Since we got into camp so late the night before, the office was closed and we didn't pay for camping. To prevent getting caught in the AM, we made sure to be riding bicycles early.
We started riding a little before 7am, and were greeted by some proper Texas hills. A few baby hills had introduced us to the hill country the day before, but wasn't nearly enough of a warm-up for this.
This was a 10 mile stretch of road between two state parks. Buescher State Park and Bastrop State Park. None of the hills were very big, but the riding was a constant up and down and up and down.
It also kept us out of the wind, which was nice.
After reaching Bastrop, we found a Starbucks to check in with civilization. Using the crazy power of Facebook, I searched for a place to stay on short notice. There were several Warmshowers hosts and Couchsurfing hosts, but I'd prefer to give them at least a full day notice. Within minutes, several friends were contacting people to help us out. It was amazing. A friend from architecture school, Mike, was able to set us up with an employee at his firm (he works in the STL office, but was able to talk with the Austin office).
All of this was happening while we were riding to Austin, so when we got into town, it was a pleasant surprise to have things falling into place. Thanks to everyone who helped, and sorry we couldn't stay with everyone!
We cruised Austin, and checked out Lance Armstrong's bike shop, Mello Johnny's. We were told it is a super cool shop and really catered to commuters (and we assumed touring cyclists). While it did have showers (for only $1!), it was most certainly a hipster/high end shop full of $4000 fixies.
Later in the afternoon, we rode over to the office of The Lawrence Group, where our host Paula works.
We were also lucky enough to tag along to a print shop open house happy hour. It seemed like an awesome print shop (Dynamic Reprographics), and they were celebrating moving to a new space with food, beer, and music. Funny how we continue to stumble into such fun events!
After the happy hour, Paula had a date with the gym to get her ready for the San Diego Marathon (hopefully she got in by lottery after the Nashville race was stopped due to weather), so we found a Mexican restaurant and ate chips and salsa while she worked hard. Then, we returned to her apartment, talked running and architecture and Kansas City for a little while and finally went to bed.
Huge thanks to Paula for hosting us, and to Mike for getting it set up.
Day 44 - 52.36 Miles
Trip to Date - 2375.78 miles
Coast to Coast - 1373.33 miles
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