Today was one of those days that you would just like to forget. It started out with a massive headache and lack of sleep due to excessive exuberance in exploring Austin nightlife last night. It was complicated by the fact that I lost my credit card, I’m an idiot, and had to wait for the bar to open to see if they had it, which they did not. So I got a late start but it was only 80 miles and therefore should’ve been very doable. The morning started out nicely riding through a lot of Greenway in Austin. Then I hopped on a four-lane highway thinking I would be able to use the shoulder and have a straight shot to my destination. Unfortunately I was wrong. Shoulder abruptly ended and I was stuck riding the highway with trucks flying by 70 miles an hour. That necessitated a change of plans which required a lot of circumnavigation of farm roads and adding another 15 miles on to my ride as well as 2000 more feet of climbing. On top of that my mindset was just not right, besides being exhausted from the night before I let the navigation problem and lack of shoulder get me down which made the final 30 miles no fun. By the time I finally got to my bed and breakfast, which was very cute by the way, there was nothing open and therefore I could not get dinner. After riding all day long the last thing you want to experience is missing dinner! I survived on a few granola bars that I had in my pack and was miserable. Also after three weeks of zero flat tires of course today I get my first flat. All in all just a miserable day. I’ve talked about it before but today was another great example of how a poor mindset can significantly negatively impact the day. Normally having to change routes would’ve been fine for me and I would’ve taken it in stride and looked for the opportunity to make it interesting. But I was already tired and worried about making it to start with and adding on mileage as well as not knowing the terrain just weighed on me. I survived and was just fine, and the bed-and-breakfast was really nice. But certainly not the best day.
I should say however that my “rest” day in Austin was epic! My Culver buddy Chris picked me up from the hotel with a couple of his friends at 11 AM for some barbecue. I had the best barbecue brisket I’ve ever had in my life time, then saw tons of live music, and hung with some really cool guys, until way too late in the morning.
