Making Moves

I think last time I posted we were in Gay Hill, TX. We are currently in Wimberley, TX and are officially in the hill country. It is absolutely gorgeous around here and the riding is awesome. This is the former training ground of Lance Armstrong and I can see why it made him so strong. Just amazing climbs and decents and it never seems to end. The scenery is beautiful and the roads are great so far. We are still getting good weather. We put in about 45 miles today from Austin, TX. We spent last night with Natalie's cousin in Austin. She lives near the UT campus so we were able to tour around there for some time. We had a really good time. I wish we would have had more energy to go out with her cousin and friends but we are always so tired at the end of days. After leaving Gay Hill, TX a few days ago we traveled a short distance down the road to Carmine, TX and stayed with Carol at her ranch house. We stayed in her bunkhouse above one of the barns. We had a really relaxing day there. We only put in about 15 miles so it was a very short day with lot of rest and we were able to get healed by mother nature. The sun was out and we caught some good rays. The next day we set off for Bastrop which was just outside of Austin. We rode about 65 miles that day but I think it was our hardest day yet. We had a headwind the entire way and the hills definitely picked up. They were different than hills we are in now. The hills were very steep and short which I do NOT like. I like the more gradual climbs and then the decents. I hate going up steep grades with the trailer. It just absolutely kicks your ass. We went through Bastrop state park which was almost completely burned in the wildfires here (see pictures on FB). The hills there rivaled some of the steepest I have ever been on. And it was endless. It was no doubt the longest 13 miles of my life through that goddamn park. For all I care, it had it coming with those fires. I don't care if I never go through there again. After that state park we arrived in Bastrop. We crossed eight lanes of highway traffic so we could go to a Wendy's. We ordered an obscene amount of food there for two people and the lady taking our order looked a bit in shock. Natalie and I just laughed.....and we ate all of our food without any issue. We stayed in some small RV park in Bastrop that night which set us up for an easy ride into Austin the next day. That next day we got rained on AGAIN! I didn't think it rained much in TX. "Supposedly" they are in a drought here but we have so far seen half of our days in TX with rain. I don't care if I don't see it again until San Diego. Austin is a really cool town. Its kind of a hippie town which is strange to see in ultra-conservative TX. The capitol and large university are there too so it makes it a very fun city. Lots of live music and good beer. No real cool stories since we went to bed so early. This morning before we left we made sure to stop by Lance Armstrong's bike shop which is AWESOME!!! Really really sick bikes in his store. He also had all of his yellow jerseys from his many tours in there. Some of his early bikes are in there too from when he rode back in the early 90's. It was really interesting to see some of those. There was a really good coffee shop in there too. Highly recommend going if ever in Austin area. Today we rode from Austing and ended up in Wimberley. Today has been my favorite riding so far. The area is beautiful. Wimberley is a cool little town in the hills of about 5,000 people. We are staying at the local EMS office here with all of the paramedics. They let us inside to use their kitchen and showers. Also offered up their laundry services. It is really cool to stay with them to talk ER types of things. They are all really cool guys and I love that they do this! We are posted up in their backyard with our tent. Tomorrow we plan to go to Blanco and we are staying with a warmshowers host there. Should be another short day tomorrow. Nice to have some recovery days. Our bodies are thanking us. My legs are getting really strong and so are Natalies'. It is nice to be getting in really good shape again. We are going to be animals when we get out to CA. Keep us in your prayers. The roads around here can sometimes be crazy. Love to all! I will add more pictures on facebook tomorrow.

~Drew