Day 4 and 5 - Rest and more recooperation

Day 4 and 5

Origin: Duval Chalet, Austin, Tx

Destination: Reunification point, New Braunfels, Tx

Weather: Cloudy with temperatures around 70, northerly winds (18km- 8km)

Distance ridden: 54 miles (87km)

Key Notes:

Coming soon due to being too busy as I had to brush up on my 7 piece solo performance to play in Austin that night

Day 3- My Birthday on the road

Day 3- My Birthday

Day 3

Origin: Barber Palace, Temple, Tx

Destination: Austin town, Austin, Tx

Weather: Excellent temperature, south east winds (18km- 8km)

Distance ridden: 83 miles (135km)

Key Notes:

 

Its my birthday

 

Few too many night before, bit of a diago splitter of a headache. Set out to fix my tire and tubes. Postmortem of original tube, appeared to get a pointed object, reason why bike had no balance in turning that corner leading to accident.

Damon provides me with breakfast tacos, feel like a king as I eat them on the porch out on 3rd st that is shrouded in fog. Located a bike shop and ride there to buy more tubes.

Arrive at Sun Country Bike Shop, Temple. Couldn't have asked for better birthday present. Fixed the tire troubles, turns out the tire is oversized so John equips me with appropriate tubes. New confidence with the bike.

Head down out of town once again off the google route, just head down in general south direction. Eventually link up with google route, essentially adding an extra 10km on trip. Still foggy gives an eerie look to abandoned houses and barns. So many general stores sporting a sign sponsored by coca-cola, the only thing still giving the clue it ever existed inn the first place.

I am seriously dehydrated with the back of my throat dry as a bone. I stop in to get a drink, every ten or so km. Progress is slow once again with the wind, but its my birthday so I choose to lap it up.

Towns such as Bartlett and Granger, boast of their high school football team's success back in the 90s. Both these downs feature the western feel downtown, although I enjoyed Granger a lot more. It was mid arvo (afternoon) by the time I pulled into Bartlett. Only store really open was one antique place and a bar and bbq joint. It was a long walk in this cash-only establisment full of beer paraphernalia. The bar tendant didnt look away from the TV, until I finally ask for food. There was only hour of 2 hours to get lunch, get the feeling same as a lot of places. All my conversation starters were met with a one word response, thought they would be happy with one patron. Head further down road.

Granger a place with a distinct character provides me opportunity for food. It comes from grocery, bbq, beer, butcher and whatever else the town required. Not a joke with the meat, at the very end of the store was a plethora of meat selections.

“Being American is to eat a lot of beef steak, and boy, we've got a lot more beef steak than any other country, and that's why you ought to be glad you're an American." Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

 

One lady with her husband both in their 70s drove 40 miles just to stock up on a tonne of meet in their freezers from this place. I got them to fix me a bbq bun, my birthday lunch. I grandly ate it out on the curb of Granger. Rejuvinated I pressed on. 

 

Pretty area, as google maps took me out and about off the beaten track. Once again I was not going to get into Austin before sundown and the threat of thunderstorms loomed. I passed by Texas streams, hills and even their version of the stone hedge, before I hit heavy traffic again of major freeways. Not to worry supposidly I was to go on farmer to market road.

Get a drink at Sonic while heavy rain pours down. Faced with the possibility of night riding on these roads at peak traffic I decided I must take it on. Turns out this road had no breast whatsoever and the semi-terrential downpoor, has me a little concerned for my welfare. Texans honked their horns as if I was trespassing on their property. As if I wasnt aware of the situation that I was a potential hazard? dont know what they expected me to do?

The traffic got denser and denser and the light more faded before I was finally directed away from these highways by gmaps. I thought I was safe now on back streets of Pflugerville, a small city outside Austin. Not so much, with about 60 different directions in the next 20kms in the dark. The situation wasnt helped by one command that said turn 23 metres off this parkway then immediately pull a u-turn on the parkway just exited? Go fish.

I decided it couldnt have meant actually perform a u-turn and ride back past where I had just came from, so I continued on. Turned out to be wrong and I ended out lost. McDonalds wifi was hopeless as ever and my birthday time was fleeting. Still as the Guatemalans say 'que beuna onda' (go with the flow). I thought to try a subway I came across for replenishment of my wits. After an eternity in the store of being a faded person, I nutted out a route. 

With my 'green lantern' north face jacket I just hoped I was illuminated enough for Austin traffic to keep its hands off me. Google sent me down some parts which looked as if they were home to bikie gangs and union thugs. Still it was an official biking route of Austin, a place which is extremely bike friendly. I oveshot Bens having stumbled across his street, eventually made it.

A shower could not come quick enough being so tired and still feeling that pain in a distinct point in my head. I texted Ben and was greeted by him from his rooftop (overlooking UT's giant stadium and downtown). On his 'living roof' we spend rest of night chilling with Johhny and Hannah up there, a birthday amberbock in hand and some Vietnamese cuisine. 

It was a good birthday...

Day 2- Waco, Temple and things between

Day 2- Lucky and Unlucky

Day 2

Origin: The Canterbury Estate, Waco, Tx

Destination: Centre Square, Temple, Tx

Weather: Excellent temperature,  (18km- 8km)

Distance ridden: 62 miles (100km)

Key Notes:

Left Sarah's place early, Navigate to finally find right road into city, without being on interstate. Ride into town on main ride, potholes and traffic allowing for some challenging riding. Blog Update at Common Grounds coffee house

Waco incredibly contrasted between University and everything else. High poverty no matter what street downtown. Cyclesoutback to buy light. Turns out back up light was on some stupid setting so actually worked.

Straight west on highway to McGregor (home of rocket testing facility)

As turn to pull into LasCancun Mexican stand, bike topples. Manage to roll out of it, not too injured. Just roadrash, strained wrist. Turns out bike had just obtained puncture and just threw off this backheavy bike's centre of gravity further. 

Talking to Paco (affectionately called Amigo) the owner. Was enjoyable to listen to his passion of food, background and a little of his outlooks on life.

Change tire no worries, stop into service station to hydrate with 3L of water and fountain drink. Indian attendant, talking about his outlook on Texas life and isolation.

only 10km further down the road, tire deflated. Worried that I only had one more tube left and without footpump to achieve required pressure it would pinch, I give it a second chance and handpump it up again.

Lasts another 8km, I arrive in Moody to re-pump it against where you would have watered your horse. Ghost town with 3 out of 20 shops offering something. Google maps takes me down desolate area. Houses inhabited but with what could be seen as structurally hazardous. Heart breaks a little, at certain sights.

Country road time, with rolling hills of Texas. So many dogs, all it takes is one loose canon of one and one irresponsible owner. Pump up tires every now and then. Bike feeling unstable and one hand with limited strength from fall, I continue on.

Come across boys on road and girls on horses in paddocks, which houses Alpacas. There is a foreign dog interacting with their dog. Boys tell girls to go shoot it, 'properly Texas' style. Turn the corner and the girls exclaim that they are kissing each other, as dogs wrestle.

On back roads come into more junkyard areas. Pumping up bike for umpteenth time, a local comes out. Once again unfortunate situation where a lot had been taken from him, but talking of things in life, area and of course, sport. Sunsetting, I think I can see temple.

Wrong it is still 15km out and loose coordinates with google, elect to go old highway before it runs out, not sure where I am and with only a tail light take the same path as these trucks on what turns out to be ring road. Ran into a google map road, on track again.

Down industrial way, go to pump up again... Needle snaps trying to hard to pump. Hope it gets me into town. End up just short of downtown before it is flat as a pancake, I walk around (maybe bit naively)  trying to find town centre and wait for Damon to call me back. He is at work, all good made it safe.

Find outside internet, call my nan to wish her happy birthday and Damon picks me up and takes me to his work. Sorts me out with Australian birthday philly, wings and beer. Temple have interesting crowd. Night ends late with laughing about politics with Damon and his uncle Steve. Was constantly trying to drink enough water, all about the hydration. 

The departure

Day 1- The hardest day (I hope)

Day 1

Origin: Cowtown, Fort Wort

Destination: Waco Area

Weather: Excellent temperature, high southerly winds (28km-20km)

Distance ridden: 81 miles (130km)

This is it... Dallas (Fort Worth is pretty much same city) to New Orleans. After so much talk, finally time to bite the bullet and get moving. Always before one is about to undertake a long journey,  they ask themselves ‘I think I’ve got everything, right?’. This has been constantly played over in my head, the mental checklist revised and revised. However sometimes you can never be fully prepared, as I was about to find out during this first performance.

After a mustering all my belongings and arranging them in my various packs, I sat down to find out where my launching pad should be. I guess since I’m in Dallas it should be quintessentially Dallas (Dallasian, Dallite, Dali don’t know what word they use). So what better place than the massive rodeo area and stockyards? After a top brekkie (slang for breakfast) cooked by Michael, we loaded up the Landcruiser and drove out the Tenny’s driveway. This is it (for the second time I realised, it growing even stronger)...

I was to be taken to Michael’s work, where Art was going to take me where I needed to set sail, southward bound. So after plugging the address into the GPS we were taken to a proper Texan place. Samantha (a lady who posted a review on google) describes it as a place where there are “A lot of animals to see and the show was very entertaining”. Correct and correct, we didn’t even go to the rodeo but there was a meet, with pickups and their cattle trailers causing a bank up down the road that could be seen in LA during peak hour. All going down to sell their stock. Police wearing Cowboy hats were directing the traffic as we tried to get through we were stopped by one custodian of a specific stretch of road. His drawl was loooooonnnnnnnggggg. “What you here for?”, he asked. Art told him we were ‘just traveling through to other side’. No budging whatsoever. I had another place in mind, the old stockyards...

It was getting late in the day and with this new location, I had no google maps to guide me through. But my impatient side told me just get going you will figure it out. Setting an old school Garmin GPS which drew a straight line to a place that looked as though I would rendezevous with my original google map, I set it to direction me with the general south east-ish direction of Crowley. I started pedalling, finally!

The first 10 minutes involved my mind playing a lot of tricks. Some of the path was cobbled and the bags certainly magnified this. Are these bags suitable? The front bag especially could be deemed as flimsy, with it not really receiving the best of reviews for its’ design. Online shopping, cost-effective but unproved. The next came over a massive pothole where the tire, jolted and I immediately became paranoid about a flat of some description. The way downtown was slightly uphill and my legs untrained in carrying this added weight up hills and just generally untrained (Lance’s program didn’t work for me), were immediately tested. Not to mention I was already starting to sweat and had not drunk enough water. Time to suck it up Nick and deal with it.

Navigating my way through down town, I knew I needed to generally head eastward of town or face backtracking due to the interstate and various urban highways that cater for the motor-mad Dallas folk. Heading east I looked at one of google maps I intended to use, that left from downtown. There was a few streets I could potentially run into... I did in fact. Linking back onto this it successfully took me through an underpass and onto the eastside. Eastside is not the best side, with a fair few people just ‘hangin out’. I overshot the mark on one street going too far. After trying to reconnect with it, going too far west, and east I decided to try and rediscover this side in the township of Crowley. All this confusion and stopping and starting was wasting valuable sunlight.

I soon discovered why these area is deemed as such a sprawl, passing the endless run-down Mexican places, what appeared as a squatter-house that served up a $3.95 buffet (I was so tempted) and the shoddy car dealers (like I said they love their cars). I kept riding amongst the traffic and those souls ‘hangin out’, the blank expression on their faces. Once more out of the burbs I was hit with that cruel Texas wind. As Dave from Ranchward’s Steakhouse said, you can either get it north or south. Meaning life can be such a breeze (pardon the pun) or an absolute battle. Today it was a battle, as much as I tried to keep that 20 average as soon as an incline was encountered I was pushed back to 16kmph . Did I mention a battle?

Getting into Crowley, it was not the quaint place I expected. Fast food reigned and any other commerce was few and far between. I wanted to find what it offered pulling up to duck donuts, the sign was lit as being open. In fact it was cleared out. I dismissed the idea of finding a hidden gem in Crowley, turning my focus to rehydrating and finding my road prescribed by google (south freeway). I asked a cop pulled up that was looking to clock in any speeders. Apparently the bridge was down for the direct route, so I had to listen intently to the turns and landmarks. I set out, once again going too far down the road before realising I would have to go back north. Going north was fantastic, I cruised down at 35kmph effortlessly before hitting the interstate. A rude realisation hit me, he didn’t mean south i-35. I crossed the overpass, but there was no indication of an old highway west of i-35. Going back I though I will take this service road. Bingo, I was back on my way.

A quick Wendy’s crispy chicken (99c) and a bit of stupid attitude (long way to Waco) from some a teenager sporting a moustache that looked as though he had glued on hairs to his lip, I was on track. The interstate was providing me with some proper pollution and the service road heavy with traffic, but to my right I was treated to some incredible RV parks, antique places and all other things Texan. Also those who tell me Texas is flat, are not fully informed. Sure comparatively to Colorado or other states but it still has its dips and rises, in combination with that direct S wind, hard yakka.

Time was essence and I had lost my fair share, as I rolled up and down Burlison Rd (i-35 frontage). I knew the navigation difficulty in Crowley and Fort Worth would come back and bite me, as I well and truly realised later on.

To be continued (currently 11am in Waco I got to find a light (story about lights soon to come) and hit the road otherwise face darkness like yesterday)

   Stay tuned