Day 21 & 22 - Rest Days in Austin

A break well earned. The two days were pretty event packed, getting some neccesities nailed & also getting a bit of sightseeing etc in.

The bikes got dropped in & picked up after servicing and repairing, ready for the long roads ahead. uite a bit of cycling etc around here - after all it is the home of Lance! A good visit out to UT (University of Texas) - Doug's school - whilst suffering under sweltering temperatures (new records for April here). Some general looking around etc.

A feed of beautiful bbq pork ribs...

A feed of cajun, and a feed of crawfish...As per usual a lot of eating over the rest days, fuelling up for the days ahead! Also managed a visit to a few of the local dive bars (classic stuff). Haircuts for the Bens (none for the princess...). Full credit to Doug for the hospitality - great times thanks!

Day 20 - Carmine - Austin (110km)

The fist sentence Ben B said to Ben S for the morning was "I didn't sleep very well last night". An ominous sign for things to come on this particular day!

The ride started off with Ben B's 4th puncture in 3 days! The patching & tube changing skills are rapidly increasing! Something sharp slit his tyre and tube open resulting in a 'bang' and a fully flat tyre within seconds. As a result both tyre and tube were rendered garbage! When Dave and Ben S walked back to check what caused the explosion they couldn't find anything except for the dead snake lying on the road. After a tyre and tube replacement we headed towards Austin in the soaring heat.

After lunch on turning into a gas station Ben B went to cross a lane and didn't realize that Ben S had stopped and was waiting for a car to yield to us. Ben B road straight into Ben S's rear pannier and bent it a little (luckily this was fixed up by the shop in Austin a few days later).

20 minutes later Dave had his 2nd puncture of the trip. With temperatures up around the mid 30s we were pretty keen to arrive in Texas where Doug had a leg of lamb in the oven for us. What a day on the bike!

Ben B developed a bit of a stomach problem, a 24 hour bug or just heat overdose we arent sure, so wasnt up to much for the night. The other boys, while reasonably shelled from the day, were loving a few cold beers. After the roast & pudding it was off to check out 6th St - a line up of over 40 bars on one street. Turned out to be a good night out - good bars, good music & cheap drinks. Find of the night by Dave was 3 vodkas for a total of 75 cents! Rounds went down! The bartenderess didnt take to us to well though - as the round only cost 75 cents, we would tip the quarter - while in % terms (33%) it is pretty good, she didnt seem to agree... The night ended with a visit to the local Mexican shop for burritos.

Day 19 - Lake Conroe - Carmine (130km)

Today would have been one of our most physically challenging days of the tour! We passed through what seemed like endless rolling hills into a stiff headwind. At lunch Dave spotted a sign for all you can eat pizza for $4.99 which broke up the battle nicely. After stripping the buffet we headed out and within a short time Ben B had his 3rd puncture of the trip (another staple!!!). We now have 4 flats from staples (100%); another point to note here is tire choice - full credit to the boys at Sheppards & cousin Mark- the armidillo tyres on Ben S' bike have taken two staples which have successfully been pulled out with zero flats (touch wood going forward).

At Carmine we camped at a Campground called 'Dixieland' named after the owner's wife. We had a good old chat to the owners and they told us that they had some spare beers. Sure enough, after a few minutes they rolled up with a cooler and 10 beers which was really nice of them.

Day 18 - Lake Tomohawk - Lake Conroe (130km) (A lot of lakes in the states...)

After finishing off the newspaper interview and a photoshoot (Dave 'fair weather princess' Aitken was in his posing element!) the newspaper reported packed us with some cookies and hot chocolate sachets and we were on our way!

We are now beginning to experience some of the heavy Texas traffic, but the good thing is that Texas has some of the best roads in America (well actually according to locals, it is one of the best highway systems in the world. We have not clarified whether that is Earth = World or the more usual USA = world...). The verge is as wide as a car lane which is a dream for cycling! However we did experience some very course chip (think NZ roads!) on the roads which definately slowed progress a little. Texans show some very strong state pride behaviours etc - for example all the beers like Bud, Miller etc have a Texas or Lone Star State unique can.

As we are told - Texas is about the same size as France - we will spend about the amount of time in Texas as it took us to reach Texas...

Over a lunchtime feed of BK we learned that a cross country cyclist heading in the other direction had been killed the previous day at that same intersection. The reality really did hit home about how careful we have to be on the roads! (The accident sounded like it was a case of cylist error showing the need to concentrate at all times)

Before getting to Conroe, we passed through the town with the most interesting name to date - Cut And Shoot - we noticed there were no town name signs on entry, most probably a popular sign to procure.... On arrival at Lake Conroe we learned that the lake was actually man-made. It was a huge lake and was flooded with punters on their jetskis and wakeboard boats enjoying their easter vacation.

We had a couple of new records for the trip. After a sly 'fill your drink bottle from the BK drink machine' Dave consumed 1.75 litres of Coke. Ben B got two punctures from tiny staples like what Dave's flat was (how these get on the road we have no idea!).

Day 17 - Texas Border - Lake Tomohawk Baptist Encampment (near Woodville) (120km)

While Ben S and Dave were in the grocery store getting lunch Ben B was approached by a guy who demanded money from his bags. After telling the guy that he had no money the individual's girlfriend got a bit nervous and told Ben B that he was only joking and a few words were exchanged before the guy disappeared. On a more observatory note, we are noticing a large increase in Mexican food in the supermarkets - this equates to our observations about the towns in general - we are in rough terms making the transition from black America to hispanic America.

On our way across a lake we spotted our first Alligator of the trip which was a bit of a novelty!

While heading to our anticipated camp site at an Indian Reservation we saw a sign for a Baptist encampment so we headed off the road to check it out. Turned out they let us camp on their grounds on the banks of a really nice lake. The camp (although quiet when we were there) hosts thousands of kids each summer and had a few good facilities like a 5m platform jump into the lake which we had to try of course! That night we had an interview for the 'Greenville Herald' (whilst tucking into some decent cookies & hot chocolate - true old school camp style) about our travels with potential for a piece in the Dallas Morning News so we will have to wait and see...


Day 16 - Alexandria - Texas Border (115km)

Before we had even left the motel room we had our first puncture of the trip. Dave had a slow leak that must have gone down while we were chilling in Alexandria (a paper staple in the tyre was the cause - a real worry as no-one had encountered a flat from a staple before & they are impossible to spot while riding along, something the next few days would show to be very, very true...). About half an hour later we were ready to roll (poor effort - a good benchmark is 7 minutes for the full change).

It was nice to roll out after a rest day into a light tail wind, wide verges and flat roads. About 15kms from the Texas border the road narrowed, verges disappeared and large cracks appeared (enough to easily swallow up a front tyre!). Just before the border a guy on a Harley pulled up along side us to have a friendly chat; at the border we noticed he stopped to remove his helmet before riding on (the law requiring wearing helmets was repealed in Texas...).

After crossing into Texas we headed about 2 miles up the road to a rest area hoping to camp for the night. Turned out that this rest area was right on a fairly busy road so we retreated back to the border and found a primo spot on the banks of the Sabine river. After checking with the locals about the presence of gators we had a much needed swim then cooked up a feed of chilli and rice, topped off with some Devils Food (like chocolate ginger kisses - 8 for a $1!).

Probably the biggest event of the day was the paper, rock, scissors. After we had posted the last update in Alexandria, we held the rock-off for the solo bed at the hotel - and Dave won!! The fact it took two whole weeks aside - Dave was an extremely happy boy! This brings me to the rock-off on this day...

Dave and Ben B managed to make it to the final and then Dave, somehow, won the single tent - as shown above with paper over scissors - to make it two in a row!! Absolutely unbelievable.