Friday, March 12, 2010

Big blue sky

Thanks to Carol Montgomery of Carmine, tx for letting us stay in her bunk house.  What an incredible place!

Her house was unbelievably cool.  Hand joined with huge pine timbers, it took her 5 years to build working every weekend during that time. Everything in her house had an interesting life history from the floor tiles to the stained glass. She made us dinner and waffles in the morning, and told us all sorts of incredible stories.  True road magic.   Thanks again Carol!
While Bryan, Mike and I were there we met another cyclist named Todd from Montana.  He's a great guy and we are all traveling together now.   He's got plans to head north after west tx and ride up through the Rockies, so he probably won't be with us in San Diego.  
Sara,  you'll appreciate this: one of his panniers has a huge hole in it that plastered with duct tape.  "Yeah,  something tried to tear into my bags when I was camped at Dauphin Island."  We looked at eachother, "Oh yeah, we know that animal."  This raccoon has quite a reputation.  It was probably the same one that stole Saras phone charger and bike chain. It was the fattest raccoon I'd ever seen.  When we went searching for the stollen items in the woods we discovered a landfill of trash that this raccoon had accumulated over several years of robbing patrons.

Texas is beautiful.   I could probably spend a full day just looking at rocks on the road side.  To be honest,  I didn't think it would be quite like this- the birds the plant life, its unreal.   The hills are getting a lot steeper too as we head into the mountains of west tex.

We are in Austin, Tx right now camped out.   Mike needs a better sleeping bag from REI for the cold desert nights, and besides, it just looks like a really cool town.

2 comments:

Rees said...

Be sure to check out Antone's for some of the best in Texas music. There's always something hopping in Austin. Get a directory of who's playing where--though it will be tough on a Monday night.

Hill country also has some of the best western barbeque. Try Stubbs or County Line. Sam's is supposed to be good. The briskit is worth whatever you need to pay for it.


After you pass San Marcos get ready for long and flat.

Melinda Hasty said...

HA! Bryan has a great pic of you giving a goat an obviously much appreciated ear-skritch. That goat will surely never forget you....