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.