Day 32 – Austin City Limits

Miles Completed: 66.0

Cumulative miles: 1703.0

Miles to St Augustine: 1362

Today we rode from Stonewall to Austin, TX. This is considered our last ride through the Texas Hill Country and it was a challenging ride with many ups and downs throughout the ride. There are limited to no shoulders on many of the back roads through the hill country and when we are in the country with limited traffic it is not a problem. But the closer we came to Austin the heavy traffic on hilly and curvy roads with no shoulder to ride on became stressful. Some drivers are not friendly to cyclists. I did not enjoy a good portion of the ride today because of that.

Early in our ride today, we went past the Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site. We then reached Johnson City which is the hometown of LBJ. It’s amazing how some of our past presidents came from rural areas, which seems less likely today.

My wife Margaret and her sister Nancy came to Austin to visit relatives and to see me too! They met me on the route as we entered the Austin suburbs, at a point near where Margaret’s niece Shannon and her family live. Unfortunately, because we got spread out so much today, none of the other riders came by when they were there. But they did get to meet some of them when they picked me up at the hotel in downtown Austin.

We are staying with Margaret’s niece, Shannon, and her family tonight. I’m looking forward to catching up with them. We have a rest day in Austin tomorrow and I’ll provide an update on this amazing family.