Fredericksburg to Austin
When chris and myself woke up it was starting to rain. We started packing up and moved our stuff into a pavilion. Nick was not getting up as quickly. Chris and myself got all of our stuff into the pavilion and helped nick get his stuff together.
We ate breakfast in the pavilion and repacked our bags better. It was raining quite hard at this point.
We started out on our way to Austin in full rain gear. We had decided the night before to take 290 rather than the map route. 290 would cut out some miles and paralleled the map route.
290 was not the best road between Fredericksburg and Johnson city. The shoulder was very narrow and it was a 4 lane highway. Nick unfortunately wiped out on the paint of the highway lines. His light broke and his rain poncho got a little messed up. He was unharmed luckily. With the rain coming down so hard drafting was hard so we started going at our own paces. I decided to push hard because I wanted to get this shitty road done with.
Once I got to Johnson city I stopped outside a convenience store to take off my water proof socks that had completely filled with water. The top seam does not keep water out.
I flagged down Chris and Nick as they rolled into town. We found a subway and ate there. The guy working told us 290 got worse than the portion we had been on so we went back to the map route. He said the map route took us on good roads.
The rain had subsided and we changed out our socks in the parking lot outside subway. Chris unfortunately got a flat.
We continued on what did prove to be nicer roads to ride. Not much traffic on most of the roads. It was very hilly though. We came upon a creek crossing and I unfortunately didn’t allow enough space between myself and Nick. I had more speed going through the water and rather than run into the back of him I turned and my front wheel slid out on the pavement covered in algae. I did clear the creek at least before I hit the pavement.
The traffic did increase a lot as we approached Austin. Tensions were running high as it was a long 87 mile day and we were all wet. We had to climb up some really steep kickers but eventually made it to JJ and Vans house. My tire was losing air for the last few miles but I managed to limp it all the way without changing it. Nick is friends with JJ and secured us a place to stay.
Bicycle Hill People 