Day 34 - Austin to Smithville TX

50.8 miles, 1,759of climbing

We were fortunate to be in a dry motel Thursday night so we left we left Austin in the rain but with dry gear. James' friend from Austin, Peter from Scotland, rode with us to Bastrop and then returned to Austin. Incidentally, Peter does Ironman and Cyclocross racing. Denise flew to Austin for our 2 day stay there and was able to document the morning process from a motel.

Here's the food set up. One cooler and one plastic tub is maintained for breakfast options and the same for lunch. In a campground, breakfast items are self serve on one table and lunch on a second table. Whoever was assigned to cook the night before sets up these tables. In the motel, we took over people's rooms - one room for breakfast, one for lunch and one for a map meeting. The map meeting is typically the night before. Here are some photos of how food looks in a motel.

TOP ROW

1. breakfast room, Mark, Alan and Harris (hidden) are eating on the bed. Rick is in the red jacket, Chuck behind him and Kathy (leader) peeking through by Rick.

2. Steve and Tom having breakfast on coolers outside of the breakfast room.

3. Karen and Harris scrounging for food and/or coffee in the motel breakfast room

BOTTOM ROW

1. The lunch room. Left 2 right are Bennie (new leader), Tom, Harris and James preparing their lunch.

2. Everyone pitches in. In this photo, people are taking a cooler and tub from the motel room to the trailer.

3. This is the map meeting. Kathy (in pink) tells the group what they are facing that day.

This is how we leave.

TOP ROW

1. Tom carrying his bags to the trailer

2. Chuck, Mark and Alan loading their bags in the trailer

3. Bags successfully loaded in the trailer.

MIDDLE ROW

1. Rick and Steve taking off for the day.

2. Bennie (leader), James, Peter (James' friend) and Alan just before they were ready to take off.

3. Alan and James ready to go.

BOTTOM ROW

1. Harris and Dan ready to take off. Dan's wife, Shirley is the one that fell and broke her elbow. After caring for Shirley, Dan rejoined the group in Austin.

2. Kathy bringing up the rear. The two leaders take turns riding sweep and driving the van/trailer. One rides at the back to make sure everyone reaches the destination. The van goes ahead and checks in at that evening's destination. In very desolate areas, they do some things like provide a water stop along the way.

3. The van and trailer are ready to pull out.

Once we all left the motel, we had lunch in Bastrop at the Coffee Dog and it was still raining. Yes, we did not eat the sandwiches we prepared in the morning. We got word that our original route through the park had a flooded road and was closed. Peter rode back to Austin, Karen and Sharon went to the alternate route which was a divided HW 71. James and I weren’t keen on riding on the shoulder of a busy highway in rain, so we opted to stay on the original route as long as we could and then drop down to the highway.

We checked with the park ranger to be sure we could proceed and we were allowed to enter the park and ride as far as we could. We basically had the park road to ourselves and the rain let up, too. The park was green and beautiful. We eventually reached a point where we had to go to the highway and it was very busy. It took about 10 minutes to cross to the median safely and more time to cross to the East bound lane shoulder. The cars and especially the trucks sprayed a lot of water. It was miserable riding. By the time we were two miles to our turn into the park again (around the flooded road), the rain began to pour and visibility was poor. Not the time to cross a busy highway. We took refuge in a Mexican restaurant next to a gas station and asked for the van to pick us up.

We got to where we camped to set up our tents in the rain. TIP: if you have access to a covered picnic shelter, erect the tent in the shelter, put down your ground cloth and then carry your assembled tent to your site. The inside will be nice and dry. Problem is, you won’t be. That’s the joy of riding in the rain. Here's some photos from the campsite. We appreciated having the shelter.