Lance + Music = Austin, Texas

*** PLUS a Bonus installment (at the bottom of today's blog) on my second Illegal Mexican Immigrant Car Wash Experience!! ***

If you're traveling from New Mexico to Mississippi -- and isn't that what we're doing boys and girls? -- it's hard to miss Texas. I'd been eagerly anticipating a couple days in Austin, partly to ride on the roads Lance Armstrong has trained on
since he was a junior triathlete champ, and partly because of Austin's reputation for great live music and for being a generally fun place to be. The hype is right!



Imagine the energy from some rousing Scotch-Irish-Texan fiddle music, with an amped-up bagpipe... an amped electric bagpipe!

The bike shop recommendation from a hiking Austonian I met on the trail way back in Grand Teton, Wyoming (remember September?), gave me a big head start in finding Lance's routes: Bicycle Sport Shop on South Lamar... what an amazing bike shop! Complete with coffee bar, smoothies, good-for-you sandwiches, and lots of cool and shiny bike candy. Thank you, Richard!

It was hot and dry and sunny and perfect, with rolling roads with short 'n' steep climbs, coarse chipseal pavement, little traffic, few intersections, and pretty sightseeing, Longhorn style!
I could have stayed here a long time, and I want to return. The little towns along the way are great, but without enough time I missed some neat LBJ and Lady Bird sightseeing, missed Lukenbach (where Waylin and Willie and the boys play!), and tons of great riding.

I think Lance ate a lot of Texas-sized pork rinds on his training rides.I did.

It was inspiring to ride on Lance's roads, and I'm pretty sure I was rolling at least as fast as Lance, and maybe a bit faster on some of the nastier climbs.

Hilly, too.

Man, remind me to avoid the rainy season
when I come back! This flood-management signage was everywhere. More of that Nevada-Utah water-repellent soil, I guess.

** Bonus Illegal Immigrant Car Wash Redux!!**

Whoa! Another by-hand car wash, featuring an army of labor, a $16 wash that includes everything except flossing between my dental implants, and you can double-up on that price to get a full wax job (the car, not your legs.) The gringo manager says the Happy Rag Whippers earn $6 - $8 per hour, there were over 20 of them on this afternoon,
and they wash 150 cars on a good day. OK, OK, I'm not positive they're illegal, but nobody else there thought they were Pledge-of-Allegiance Certified, either! Car washing is a spectator sport in Austin (Longhorns football had an away weekend and it wasn't yet quail season, when everyone goes out to blast shotgun pellets into little bitty fragile Dove Birds Of Peace) and there was a spectator reviewing grandstandso you could watch. Season tickets are available (no joke.) I spent part of my time in the grandstand, and part of it inside watching high-def tee-vee and using the free wi-fi... what a place!