MacGyver!

We've been talking about doing a little bike trip for a long time and we finally got off our asses and did a small jog to New Braunfels, TX from Austin.
We rode over 50 miles in the Texas heat on what seemed to be uphill most of the time.
I can attest that from Buda to New Braunfels it was a steady uphill ride. I brought along Amelia's point and shoot camera to keep weight down.


After we tackled 1st street coming out of Austin, we soon found ourselves seemingly out in the country.
We came across a large fire hydrant that was shooting water out onto a field. Everyone was afraid to touch the water for fear of it ripping the flesh off your bones. But it happened and gib went for a boggy walk in the field.

Gib in the middle of the field / fire hydrant spray

Some videos of said action. I wish this little camera had sound....

At this point in the trip it became very clear that we had no idea what road we were supposed to take. Gib had been given a map by a fellow cyclist that looked like this and so we set out to find our own way....

We ended up riding on the access road of I-35 for more than a few miles after being totally lost and getting retarded directions from someone who worked at WalMart. It was amazing.

So here we were, riding along side cars that were going 60mph with no shoulder. We finally found another backroad and we took it.

Mitch on the road to somewhere

It looked promising. It looked amazing. It had a HUGE shoulder, cars were going 45mph, it wasn't uphill....but it took us in the wrong direction.

Gib on the road to nowhere

So we turned around again and got back on I35.


ride heat ride heat ride heat heat heat heat and my legs start cramping. awesome.

We find the holy grail of roads, Post Road, and make our way to San Marcos. I was lagging behind and stopped to take a pee while everyone else made their way up the long and winding road. I caught up with everyone about 5 minutes later at a dump station.

Mitch yelling at everyone to stop tipping the john while he was in there.

Gib poking Mitch with a stick through a small hole after being yelled at.

We got to San Marcos just in time to go swimming at Texas State.

I don't know if we would have made it if we hadn't stopped here. It was so hot I thought I was going to die. The water was cold, deep and there was a bridge me and Mitch jumped off of.

Mitch - "Arms go splash"

We got on the road again and got lost again. We eventually found the road we needed and it was uphill. The entire time. It was stupid how uphill it was. The sun was beating down so hard and the small amount of clouds didn't even seem to stop it. We found refuge under a large tree near some factory in the middle-a-nowhere to take a break under. I think Rick was having a heat stroke and he wasn't feeling very good. So we sat in the shade for a bit and watched cars and tractors go by.

The tree of life.

Gib eating some trail mix as tractors honk at us.

I managed to stick my hand right on top of a cactus while taking this picture. I got the needles out but the real pain started about 5 minutes later. It hurt for almost an hour.

After our little break, we got back on the road again. We weren't but a few miles away from where we were going to stay the night and things looked great.

Rick behind me.

We finally made it to our hotel and it was pretty laid back. We went to eat and ended up at Olive Garden of all places. On our way out, we caught a storm rolling in.

doesn't look that nasty on this video...of course

So once we started to see the storm roll in we did what anyone would do. We got some beer and headed to the pool/hot tub. After sitting around for a good hour we went back to the overpriced room to catch some ZZZZZZZZZZs.

I don't think that is allowed.

After Rick and Gib went to sleep, Mitch gave them a good 'ol steamroller. Nothing like waking up to some dude in his underwear rolling on top of you.

I woke up at my usual time before 8am and headed out to get some hotel breakfast. I found what could possibly be the best thing to happen to this state....

Only in Texas.

After our morning meal we went and tubed the Comal River with hundreds of other people. I'm tired of typing.