February 28, 2014
Day 55: Barton Creek to Johnson City: The hills are alive (and trying to kill us)
The night was a bit cold at our wild camp, but as long as you kept your hoodie on, it was ok. Of course we were tired enough not to mind traffic noise, but we did subconsciously note that it continued all through the night.Old Bee Caves Rd. must just be too close to suburban development, and so has high traffic volumes. In the morning we could see this again as we took to the road. Old Bee Caves Road and the other short roads that make up the route in the area west of Austin, have no shoulder, and too much traffic to be safe. As we wrote before, what happens when traffic volume is high is that the driver who comes up behind the cyclist has the choice of slowing down and squeezing past, or not slowing down and zooming past. If the oncoming lane is free, there is room to do these. But if the lane is occupied or if a car is coming and soon will be opposite: trouble. Either the cyclist or the oncoming driver is going to get squeezed.
Interestingly, this morning we did not often feel squeezed. But we witnessed about a dozen near misses with oncoming cars, that happened because drivers pulled out and floored it rather than squeeze slowly past or wait until it would be safe to pull out.
We sure hope this story is only about today and not about the next 1000 kms!
Our path briefly touched the main highway, US290, and at that point at a gas station we ran into a very tall fellow with jeans, embroidered short, cowboy boots and hat. I boldly told him I thought he looked so typical, would he pose for a photo with Dodie. Sure, was the reply from Bo. Surprisingly, as we later chatted we found that he had lived for 5 years in Costa Rica and then had had shoulder length dreadlocks. In fact he is still a Reggae fan, and likes the fusion of reggae and country.He calls himself a dreadneck and we believe the band he still plays in has that name!
Bo, on learning we were heading west, assured us that people were now getting used to cyclists and no longer much threw things or "black smoked" 'em with their trucks. Ok, encouraging, sort of.
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We are now truly into the "Hill Country" region. We are trying to get a grip on it by thinking where else it reminds us of. Certainly it is drier than the east side of Austin, and any pine trees have disappeared. Rather we have a mixture of oaks and mostly juniper. Between these trees is short brown grass. And of course, hills. HILLS. Sometimes these hills are going up and down ridges, and often they are descending to streams and then coming back up. Almost all need our low gears, and we have had to push up a crazy number of them. Some are steep enough in spots to make the push quite a push. Many have me cranking or pushing up and then walking back to help Dodie.So one way or another I get to traverse these hills three times. I am certainly getting a good look at the countryside!
For her part, Dodie has gamely cranked or pushed up more or steeper hills than almost ever before. She hates, hates, hills, but has just kept at it and at it!
We think that today we pushed up at least three dozen hills. One sort of disadvantage is that a dozen (no kidding) motorists have stopped to ask if we need help. Some have pulled over ahead and walked back, some have rolled down their windows. It's great, but embarrassing. Yes, we are ok. Thanks for stopping.
Many of the cars going by had bikes on racks. In fact, a completely crazy number had bikes. We found out why, mid afternoon. A famous regional mountain bike race is going on this weekend, at a spot along our road. As we got closer to the site, we encountered fit young people on light bikes cruising up and down the hills. Many were so intense they didn't speak to us, while others waved or shouted some encouragement. Once in a bit of frustration watching a pair climb easily in front of me, I called out "Why not put a load on that thing and try a real challenge!"
One fellow spoke to Dodie for a bit, and offered to give her a boost up the hill. Dodie said she would be nervous to cycle that way. The fellow said it's ok, that he was the second best rider in the country. Dodie still declined. Maybe she was waiting for the best rider.
We had found the hills and the juniper, and also noted all the really fancy houses nestled on the hillsides.Some of these houses featured really fancy gates too, and fancy or not, all had automatic openers remotely controlled. But midway in the day I said "So where are the advertised olive farms?". That was the queue for a building to appear in the distance that while fancy was too close to the road to be one of the fancy, gated houses.
The building turned out to be the Texas Hill Country Olive Company, and beside it was an organic olive orchard. Inside they had numerous olive oils and balsamic vinegars that one could taste (and buy), and also olive oil based ice cream. Dodie went for the Rosemary flavour, and put a drizzle of Blackberry infused balsamic vinegar on it. She says it was great. I got chocolate chip.
We really enjoyed seeing the effort and investment made here, in the orchard, the building, the processing, the bottling, and the marketing. Also, their stuff looked and tasted wonderful!
Reenergized at the olive company we forged onwards. Though the number of hills was really insane, we did very well. Only thing, about an hour before we finally made it to Johnson City, we really had had it. This did not mean that we collapsed by the road (a traditional solution) but rather that our strength and condition continued to fail, but more and more rapidly. That is, we were getting a lot tireder a lot faster. For example, I developed a saddle sore, which I never do, and it got really bad really fast.
We had not researched the (two) motels in Johnson City, and when we got there just went to the closest one. Partly because of all the mountain bikers, there was only one room left. The couple ahead of us in the line refused it because the price was over $100. We really had no choice.The room is ok, but basically double price. No matter, we had really had it and really needed that shower or bath tub!
Tomorrow's trip to Fredericksburg looks to be a copy of today's, or maybe a bit more hilly. Are we stronger or weaker after today? Well, we have the pushing routine well worked out. But we are already sore. On the other hand, there is supposed to be a German bakery in Fredericksburg. That thought could get us there. We'll see!
Beer Bonus
Dodie is continuing her raw counts of number of beer cans per km. At first (east of Austin) we thought the "Don't Mess With Texas" campaign was working, but now Dodie is getting counts as high or higher than Louisiana.
One thing we noticed, though, is that Bud Light is not so dominant here. Dodie even casually pointed out a Green Bud can. Wow, what is that? (Bud Light is Blue and Budweiser is Red). Oh well, we'll check later, there are bound to be lots more. From that point I was watching the beer brands carefully, but no Green Buds appeared. It became a search for the rare and elusive green one. To be sure, there we other exotic or interesting finds. Lone Star, for example, here very common (of course). But were we dreaming this green Bud. I really began to wonder if we had been hallucinating. Lone Star cans are greenish yellow. Was it just a Lone Star we had seen?
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Finally it was Dodie that bagged the Green Bud! It turns out to be lime flavoured:
Today's ride: 59 km (37 miles)
Total: 3,237 km (2,010 miles)
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