left, but that does a decent job of catching up our blog.

Thanks for all of the thoughts and prayers. We are having a great time, seeing some beautiful places, and meeting some awesome people!

San Diego to Palo Verde, CA

Day #1, April 4: San Diego Ocean Beach Park to Lakeside, 26 miles

After a morning of putting together our bicycles at the San Diego Amtrak station, we finally starting biking in the early afternoon. We started the morning with 2 working cycle computers and both were broken/gone in the first hour before we made it to the start at the beach (Kon's wire caught and tore during the bike assembly process, and my computer fell off under my handlebar bag). We dipped our tires in the Pacific Ocean around 2 pm -- I was caught by the wave, and started with wet feet. After riding through urban San Diego, we stopped early at a county park outside of Lakeside, took showers (yes!), set up camp, and rested for the next day of climbing ...

Day #2, April 5: Lakeside to Ocotillo, 76 miles

Today we climbed and climbed and climbed. We started at 500 ft, hit 4,000 ft a couple of times and then dropped back down to 500 ft to end in Ocotillo. The excitement of the day was at the top of the last pass, when we started riding down the mountain on I-8 and Kon's fender came loose, slipped under his rear tire, locked the tire, and caused him to fishtail, crash, and roll. Thankfully, he had bled off most of his speed by the time he fell -- but he still ended up with an impressive road rash on his back, arms, over all of his knuckles, and one knee. A kind driver, Brent, stopped to help us, offering his first aid kit, bike tools, etc. and made sure we were safely on our way before he left us. The wind coming down In-Ko-Pah gorge on I-8 was frightening and I was blown toward the curb multiple times. We were happy to arrive in the small town of Ocotillo, where another kind couple, Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, let us stay in the rec room of their RV park to keep us out of the wind overnight - and Kon was able to shower to clean out his wounds.

Day #3, April 6: Ocotillo to Palo Verde County Park, 110 miles

We woke up to a pretty sunrise over the RV park in Ocotillo. We made good time in the morning with a strong tail wind and biked through the Imperial Valley towns of El Centro and Brawley. We decided to push to Palo Verde that afternoon as there was no camping with water for the next 70 miles. We biked through the North Algodones Dunes Wilderness area and beside the Chocolate Mountains, arriving in Palo Verde at sunset, completely exhausted.

Leaving Ocotillo: In-Ko-Pah Mountains in background

His crash didn't seem to effect his jumping!

Climbing in the Sand Dunes

Now in AZ...brief excitement update

Stacy and I are now safely in Chandler, Arizona. We are staying with Stacy's Uncle Bill, Aunt Kathy, cousin Kyle, and cousin Collin. Our bike trip is going well, and we definitely have some stories we would like to tell. We are going to be in the Phoenix area for several days, so we will likely make a few new post while here before again hitting the road. Here we go...

Since the last post, we spent a couple days in Seattle with our friends Leesha and Brady (Stacy went to HS with Leesha). We did some last minute preparation for the trip, and on Wednesday morning April 2 we rode our bikes (with fully loaded trailers) about 12 miles from Leesha and Brady's home to the Amtrak station in downtown Seattle.

I had called Amtrak 2 or 3 times in the previous days to confirm our tickets and to make sure our bikes were allowed with no extra preparation. You can probably guess from that intro that things did not go smoothly...we found that on one portion of the 38 hour trip where buses are used (from Portland to Sacramento as the tracks had been covered by a landslide a couple months earlier) they were no longer accepting bicycles. Panic set in briefly as we both thought this may spell disaster for the trip. Then we got serious and disassembled our bikes so they could fit within the 36"x36"x36" size limitations of other luggage.

We both worked furiously for 2 solid hours taking bikes and trailers apart, building custom sized boxes from other boxes, and packing our equipment as well as we could. We had some serious periods of doubt, but in the end we had about 8 minutes to spare before they stopped accepting luggage...whew!

The Amtrak trip went well. It was a long and tiring trip, but without further incident. We arrived in San Diego at around 1 am on April 4th and went directly to our pricelined hotel and slept. When we awoke, we went back to the Amtrak station and began the assembly of our bikes (all in working condition). At that point I took pictures of the baggage closed and open, displaying contents. Our next update will hopefully give some info about the actual bike trip. Until then...