Day 32 - A Perfect Storm

Johnson City to Austin TX

51 miles - 2,134 feet of climb

The day started with rain before dawn and I had to take down a wet tent. There was also lightning and thunder so we sat in the van until the weather calmed a bit. Eventually we rode to a donut shop for a second breakfast. Steve and Rick who were riding ahead of us reported that the rain stopped 12 miles out.

Every night at 7pm we have a map meeting where the leaders talk about the next day's route and forewarns us of any potential issues. The night before we were warned that there was a creek running over the road at one point in our route to Austin. We were making a long curving descent when we rounded a corner going about 20 mph when we saw the creek. It was bumpy and there were lots of potholes in the road. The creek wasn’t running over the road, but we had to slow down quickly, thread through the potholes, and immediately go up a steep incline. James made it just fine, but when I was about to the creek, a truck came over the rise and my path through the potholes put me right in front of the truck. Fortunately the truck stopped and I made it across over the creek, but I was going too fast to downshift and I had to stop going up the steep incline. It was too steep to ride up, so I had to shuffle up (without getting off my bike) the remaining 10 feet or so. Embarrassing. When Tom hit the same spot in the road, he had the same thing happen (without the truck) and fell off his bike. Fortunately he wasn’t hurt. Things happen fast sometimes. The last 12 miles coming in to Austin were probably the most dangerous riding yet. Lots of traffic, and no shoulders to ride on. The roadway was eroded in places making it even more dangerous. We had a reprieve at one place where there was a bike trail. While going over a bridge on the trail we saw two guys walking a tightrope over a deep valley. After about five miles of trail we were routed onto an expressway with wide shoulders. However, there were places where there were trees and brush covering the shoulder of the road and it pushed us out into the lane with traffic going highway speed. It was not fun.

When we got into the downtown area, we met two of our group going to Mellow Johnny’s, an Austin bike shop said to be the "brainchild of Lance Armstrong." There, they graciously checked out our bikes, made adjustments if needed and lubed our chains for free. Great service.

After making it to the Super 8 in Austin, we all had very wet tents, along with other items so it was nice to have an opportunity to dry some things out. Denise flew in to spend the rest day with us so we were looking forward to exploring Austin a bit. Here's some tent drying at the Super 8.