Day 27: Buescher State Park to Austin

March 13, 2025

I woke up yesterday right before my alarm, which was nice. I didn't go to bed until about 10:30 because of writing this journal and getting things ready for tomorrow, so I didn't sleep enough, but still got a sleep score of 79. That is my highest score since March 1. My Garmin Body Battery was only charged to 82. It hasn't been at 100 since March 1, the night of our last rest day in Slidel.

It was a little cool (about 55) and foggy at ride time. My rain fly was was soaked because of the rain last night, dew, and condensation. The tent also had a lot of dirt on it. I did a good job of getting ready and had everything but the tent put away before eating breakfast shortly after 7. I started riding at 8:03, the same as yesterday. I had to take a 2nd trip to the bathroom again otherwise could have started earlier, which would have been nice since the high was forecast to be in the upper 80's.

The ride started out on a beautiful road between Buescher State Park and through Bastrop State Park. The surface was nice and there was very little traffic. There were uphills and downhills. It is the kind of riding that is actually type 1 fun. There hasn't been much of that lately. After leaving the park there was a mix of country road and highway, though a lot more highway than yesterday. The closer to Austin we got the worse it was. It was especially bad around the airport. I stopped at the end of Bastrop State Park, about mile 13, to eat a Kind bar and rest for 5 minutes. I stopped at a convenience store at about mile 22 to get some milk and fill my water bottle. I didn't stop again until about mile 41 at a park in Austin. I should have stopped before that, but there wasn't a great place to stop. I ate a ham and Swiss sandwich on Dave's bread with brown mustard. It tasted good. I was lucky that the park had a rest room as I need it. I would have thought that 2 trips in the morning would clean me out as it has in the past, but I guess not. The ride was hard because there was a lot of climbing at the beginning and there was a significant amount of wind. I think it was also hard because my legs are tired from several hard days in a row. The pain in my calf that I mentioned yesterday got worse. There were some twinges early in the ride that went away and became a dull pain with every left pedal stroke. I took a couple ibuprofen and that helped. It makes me think it is some kind of tenditis rather than a torn muscle. I got in a bit of a dark place again on the ride. It is easier to ride in the moment when there is nice scenery rather than highways with trucks where I have to pretend I am made of steel.

The town of Bastrop itself had a nice downtown. There was a large high school football stadium outside of it that made me think of Friday Night Lights. We crossed the Colorado River in both Bastrop and Austin. I believe it is a different river than the one that goes through the Grand Canyon.

This week is SXSW in Austin. The Goodyear blimp was flying over the city, I guess because of that. I also saw a VW self driving car and a Waymo car. There was a band playing at a park on top of a pickup truck and there was a lot of stuff down town. We are staying in rental house instead of hotel because room rates were $400 this week instead of the usual of 150. It is nice because we have a real kitchen. We washed our water bottles in the dishwasher.

I arrived in Austin a little before 1:00 and we couldn't get into house and the van wasn't here yet. So, I went in search of ice cream. The first place I tried (Hippie Ice) only had Italian ice. I found a gelato place that was o.k., but most of the real good flavors had chocolate in them. They didn't have any Carmel ones. After that I went to a place that had burgers and got a cheeseburger and a carmel milk shake. The burger was good, but the shake was a machine shake and nothing special. By the time I finished that it was almost 3 so I went to the house. People were there and sitting on the front step waiting for the cleaners to finish. The new co-leader, JG, was there. I put my tent out to dry in the yard, which it did quickly, and then brushed the dirt off. I drank about 3 cans of liquid (one root bear and a couple of seltzers).

We had Chinese takeout for dinner. AH ordered. It was a nice change from a one-pot meal. I stuffed myself and ams are I had a net positive calorie day. After dinner we went to REI. I spent about $450 buying things that I wanted or needed. That included a spare sleeping pad in case mine develops a leak. I don't want to have to deal with sleeping on hard ground. I also replaced my inflatable pillow, got a new headlamp (brighter and with a rechargeable battery), tent stakes, a tent stake hammer, a clothes line, some stuff sacks to improve organization, some light weight long pants to wear when I get to camp and it is sunny, a slightly bigger tri bag, a small tool kit that will work better if I need to tighten my handlebars again, and maybe a few other things. The 2 neck gaiters I ordered (one light-weight for sun protection and one heavier one to replace the one I lost in case it gets cold) were there even though they were not schedule to be ready until 3/15. I had trouble paying with my REI card via my phone. The cashier was very nice and ultimately got approval to use the virtual card number from my Capitol One app. I unfortunately forgot to get some small containers so I can carry some liquid sun screen with me.

I stayed up way too late organizing things and doing laundry. I somehow lost a sock. I hope it is in someone else's laundry.

Today's ride: 53 miles (85 km)
Total: 1,351 miles (2,174 km)

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