Day 25: Back on the Road....Literally

Woke up this morning early got a quick breakfast and went to meet up with John at a coffee shop in Austin before starting the ride.

After a quick cup of coffee we headed out into the rainy and grey day. We got out of the city fairly easy as it was a Sunday and somewhat quieter and then began our climb through the hills just west of Austin.

The hills were pretty up and down and we had some good climbs of around 500 ft. or more, but overall they weren't too bad except for the one minor incident of the day.....

While riding down a pretty steep hill just before Pedernales Falls State Park the road banked down and to the right and as we rounded that corner right at the bottom was a cattle guard laying out across the road ( for those of you who don't know what these are they are a series of bars and gaps that go across a road to prevent livestock from crossing the road at that point). We have seen many of these throughout the trip however this was the first on such a steep grade and was also the first to be on a blind corner with no sign forewarning it's presense. As we rounded the corner we both tried to stop, however as I was jamming the breaks on the wet surface of the road my back tire began to come out from underneath me. Once it came out to about parallel to my body the tire caught and launched me forward off of the bike. I did a few rolls and came to a skidding stop on my left side.

Thankfully, I did not hit my head and came away from the fall with only minor injuries. I got a slightly bruised elbow, a few cuts on my legs and a pretty nice scrape on my upper thigh. Overall, a pretty minor fall and I am thankful that I am feeling completely fine even now.

Also, the bike made out pretty well too with only a slight bend in my back rack which won't effect my riding at all.

After a quick break and a check over of the bike and gear and myself we got back on the bikes and road the last few miles to Johnson City where we were ending for the night. (A 56-mile day).

Once in Johnson City we hit up the Lyndon Johnson Museum which was pretty cool and then got a beer at the Pecan Street Brewing Company (a Johnson City Lager... This Johnson thing is sort of a thing around here I guess....) and then headed down to a small park on the Pedernales River to set up camp and eat our hodge-podge meals for the night.

Not a bad day... Minus that one minor encounter with the road.