January 23, 2007
I woke up this morning to the sound of a park ranger’s truck. They left a note on the picnic table telling me that I needed to pay for camping on my way out. Since I saw signs that indicated the fee was $4 per person, I thought I’d be honest. So I stopped at the office and paid, only to find out it’s $12 per campsite and $4 per person. What highway robbery.
The 32 mile ride to Austin was painful. I thought I would never make it. But I did.
I found my way to the downtown area, picked out a place for lunch, and took a rest. A girl came in not long after me, and I asked her for some advice on what to do in Austin. She sat down, introduced herself as Courtney, and we had an hour-long talk about Austin, biking, art, music, and other things. She said that later in the afternoon her roommate would be working at an art gallery down the street and that he might have some more advice. So I went there later too, where I met him and his friend Robin. Robin suggested that I eat at a local vegan restaurant that has an all-you-can-eat for $12 every night. I think that’s a good plan for tomorrow.
The library here has free internet. I reserved one of the 15-minute terminals and used it to buy a ticket on Southwest airlines. Austin to Portland, $100 total. Tomorrow I can disassemble my bike, box it up, and send it to Portland through UPS. This is the end of the road for the bike trip. I never thought I’d make it this far and I figure I should quit now while I still have good memories of the trip. Plus I can start my job in Portland earlier and make more money. Maybe I’ll upgrade to a motorcycle.
January 22, 2007
Riding from the middle of nothing to the middle of nowhere near Austin can be described in one word: hills.
Combined with a constant 20 mph headwind, today was my least enjoyable day so far. I averaged maybe 8 mph, almost half my normal pace. As the storm front moved in, so too did the cold damp wetness. I felt like giving up 1,000 times today. But I pushed on.
Knowing that I couldn’t make it all the way to Austin, I decided to stop at Bastrop State Park, about 30 miles out. Darkness was moving in so I quickly set up my tent, gathered what clean clothes I could find, and took a long hot shower.
Though I wasn’t hungry, I crammed down a peanut butter sandwich and two cans of tuna. I know I needed it. Being on the road is a strange thing… you don’t really get hungry… at least, not like the normal growling stomach type. But you know you need to eat. Yet you don’t really get full. It’s more of a love/hate relationship with food right now. Hard to explain.
January 21, 2007
Just like Madonna’s body has probably been telling her to lay off the damn yoga, my body is telling me that Austin may be the end of the road. I’ve pushed myself so far for so long that, this time, I think I’ll listen.
Tonight I camped under an oak tree in the middle of a field. The sky was clear, the moon only a sliver. One by one I watched the stars come out until, looking up through the screen in my tent, I saw Orion staring down at me. At that, I went to sleep.
January 20, 2007
Gerri made a delicious blueberry smoothie this morning. She has a blender with 3 horsepower. You could probably turn it upside down and use it to mow the lawn.
After breakfast, we hit the town. She took me to a couple cool coffee shops and showed me a really nice section of Houston. We went to one place that was part local farmer’s market, part art gallery, and part coffee shop to sit around and talk. As lunch time rolled around we decided to get pizza for lunch. I told Gerri to order for us, so she got a salad with roasted walnut, sun-dried tomatoes, and gorgonzola cheese to start. We finished with a garlic, tomato, and spinach pizza. It was my favorite meal of the entire trip so far.
At 2 pm we went back to her place. She took a nap while I cleaned my bike and installed a few new parts — it was filthy from the previous two days’ riding in bad weather. When I finished, it sparkled.
For dinner we had planned to go to her favorite Indian restaurant, only to find that it was (permanently) closed. So she suggested that we go to an Ethiopian place instead. On the way to the restaurant she played a Talk Talk album from 1991 that was nothing like their 80’s synthpop. Incredible. Her boyfriend showed up a few minutes later… she jokes that he’s on Indian Standard Time, which means he’s always running late.
Dharm suggested that we order everything group-style so the food comes on one big platter. So we did. I forget what we ordered, but it was similar to Indian food only not as spicy. On the side was a bread-like substance called Injer, which is made from the Keff grain. You break off little pieces and use it to scoop up the food. Incredibly, I got full and couldn’t eat anymore, so we made Dharm finish the plate.
I was too tired (and full) after dinner to go out and do anything, so we decided to rent a movie. Gerri wanted us to see “Whale Rider”. And I’m glad we did. It was fantastic! Definitely recommended for anyone… just make sure you have a box of kleenex handy.
January 19, 2007
Anya and I ate breakfast at the Early Bird Cafe. We couldn’t locate it at first, but a woman at a gas station knew where it was and told us to follow her (truck). At the cafe, I ordered an omelet with everything, and Anya got the veggie version of the same. We inhaled several cups of coffee too.
Ten miles down the road, Anya had some serious knee pain and told me to go on without her; she could hitch a ride to Houston. So I did. Getting to Houston took forever. It was at least 85 miles to downtown (I hit 1,000 miles there) and another 20 or so to the west side, where I was staying. 110 miles from Beaumont, and at 8:30 pm I finally got to Gerri’s house.
She welcomed me inside, showed me where I could put my things, introduced me to her cats, and sent me off to the shower. Once I was clean and presentable, we went out to eat Thai food. Both of us ended up ordering the chu-chee curry, but I got it with shrimp and she had tofu. Yum!
Gerri is so amazing. She’s an internet tech guru by day, musician by night, and a weekend adventurer. Loves to read, has an impressive music collection, owns PSB speakers, and her computer is a Powerbook. Like peas and carrots, her boyfriend Dharm is an electrical and computer engineer who designed the new 1 pixel camera sensor. He’s also completely hilarious. Needless to say, we all got along quite well.
