Back to Connecticut

I am waiting for the flight home. Here are a few things and thoughts I take away from my visit to Texas.

Bicycling any place really puts your feet to the ground I biked about 180 miles.

Litter in Texas is almost non-existent.

People were generous, helpful, kind, and open.

Oak pollen is worse in Texas than pollen in Connecticut.

Yankees can do the two step.

Don't judge the state by the President's that claim Texas as there home.

Somethings really are bigger in Texas.

Where are the armadillos? Didn't see one.

Distance is relative. An hour drive in Texas is the same as a 15 minute ride in Connecticut.

The down economy doesn't seem to be affecting Texas as much as elsewhere.

That's a wrap. Hope you enjoyed the sharing the ride with me.

Austin

I wake up to a rooster crowing. Yes a rooster. I am in a city and there is a rooster crowing at 5:00 am. Did I mention sustainable living Martina? She would have a cow or a goat if they could. Martina has left me a bicycle to get around Austin with. It's an easy city to figure out and very bike friendly.

First stop is the capitol. It has the standard dome. I walk up to the large oak doors with brass door knobs with the star of Texas on them. It seems odd. No signage, No guard. Do you knock? I open the door and find myself in a large empty entryway. No receptionist, no guard, policeman, metal detectors. Am I back in the 90's? This is GWB country. Where are the scare tactics? The high security? Here's a "humph". A "well I'll be". Texans believe in free and open government. They have restrained themselves from using security measures that would make people feel unwelcome to participate in their government.

On a Monday morning I am the only one queuing up for a tour, So I get the private one. It's a beautiful building that was built on the barter system when the original one burnt down and their was no cash to build a new one. They traded 3 million acres to a firm in Chicago to build this pink granite structure.

Down the street to the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. This is a three story building that traces Texas history from before European exploration to the early 1970's. The Star of Destiny presentation in the theater comes with special effects including rain, rumble, and your seats shaking and or filling with air. It does a good job on touting Texans independent spirit. They almost take credit for landing on the moon. Remember the phrase " Houston, the eagle has landed" or "Houston, we have a problem".

Right down the street, four blocks from the capital, is the University of Texas - the Longhorns. The campus and their 102,000 seat football stadium that is used 7 times a year. I drop in to meet my counterpart, Bill, at the alumni house. He gives me a brief tour. We swap notes and part ways.

I bike over to the other side of the city to Barton Springs park. I'm hungry and have yet to have a real good Texas barbecue. Iron Works was the recommended spot. I find it. If you didn't know about the "joint", you would have passed it by. I order beef ribs. You get your ribs served on a styrofoam plate with a scoop of potato salad and beans. Pull a beer out of a galvanized tub full of ice and head over to a table that has a roll of paper towels awaiting you. My trip is complete. They were the best. I left feeling full and the roll of paper towels a little smaller.

I go over the Congress Street Bridge. This bridge is home to 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats - one of the largest urban bat colonies in the nation. At sunset they create a spectacle with a mass exodus from underneath the bridge for nocturnal flight. I am to early in the season to witness it it. But I can say I was riding over 1.5 million bats.

I walk the bike down East Sixth Street (Old Pecan Street). It's is one bar after another. At this time of day it is gearing up for the night life ahead for the 30 somethings.

Martina and I hook up. We go out for ice cream. Back to the couch.

LBJ anyone remember him?

Lyndon B Johnson, former president of the United States. I remember him as the president who couldn't pull the plug on the Vietnam War. What gives with wars and presidents from Texas? I digress.

His ranch, now a national park, is en route to Austin. I took the audio tour. LBJ, like GWB, sent many days governing from his ranch. Even had his own airstrip for a mini US Airforce 1. There was also a little German farm pre-electricty where you could experience 1800's farming. What I learned was that LBJ was a teacher and was responsible for the Head Start program that is still in existence today.

I get into Austin late in the afternoon. Drop the bike off for shipping back to Connecticut. Then to Martina's home where I can take up couch space for a couple on nights. I find Martina on her front yard wrapping string the color of hot pink around sticks clustered like the skeleton of a tee pee. Eventually beans will climb up the the strings and poles.

Martina is about my daughter's age. She bought her house over a year ago and has turned it into a construction zone. Walls removed, windows replaced, plaster, wires, sawdust. She is fixing it up to be sustainable using earth friendly materials. Most of the sweat labor is hers.

She shows me the couch. It's a beautiful day out and I don't want to get in the way of her gardening. I tell her I can figure myself out and to get back to what she was doing. My organizational brain kicks in and I need to make sense of the clutter. I get to work dusting and sweeping the sawdust, cleaning the counters, organizing the building supplies. In a couple hours the garden is done and Martina's living space looks and feels livable. We are both happy.

I join Martina to meet some friends at a bar for a birthday drink. How many themes can you combine in a drinking establishment? This place has bowling, skeet ball, and karaoke. It seems to work. Her friends are all over the map in personalities and professions. They appear to be connected through church. I feel comfortable and welcome. From there we go back to Martina's neighborhood. We walk down the street to a neighbors and sit around a fire drinking, making shmores and sampling homemade gelato. Most of the conversation centers around the recent film, music, art festival that occurred recently. Good people.

Discovered the WOW factor today

I took a 13 mile loop referedto as the Willow City Loop. It's a narrow twisty road that winds through fields. It is considered a private road, but you wouldn't know it with all the traffic on it. It was beautiful. Lots of flowers ~ blue, yellow, orange, white. And you could smell them as well.

After that is was a lesiur tour of Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg was settled by immigrant families from Germany in 1846. There are many historical structures. The city is also home to the first volkssporting event ever held in the u.s IN 1976. (I'll let you google that one).

Along the way I came across this deer. It's made entirely of car parts.

Where are the flowers

I've seen some flowers but diffently lacking the wow factor.
Today was a couple of good hills then mostly flat following the Guadalupe River.
I came across this interesting half mile fence. It was made of wood poles. (Most fences are of the steel wire variety.) On top of each pole was a boot.

I ended my day at the By the River RV and campsite. Awesome. $9.00 gets me WiFi, hot shower and a meal! Last night they had a pot luck shingding and had a ton of food left over. I was invited to help myself. I fryed up some green peppers, sliced up some skirt steak, warmed up some tacos added some cheese and yum.

I found the hill in Texas

Last night at the 11th Street Cowboy Bar open grill and dance I discovered a sub-cultural I never would have thought of. RV (recreational vehicle) country dancing singles. For real. They all wore red tee shirts and half the crowd was in red. Who would have thought!

I had breakfast at the OST (Old Spanish Trail). Instead of bar stools they had saddles. I guess they really mean it when they say "pony up to the bar".

Today I saw every thing four legged. Long horn steers, deer, antelope, llamas, boars, sheep, donkeys, horses, buffalo. Still no armadillos.

I passed the Lone Star Mortorcycle Museum. It look closed.

I ended my day at the Lost Maples State Park. Come to find out the maples are not lost. These maples are called bigtooth maples and because of the climate in the gulley they are in, they turn color similar to New England. Or so the Texan's think.

On the road

The weather men here are about as successful at predicting the weather as they are up in Connecticut. Yesterday they were calling for sunny with the high near eighty. It is 65 degrees with a constant drizzle.

I headed out around 8:00. Jumped on route 16 with a destination of Bandera, TX. So far the scenery is one strip mall after another.

It took about 10 miles but I am now on the open road. I cycled into a town called Pipe Creeek and stopped in at the Pipe Creek Junction Cafe. Clare ~ your friend that misses diners ~ this is a must stop. If you can get over the fact there is no aluminum, the menu and nostigalia is all there. From 11 - 2 you can get liver and onions (who has that on a menu anymore) or catfish, salad, roll, mashed potatos, bhlack eyed peas, soda and dessert for $6.56. (Pictures will follow at a later time). There is a long wooden sign when you walk in that has carved into it "No Assholes Allowed - execpt Don". Don must be a special asshole.

I am camping by the Medina River in Bandera at the Pioneer Resort. I get hot showers, and wifi. On my way in to Bandera I stopped at the visitors center (pretty impressive for a town with a population of 936). I got all the poop on what and where.

Tonight there is a Honky Tonk. You bring your own meat to this bar/restaurant. They grill it. For a couple of bucks you get sides, like potato salad, etc. Then there is dancing. If I go four blocks down on Main Street I can grab a hunk of meat, then walk back three blocks for some local flavor and entertainment. (Clare I think this fits in the "outlandish" category).

Oh, I forgot to mention that Bandera is considered the cowboy capital of the world. Charlene, feel free to juice this up for Dad and coffee tomorrow morning.

A day of walking

I semi-packed the bike today. Did some wash. I then walked and walked and walked. I walked three miles down to the riverwalk where is starts by the zoo. This is the new part. The walk is real nice. Lots of funky art work. You meander down past a lock system and then down to downtown. There is a section that has a bunch of overpriced and overcrowded restaurants. All in all the river walk is a nice part of the city for visitors and residents. I figured I walked a total of 6-7 miles.

I popped in to the pep rally. Lots of noise, lots of excitement. Here I met a UConn grad who lives in Virginia and works for a branch of the Virginia government . He was in San Antonio for a conference and figured he would take in the final four and route for his alma-marta. He got center court seats of the internet. We walked down to the Alamadome together. UConn and Stanford gave him and the rest of those watching quite the game.

Security was much tighter getting in with the Vice President coming to the game. My fanny pack got searched. I had it stuffed with Kleenex. The pollen down here is the worst in 30 years according to the local paper. The security person questioned my abundance of Kleenex.

The opening ceremony of presenting the US flag and singing the national anthem was impressive. Vice president Bieden was there. He was in front of us at half time greeting the troops. I went to the game with the mindset that whatever the outcome, history would be made. Glad UConn made the history with a win, back to back undefeated seasons, and a shot at breaking the men's win record.

Pig, Missions, Cemetery, and the Alamo

Late night last night meant a late start this morning. The day started overcast with a sticky 80 degrees. A Starbucks distracted me from my route to the Alamo. Once I did get to the Alamo, the crowds were insane. I decided to continue on to do the Mission Loop and save the Alamo for last. The sun was peeking out a little more often.

Leaving the city and heading toward Mission Concepcion I came across a 15 foot pink pig serving as an entry way to some kind of "Hog Heaven Restaurant. Sure caught my eye but did nothing for my appetite.

The missions were built in the 1700's along the San Antonio River to extend Spain's dominion northward from Mexico. The missions along this 20 mile loop include Mission Concepcion, Mission San Jose, Mission San Juan, Mission Espada, and The Alamo. The scenery included a few stray dogs. They were big and could have done some damage. I must not have not looked worth the effort to get up and break a sweat. They just looked at me as a cycled by.

I cycled by a very colorful cemetery. It makes our road side memorials look lame. These plots were decked out with rainbow windmills and every color of tinsel flowers and wreaths imaginable. Should have stopped for a picture but didn't. After the cemetery I had to cross the Espada dam. A dam is a concrete road that water flows over. I got my feet wet which was fine given the heat. I stopped at Roserio restaurant for dinner. It was Mexican food. Very, very good.

Clare, my warmshower host has a "creed". Her "creed" is to do something outlandish each day. She likes poetry. She wants to go to Big Sur in California. When she gets to Big Sur her "outlandish" act would be to rent a convertible and see it with the top down. The people I meet along the way truly amaze me.

Clare is a public defendant attorney for the federal government. I met her friend Molly and her husband. These are good people Clare has as dear friends.

Officially on the way

If I don't have it, I'll have to go with out or get it along the way.

I arrived at the Soutwest terminal in plenty of sign. With a duffle bag and a boxed up bike, the curb side check in was a great sight. Unfortunately, oversized (the bike) can't be taken at curbside. For a couple of bucks, the attendant was my Sherpa and I got the stuff through without breaking a sweat. The flight attendant down was a hoot. She had a lot of sass and humor to add to the instructions of floatation devices, seat belts, air masks, etc. If anyone wanted future flight for free, she would consider marriage proposals (spouses of employees fly free on Southwest).

After a slight layover in Denver, off to San Antonio. My bike came through baggage claim without a tear, slash, or gouge in the box. That's a first. Once I get out to the curb I call Abel. Able is going to pick me up and put my bike together. He arrives in a green minivan. Throw the stuff in the van and look for Summit Street where I will be staying with Clare ~ a warmshower host. Able assembles my bike on Clare's front porch. He makes the task look easy and probably is wondering why this Yankee fool isn't doing this herself.

Clare has left a key for me and I let myself in and stash my gear in a bedroom in the back of the house. Clare comes home and shows me around her home. I put the bike in her garage. We sit and talk briefly. We go over the city bus routes to and from the Alamadome. She doesn't think I will be able to get a bus that late to come back and offers to come get me. I decline the offer for several reasons, it to late to ask someone to do, selecting a pick up point with that many people would be difficult, and Google says there is a bus run, so it must be true.

The game was fun. Huskies fans were humbled and holding their breaths when the score came within three. If Baylor keeps and grows this young team, they have good things to look forward to.

Having the St. Louis final four to compare to, the Alamadome doesn't measure up. Too big and the noise is deadened. You don't get vibration off the pep bands. The seating is spread out . It doesn't feel like a basketball arena because it isn't. The game drags on forever due to the insane number of commercials you all probably had to endure. Okay, it wasn't pretty, but we got the win and we are back at it Tuesday.