Austin, San Antonio and onward to Del Rio

After our delicious pancake breakfast at Brad's we made our way into Austin, the capital, home of the U. of Texas, great music and Lance Armstrong. On the way in along Highway 71 near Bastrop we stopped at Wildfire Cafe to use the bathroom and maybe get some coffee but the food looked good so we stayed for lunch. My curried chicked salad and macaroni and cheese was very tasty, as was Liz's salad with Mandarin oranges and chow mein noodles. Best of all, after they found out we were cross-country cyclists, Mari and Teri, the owners, insisted on making the meal complimentary - more of the amazing Southern hospitality we've been experiencing.

In Austin, after visiting several really sleazy flophouses in search of a place to stay we met up with Nathan Calhoun and his wife Frances. I've known Nathan since at least junior high when he played in the garage band the Weathermen, which once played a party at my house. In recent years he's been playing bass with legendary punk rocker Gibby Haines and I've seen him in Chicago a couple times when Nathan's played there.

Nathan and Frances took us out for pizza on the hip, slick strip of Congress Ave. south of the Colorado River, then for karaoke at a bar called Ego's, hidden in a parking garage. Liz did "The Gambler"; I sang "I Can't Go For That." The next day we took care of a few errands. I got my long-suffering rear wheel tuned up at Lance's bike shop, Mellow Johnny's, a very fun shop geared towards commuters with all kinds of cool gear and clothing, a cafe, showers and lockers and many other services.

That afternoon we met up with my old Slink Moss bandmate Russell Mast, who now does computer work at Whole Foods' main HQ, and met his wife Emerald and their three-year-old son Jago, who accidentally knocked over the massive collection of Pez dispensers in Russ' office. We checked out the capital and the frat bars on 6th Street, which also had a large number of street kids and homeless folks hanging out.

That night I checked out Dale Watkins and his Lone Star Band at the Continental Club, a cozy club that dates back many decades. As Dale had more and more Lone Star Beers his stage patter got increasingly goofy but the band and the audience's dancing was terrific.

Following the Adventure Cycling route out of Austin, we spent the next night at a state park in the small town of Blanco. The next morning an old man told us "You Haven't seen Texas until you've seen San Antone." Inexplicably, the AC maps bypass San Antonio, so we decided to blaze our own trail there. We had a fabulous time, strolling and taking a river taxi ride along the city's River Walk which is chock full of pleasantly touristy bars and restaurants; touring the Alamo and a couple of the old Spanish missions south of downtown. I'd never been to the city before and would be glad to come back since we just scratched the surface of all the fun stuff there is to do there.

We headed west the next afternoon towards Del Rio to meet up with the Adventure Cycling route, spending the night at a nice city RV park in Castroville. It's been hot during the days but there was frost on our tent in the morning, due to the desert-like climate. Now we're in a small library in the tiny town of Sabinal, where the kindly librarian has told us all about here adventures traveling the continent via Amtrak. Tonight we plan to crash 22 miles down the road in Uvalde, reaching Del Rio tomorrow night.