-Saw my first legitimate hitchhiker...he should just buy a bike
-Passed an elementary school where kids were out playing during recess...now those were the days!
-Today would have been easier if it wasn't: uphill, into the wind, and on a bike
-Weather Channel App says 20% chance of rain...real world says 100% of rain...thank you Jack-In-A-Box for food and shelter
Today was the first day where I woke up and really did not want to ride a bike. Not a good way to start the day. All day long I just didn't want to be pedaling and stopped a lot to just munch on something or take a picture. Just wasn't really feeling it today even though i had planned to go 100 miles to Austin. Therefore, I was actually happy to see a pop-up thunderstorm in Bastrop, TX. I was about 35 miles away from Austin and running out of daylight as it was. So I grabbed a hotel, thanks to my brother Kyle, for paying for it! Merry Christmas to me. The more I think about it, the more glad I am that I stopped early. I can get a long sleep and leave tomorrow around 10 or 11. I'll take about 3 to 3 1/2 hours to get to Austin and be able to tour the city for the afternoon and night. Austin is considered the "live music capital of the world" and I'm excited to walk downtown and listen to some live tunes. Also, this will help my legs rest a little before hill country this week. Normally, I would want to get as far as I can each day but this week is different just for the fact that the Super Bowl is Sunday and I need to plan according to that game alone. I need to be somewhere that I can watch the game. Therefore, I am going to go slowly this week so I will be in Del Rio on Sunday because there's nowhere to watch the game for a couple hundred miles west of there and I wouldn't make it. So it will be a slower, lower mileage week this week.
On my way into Bastrop, I was supposed to take some roads through the state forest, but those roads are still closed due to a massive forest fire a few months ago. So I had to stay on the highway and the damage from the fire was still devastating. For miles on end, there was just dead, black trees. The worst and saddest part though, was seeing a whole bunch of foundations of things that used to be people's homes. Very sad stuff. I took a couple of pictures of the trees, on both sides of the highway, but didn't want to take too many because it ruind people's lives and taking pictures of that is not right in my mind. It was like riding through a war zone. I had some memories of the fire in the woods behind my house when I was a kid...scary stuff.
I also passed by the world's smallest catholic church that is still available to worship in. I took a break there, filled out the visitor log and wrote in their prayer book. All really awesome stuff
Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow but at least it's only a short ride planned. I need to save my energy for the hills!
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