We had a great dinner with the Michiganders at the Agave Mexican Restaurant. Margaritas, cerveza and LOTS of cheese!!!

In the morning we met this couple who were on their way to an old car show. The Burro was evidently very popular in the 80’s . . .

. . . of course we had to ask for a look inside. Karen and Paul have now joined us on the ride. Karen will be with us through Cycle Zydeco and Paul is going all the way to St Augustine with us.

Here was another party who stayed overnight at our motel. He wasn’t around but there was LOTS od cooing coming from the trailer!

Today would be an easy 55 mile ride into Austin, our overnight, and rest day on Sunday. Another warm BEAUTIFUL morning and day.

This was REALLY a pleasant site on the way out of town . . .

. . . and BEAUTIFULLY paved roads. No more aggregate!!!! My back still hurts from two days ago, can’t lift anything heavy and have a hard time getting out of bed. Walk around hunch over like an old man! Hope the next two days of rest will help . . . of course I am getting older. My Birthday today!!!!

This was our first water crossing . . . BIG fun. I’m wearing biking sandals . . . so no problem!!!

Oh . . . there are a few hills on the way to Austin . . .

. . . and some are sort of LONG! 3,100 ft of climbing by the time we arrive downtown.

SAG corner here, right outside of the Austin

Guess who found a new ‘collectable’ along the road?

This guy must be able to talk to anyone in the world with the ham radio setup he had. . . and he was on top of a hill!!!

Right as we entered the Austin suburbs we had two motorcycle cops go by us with their lights on. The third one that went by gave us a blast of his siren. We turned around and saw several hundred Harley types coming our way. We moved off the road to let them pass. mmmm . . . police escort? maybe they were running them out of town!!!

Austin City limits . . . the Austin Relays track meet, is going on this weekend plus LOTS of spring outdoor activities. Biking, skating, roller blading, Farmers Market, etc.

‘Rent a Bike’ program, just like in MSN.

We are staying right in downtown Austin so it was an interesting ride in from the ‘burbs!

I spent all day while riding thinking about all the years and history preceding today and how lucky I have been in my life to have the family I do, the friends I do, and of course . . . Smoochie, the love of my life.

By the time I got to our hotel in Austin, I felt I had stepped back in time . . . and guess maybe I had!!!!

The left photo is when I had left Johnson city this morning, and the right photo is after I had spent 5 hours reminiscing about my life and stepping back in time.  20 years younger?!!!!

THE REST OF THE STORY . . . .

Several of our riders have done a few ‘touch ups’ during the ride and I thought maybe I should too. In fact, I thought since it was my birthday, maybe I should do a whole makeover. Thanks to Margie for helping out!!!! Was supposed to be brown but the package ended up saying, ‘Auburn, Brown, Red Mahogany”. I think I look like Alan Calder, the announcer on the David Letterman Show!!!

Margie getting ready to do the ‘Full Monty’!!! 

See my stylist in action video above!!!

Got to let it sit for 20 minutes . . . even got the eyebrows . . .

And thanks so much to my honey for having a nice birthday present box waiting for me at the Super 8. Lot’s of goodies and chocolates. I’m saving the box above for myself. Love you . . .

We had a great night last night, so need to recap this morning. We ended up being close to Red River St which is similar to our State Street but as everything in TX it is BIG and larger than life. Interesting mix of homeless folks, some mentally ill, and the gentile coming downtown for barbeque and a good time!

Every place that seemed to sell barbeque already had a standing room wait at 6:30pm.

We ended dup at the Ironworks, which looked vaguely familiar to me. emJay and I were here several years ago on a visit to the Austin area with her brother Michael and wife MaryAnn. This is what it is all about meat . . .

. . . that has been smoked until it is ‘fallin off the bone’!!

Full tummies . . . but I did have pecan pie for my birthday treat . . .

Here is the old river bed outside where I think Michael had told us people used to tube through a culvert that runs under the street and feeds this creek when there is enough water to flow, until someone got trapped and drowned. No more tubing.

Colorful street art . . .

. . . and a whole area of food carts that probably didn’t open until after the bars closed . . . speaking of bars we ended back at Pernel’s, a tequila bar that Margie and Gin had discovered earlier, for mojitos.

Margie bought me a birthday martini and soon I met Michelle and Kristen, from Dallas, who bought me ‘several’ mojitos. Nice girls, Michelle is realtor and Kristen is in pharmaceutical logistics. Her startup company ships temperature sensitive drugs all over the world and supplies the devices that records the temps an other environmental factors during the shipping ensuring the products come through unscathed . . .

. . . Kristen insisted on a selfie . . . my first time! The were intrigued by my hair dying story and thought my drivers license photo made me look like Santa Claus,which they said was a good ‘married look’ but that my current color looked better for ‘meeting’ people. Told them I was not trying to meet anyone because I had Smoochie at home!!! They really liked the photos of Daisy, our pup. But alas, my hair color and the age of our group didn’t fool anyone. By the end of the night Michelle wanted to set Tom up with her mother!!!!!!

The boys were back in our Super 8 nest by 9:30pm. I was up for the 6:00am breakfast room opening, and was biking  down 11th Ave in time for 8:00am Mass.

Interesting experience. Holy Cross church ends up having primarily a black congregation. Of the 100 or so early riser’s like me, only 5 of us where white.

Palm Sunday today so of course there was the reading of the Passion of Christ. The Narrator part of the gospel, which is about 80% of the 8 page reading, was read by a guy who sounded JUST LIKE Barry White. I could have listened to him all day!!!

Some more local art on the way back . . .

I had noticed this place, Franklin Barbeque, on the way to church and notice there were about 50 people already lined up at 7:30am for the 11:00am opening. Including several looked like some ‘professional’ line sitters, right near the front of the line. . .

. . . when you turned the corner the line snaked back out into the parking lot.

Here was the manager telling the folks at the back of the line, it was now 9:25am, that they should expect a 2:00pm seating . . .

. . . but not for John and his son Chad! They were first in line . . . having cued up at 6:00AM!!!! It’s Chad’s 21st birthday tomorrow but Franklin’s is closed on Mondays, so they came today. Drove all the way over from Houston. They did the same thing last year on Chad’s Bday. I asked them if it was worth the wait and they both enthusiastically exclaimed . . .”YES”!!!!

Here is the ‘morning after’ of the ‘night before’, across from our hotel. When we walked back last night the lot was full, loud music blaring, cars cruising, and at least 4 or more police cars all with their lights blazing. One of the cops said things get a little ‘lively’ every year during the Austin Relays!!!

Oh . . . and here is a photo I took the morning we left Johnson City for Austin, that I just found. We met Dana and his 31 year old daughter, Jill, who are on the Southern Tier going east to west. This is about the half way point for them, and us, so it was fun to compare stories. They definitely have the ‘harder’ part of their in front of them. Interesting they are traveling REALLY lite. They each have only one bag, you can see Jill’s on the bike with the pink handlebars. In this shot they have on all their biking clothes. Hopefully the weather will be warming for them or they are going to need to buy a few more layers!!

Today was our rest day so beside to some wash and bike maintenance it was time to tour around Austin. I decided to go to the Capital and the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum located on campus.

The TX Capital is impressive BUT not as impressive as WI’s!!

The star directly under the dome is cracked and legend is that a worker fell from some scaffolding and broke it. Not true. The star has cracked due to seismic shifting . . .

. . . but in the past, a worker did fall to his death though a glass floor like this into a lower level!!!

For sports fans . . . you know what this is all about.

When I got to the Presidential library there was an entrance fee . . . I got my first official Senior discount today. Although I did have a little trouble explaining my new hair color!!!

The honorary . . .

. . . never met a horse he didn’t like or want to ride. LBJ meet Connie the Clydesdale!

Visitors can tour floor 3, 4 and 10. Floors 2-9 are used by archivists. You can see some of the volumes through these glass windowed floor fronts. very Impressive!

On the time line they had all kinds of ‘important’ facts . . .

. . .who knew, thanks LBJ . . .

. . . yes!!!

. . . not sure Smoochie was even born when LBJ came through IA!!!!

. . . looks a little like the D!

Some of the millions of people he tried to help with his Great Society program . . .

. . .as well as fighting communism and trying to end the Vietnam War. Here was a direct link to Moscow he had installed during his presidency.

. . . a mock up of his Oval office . . .

. . . complete with three TV’s to watch the three major networks. Wonder what he would have done today with all the news channels available??

Here is his beloved ranch we missed visiting, by 15 miles as we pedaled in from Johnson City . . .

. . . his office at the ranch where he spent 1/5 of his presidency governing the nation  . . .

Here was his unarmored limo he used for tooling around Austin.

He and Ladybird at their beloved ranch.

This photo sort of says it all . . . a great dog lover.

I’ve been over this overpass 6 or 7 times since our stay here in Austin and it is bumper to bumper like this every time. Like the name of that street!!!

We all slept well after our rest day in Austin. Up, packed, breakfasted and ready to ride at 8:00am. Another Tom is joining the group today, as well as Jerry and John. We are developing quite the peloton on this cross country adventure . . . and there are more to come!

This person rolled in after we went to bed last nice and what a fun surprise to see the car this morning . . .

. . . they had not emerged from their room by the time we left. Would have been fun to talk to them!!!

Coming into Austin from the west side was VERY hilly with lots of gated home developments and expensive homes. Leaving Austin, it was very flat, industrial with scattered modest homes. Not much to photograph and this one sort of tells the whole story!!!!

We stopped at an Exxon station to meet up with John, who is from Austin, and Jerry from Des Moines IA. After a few donuts and checking out the piñatas, we were on the road again. I should have bought one of these for my B-Day!!!

We went by a HUGE race track complex . . . .

. . . that featured a 230 foot tower you can ride up in an elevator, or climb the 413 steps, to get to the viewing platform. It has a glass floor . . .  !!!!

Soon we came to this interesting building. Common spelling and pronunciation . . . of course!

I could smell incense and hear chanting, before the ‘kick me dogs’ from across the street starting yapping and chasing us. The smaller the dog the louder they seem to be!!!

oh . . . we had some wide open country out in front of us today on our 70 mile ride to La Grange, TX, our home for the night.

Here was an interesting roadside attraction . . . a natural Burial Ground. A forested area where you pay for the right to dig a hole and ‘plant your loved one’ beneath a big oak tree.

Some interesting billboards along the way today . . . still trying to figure out what the pepper is all about . . . and so is the cowboy on the sign below!!!

TX humor . . . closed on Monday’s.

Haven’t seen one like this for the waterslide in the Dell’s . . .

. . . and I guess one just isn’t enough!!!

This VFW must have used their legislator’s influence to get this trophy parked outside!

On the TransAm, I developed quite a collection of photos of church signboards with witty announcements’. This is the first one I have seen so far on this trip!!!

Lots of great flowers along the roads in TX . . .

. . . things are REALLY blooming now.

The route was going to take us through two state parks today but when we found out bikers had to pay a ‘passing through fee’. We protested and took the local road that paralleled the park. In fact, it looked the the whole parked had burn 3-4 years ago!!!!

mmmmmmmmmmmm . . . who else do I know who has Clutter . . .

Flowers here . . .

. . flowers there, flowers everywhere. Especially beautiful on these sunny days . . .

mmmmmmm . . . wonder if this is named after Marilyn Monroe. It was a dirt road!

First oil rig I have seen since we entered TX, which seems like weeks ago!!!!

Had to stop and take a shot of this Cardinal that didn’t quite make it over the road, one last time. We love these birds. They mate for life and are always at our feeders, together, in the early morning and at dusk. Fun to watch then feed each other seeds. Very loving . . . if birds can be loving . . .

Thought this was a unique way to sell off used bridges . . . even with a car prop included!!!!

The last three miles into La Grange were on some awful road and we were happy to get to the motel. Got to check out this Kolache thing. I thought they were invented in NE Mpls.!!!!

I found a couple of shots I forgot to post the other night from when we were walking around Austin. I think the State Capital actually looks better at night than during the day. It looks white under the lights rather than the dull red color, during the day, due to the red granite construction . . .

. . . our happy and FULL crew. Went to a great Indian restaurant (might be considered heresy in the Land of Barbeque).

Time to leave La Grange and head to our home for tonight, Navasota . . .

. . . but not before a stop at Weikel’s, ‘Home of the Kolache’! 15 types of filling . . .

I needed to devour two for breakfast. Nice of them to put the ‘grams of fat consumed’ on the receipt so one knows when to stop eating!!!

. . . so I bought a dozen for the gang. Need to celebrate my Czech/Polish/Slavic connection . . .

What a nice little MG dealer we pedaled by on the way out of town . . 

. . . BEAUTIFUL!!!   I REALLY liked the chocolates and goodies Smoochie sent me . . . but honey, remember I am only 62 once!!!!

. . . of course, this is not such a big deal in WI . . . ‘Home of the Cow’!!!

We happened to pass through Warrenton and Round Top where twice a year, for three weeks each time, there is an Antique and ‘Collectables’ Sale, in each town. Literally, hundreds, maybe thousands of vendors selling everything you really don’t need (at least in my view). Seemed to be as many parking lot signs as vendors in Warrenton. One of the old boys pulled out a wad of money and told us he made more than $440 in parking yesterday. Probably more than some of the vendors’!!!

Stufffffffffffffff . . .

. . . aisle and aisles of stuffffff!!!!

Soon it was kolache time . . .

. . . two of our ‘babushkas’ enjoying a kolache!!!

Don’t meet a pick up under this bridge . . .

. . . lovely biking today on very quiet roads WITH a tailwind!!!! Nice rollers too!

Here is Holly Oaks, past home of the founder of Baylor University!!!!

Weiss Store was closed . . . so I guess it’s either Gay Hill or San Francisco for a water stop!!!

Very scenic riding, great temps, blue sky and a TAILWIND!!!

Would have been interesting to spend more time here . . . but since we were slowed down by all the antique sale action, we needed to get  on to Navasota . . .

. . . which has some nicely restored building’s!

BIG Mexican dinner last nice so everybody fell right to sleep dreamin’ of margaritas!!! Today would be a quick 66 mile ride to Cold Spring, TX, our home for the night. Quick because there is a 50% chance of rain by 3:00pm!

We were on a state highway with a VERY wide shoulder that was a smooth as a new born baby’s bottom. Nice!!!

Ouch . . . this on must had been a bumpy ride . . . semi maybe???

This is something you don’t want to see right after having breakfast . . . a two fer’

First stop down the road was Anderson . . . might still be fighting the war!

A little listing to the right on this foundation . . . but still livable!!!

Funny . . .

Looked like a turkey vulture convention . . .

. . . ends up it was a breakfast meeting, over a new fawn car kill.

Hey . . . it’s my town!!!

. . . complete with a dead man’s curve, two white crosses, one more lower in the ditch.

. . . and a thriving downtown area!!!!

We would ride through the tranquil Sam Houston National Forest today for about 40 miles. Nice, quiet riding . . .

Part of it is designated a Wildlife Management area . . .

where on the left side it looks like they are letting things grow as is . .

. . . and on the right side of the road they are prescribed burning to keep the vegetation knocked back.

mmmmmmmm . . . not sure what this was all about . . .

. . . or this one!!! Got to look it up!

More of the woody species are now starting to blossom . . .

. . . they smell nice, close up, too!

Walker County Line . . . we went from pavement as smooth as a baby’s bottom, to one with diaper rash. Bumpy . . . just like the political atmosphere in Wisconsin with Gov. Walker too!!!

One of my people. Stopped by . . . but no one home!!!

Our first major detour of the whole trip (couldn’t walk through this one) and we are half done!!!!  Hope it is the only one.

Smoochie!!!!

Not sure what this shipping container was all about but it was fun to see as I came around a curve in the road.

Interesting juxtapositioning . . .

If you need help . . . here is where to go.

Gaylord . . . thanks for not telling us about your summer place . . . !!!!

Met Kate and Reinert, from Germany, who are heading west from FL, on this 3 mile crushed rock road detour. Had a hard time talking because of all the noise and traffic, but they are enjoying their ride and the US!!

Who knew Jim has a twin brother of the cloth . . .

Water . . . again. See the movie.

Punkin . . .

. . . or Pumpkin like the ACA map says. The answer: Punkin.

Oh yeah . . . everything is bigger in TX!!!

Close to the right spelling . . .

Dan hit a home run reserving these ‘Sunday Cabins’ for our stay in Cold Spring, complete with free laundry. I was in by 1:00pm and the others soon after. At 2:45pm it poured for about 30 minutes. Beat that one!!!!  Tonight we are going to have a cookout in our little slice of ‘suburbia’!!!

Big salad made by Linda . . .

. . . and what has become our signature chicken dish prepared by Chef Tom!!   FULL tummies at only $6/person!!!! No Mexican food tonight. YEAH!!!!!