A visit to Texas

It's been a while since my last blog update, but I have continued to zoom around, visiting interesting places and seeing interesting things.

Of all the states in the continental USA, Texas was the western-most state that I had not visited at the beginning of March (with the exception of changing planes in Dallas while flying to North Carolina in 2009).  Now, though, that (dubious) honor falls to Oklahoma.  On Wednesday the 2nd, I packed up the car, opened up my US atlas to page 112, and plotted a course to San Antonio, Texas.

On Wednesday evening, I stopped in Colorado Springs, spent the night, and then did a tandem training ride with Karissa in the morning.  After departing Colorado Springs, I aimed south and followed I-25 to northern New Mexico and then caught an eastbound tailwind that sent me like a tumbleweed on a mission into the Texas panhandle.  Cell phone reception went away and the ratio of pick-up trucks to compact passenger vehicles grew uncomfortably large.  I stopped for dinner in Amarillo, and then continued on and spent Thursday night in Lubbock.

Several hours of driving on Friday brought me to San Antonio, where I battled traffic and found my way to my aunt and uncle's house.  My visit can be described nicely with a handful of pictures:

My aunt and uncle's friend Jim took me for a ~60 mile tour of the Texas Hill Country.  It was a fun ride with great conditions, and I found two left gloves during the ride.

Several times we visited the San Antonio Riverwalk, which was constructed in the 1940's and has recently been expanded.  This picture was taken on a section of the Riverwalk north of downtown between the San Antonio Museum of Art and the Culinary Institute of America.

One day, we went out to climb Enchanted Rock but were thwarted by a traffic jam at the park entrance, so we visited the Trois Estate (very, very cool!) instead, and then made a scenic detour through Luckenbach (population: 3).  Remember, "Everybody's somebody in Luckenbach!"

On the way back to San Antonio, we visited Rudy's BBQ, a fine establishment that is pioneering extreme new levels of commercial modesty.  If you look closely at their sign, it highlights the worst BBQ in Texas.  Luckily, their efforts in taking modesty to this new extreme has not taken away from them making excellent BBQ.  Worst in TX?  My shoe!

I found it amusing the only green, or any non-gray/brown color in this picture is on the mile-marker and county-line signs.  That tickles me more than a finger to the ribs ever could.

Since returning to Colorado, I watched some bike racing at the CU Research Park, rode up to Peak to Peak Highway, ate a chocolate bunny, found some more road SWAG, prototyped a communication link between my PC and a microprocessor via a Bluetooth wireless link, and headed to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs for a tandem training camp.

More updates will be forthcoming.  Until next time, here is a picture of a foil-clad chocolate bunny that no longer exists in its photographed form:

Karissa brought me a gold-wrapped chocolate bunny from paracycling world championships in Italy, which was awesome.  Next time, however, she will bring back a gold medal (chocolate bunny optional).