Friday, April 11, 2008
Austin, TX to Wimberley, TX
53 miles (2120 total miles)

We left our plush motel this morning at 7:50 and chatted with 3 guys as we were assembling the bike, got a picture with one of them below. We followed the Adventure Cycling route today, threading our way through some very nice neighborhoods in Austin, and finally into the center of town. Went down Sixth Street for a while, which reminded us a little of Philly's South Street - very artsy and music-centered. There were several "Musician Unloading" signs along the street, in front of the several bars and lounges that obviously featured live music. There was a historic marker there describing the Victorian buildings in the area; we got a picture of one of the most interesting - the Driskill, which looked to be an old hotel. The Adventure Cycling route was complicated but very accurate and detailed. We never would have found the bike-friendly route across the Colorado River (yes, we crossed that river twice more again today!) that they directed us to - you can see what it looked like below.

We passed through 2 other cute little towns on the way west from Austin. The first one was Buda, where we had lunch. It had a nice historic section downtown with a lot of pretty buildings and shops. We also saw a small group of bikers, including a pair on a tandem - the first tandem we've seen on this trip! We didn't stop to chat with them, unfortunately - they didn't seem inclined to stop and we weren't either. The other town was Wimberly, clearly a tourist town with lots of arts-and-crafts and western-style shops.

After Buda, we started into Texas Hill Country. The road was narrow and rough but, as usual, the drivers were respectful and careful around us. The scenery was beautiful and the hills were pretty gentle most of the time. The hills were covered with dark-green evergreens mixed with light-green deciduous trees - they made a pretty crazy guilt of color around us. We will keep going uphill for a while it seems. We got to our RV Park for the night about 4 pm, after 52.6 miles and 5-1/4 hours bike time. The owners were very friendly and accommodating and there was a very friendly group of people hanging around. One of the locals had seen us along the road earlier - something that has happened to us often.

Ron Adams, who chatted with us as we got ready to leave our motel

The lead-up to the bridge across the Colorado

The trestle bridge where we crossed

The Colorado River from the bridge

An old trolley car that gives free rides around Austin

A view of downtown Austin from our route

Another impressive building in downtown Austin

Coming into a historic section of downtown Austin - Sixth Street

An olf Victorian building - the Driskill

The marker describing this area

A music store on Sixth Street

Another impressive downtown building

And here it is again - the Colorado River - going out of Austin

A Texas Longhorn ranch outside of Austin

Some of the Longhorns at the ranch

One of our famous black vultures, up close and personal

We thought this littering sign was very clever

What our road looked like most of the day

A very large, very Spanish-looking Catholic church

The Buda water tower

Building in the historic section of Buda

We didn't go to Kyle but we liked their water tower

Texas hill country views

In the Texas hills

Shops in the town of Wimberley

A fountain at our RV park

The main building at the campgrounds

Our tent in front of another building with bathrooms in it

Pat tucked inside our tent