Austin City Limits

Manheim – Austin, TX

Man, I don’t write for one day and I feel like there is so much to say . . .

First off, there’s some culture shock in going from rural areas, and even smaller cities like College Station, to a place like Austin that, as Karen, our wonderful Warm Showers host, said, “is this one little blueberry of blue in the tomato soup of Texas.” 

But it’s not just the politics that is different. 

It’s the 37 boba shops we saw in and around the UT campus  – and what they represent: the disposable income that allows college students to pay $7 for a drink with little to no nutritional vaue. I mean it’s tea, sugar, ice, and tapioca balls, which, as I understand it, are not a real food group . . . (Just to be clear, I love boba. It’s just hard to argue that it has any intrinsic value as food . . .)

It’s the people from all over the world that you see in cities like Austin. In the day that we’ve been here we’ve met:

• Two guys with East Indian backgrounds who grew up in Dubai but who now live in Toronto and Austin, respectively. 

• Two separate families from Scotland – one here for a family reunion and one for the huge music festival this weekend. 

• A couple from France – Cyril and Rose – who are also biking to Argentina (more on them later). 

• A couple from Maryland who were here for the music festival as well. 

You just don’t experience that in the rural areas of the country. People are from where they are from, and they know and like their own areas.

Or it’s all the skyscrapers that we could see going up as we went on the bat tour on the river. You just can’t help noticing the incredible disparity in wealth and investment in the cities compared to the rural areas. The contrast is so stark. A big investment in the rural areas is a new Buc-Cees. Cool and all – but they are basically a big one-level shopping warehouse. Contrast that with the 100+ story skyscraper going up in Austin. Buc-ees – maybe a $10M investment. One skyscraper – maybe $1B? I don’t know. A LOT!

But it’s also the youth and vitality of cities like Austin. People are young. They’re fit. We actually saw people out running and biking – even in the heat of the day. We haven’t seen that since, well, probably Minneapolis. 

But it’s not all diversity and wealth and sunshine that distinguishes the rural from the urban. It’s the guy who was washing his privates at a drinking fountain by the river. You just don’t see stuff like that in the more rural areas. So I guess you have to take the good with the bad . . .

I say culture shock. But reality is that we recovered pretty quickly and easily from this “shock.” Turns out we like boba and food trucks and kibitzing with people from all over the world. There are good things about the more rural areas. But when you put a lot of people with resources together in one place there are more opportunities for really cool things. 

Right now we’re at Deep Eddy – a naturally spring-fed pool right in Austin. What a great resource. Especially for a town with such warm temperatures. 

It’s not that rural areas wouldn’t have a spring. But would they have the resources to construct a big pool so that people can dive and swim laps and generally enjoy the fresh water? Probably not. And then you would just have a spring coming out of the ground with maybe 6” of water pouring over some stones before going into the river. Cool, but not really the same. 

But I realize I’ve been speaking in general terms. Let me be more specific. Austin itself is not just a generic city. It has the State Capital – which, by the way, is the biggest and nicest state capital building that I’ve ever seen. It has the University of Texas – which appears to be a dynamic institution with a ton of vitality. It has the biggest population of urban bats in the world – which sounds weird – but is actually a super interesting thing. It has the LBJ Presidential Library – which was super well-done and informative (we are experts now, don’t you know . . .). It has bike paths and parks that take advantage of the best parts of the City (things like the river and the fresh water springs) for everyone to enjoy. It has an amazing music scene; I can hear the bands from the Austin City Limits festival as I sit here typing. 

In short, we are super impressed with Austin. Like Chicago and Toronto – our last two big cycling destinations – it just seems to be the type of place that young, dynamic people would want to be in. And isn’t that essentially what all cities aspire to? Good job Austin! 

Biking? Oh yeah. We are still on a bike trip I guess . . . 

We arrived in Austin two days ago. The trip into Austin was good – but like all of the days lately – it was HOT! We decided it would be a good idea to bike a little longer in order to stop at Barton Springs – another, bigger, and more famous, natural springs pool – before heading to McKinney State Park to camp afterwards. 

Big mistake. Boys and girls, can you say: bit off more than we could chew . . .

Barton was fun. Although – small Austin complaint – Austin lifeguards are apparently trained in the same basic rules of lifeguarding as the lifeguards in Minneapolis: that is – Thou shall not allow fun of any kind. 

After biking all day I was, of course, hungry. So I had purchased a few tacos at a taco truck on the way to the Springs. When we arrived we paid our $5 to go in and then headed into the pool area. Diana went immediately into the water – she didn’t even have to worry about alligators or vicious currents or anything . . .

Me? I sat down to eat my tacos. Mmm. Getting-more-authentic-all-the-time tacos. Excellent. Just the right spices. Exactly what I need for my hunger.

But before I had swallowed my first bite I hear a voice behind me: “I see you are chewing. There is no food allowed in this habitat.”

”This habitat? What?!? You mean, this dirt hill I’m sitting on above the concrete pool?”

Of course I don’t say anything. My mouth is too full of the food I am illegally chewing.

The voice continues:

”Assuming you have food, you will need to either throw it away or bring it outside the pool area.”

The Fun Police – that is, the lifeguards –  have spoken . . .

I wolfed down the rest of the tacos and went for a cool dip in the water. Nice.

But now we’re done swimming, it’s still 95 degrees with dagger-like sunshine beating down upon us and we still need to bike ten miles more through the urban jungle to reach our campsite at McKinney Falls. It turns out to be all uphill to get there. And we have to stop by the grocery store as we go . . .

We end up arriving at the campsite with about 20 minutes to go before dark – tired, hot, and dispirited by the uphill ride in the sun at the end of the day . . .

We manage to put up the tent, collect firewood, cook dinner, and eat without an argument. Which is not that big of a deal for Diana. But pretty impressive for me. Hangry, tired, and stressed is not a good combination for me . . . as anyone who knows me well should well know . . . 

So I’m proud of myself for that. But not so proud of our decision making for the day. Turns out they don’t even have showers at the campsite. I take a cowboy shower with my water botttle – but Diana has kind of a miserable night – salty and feeling bug-bit all night. And the worst part is that the next morning we discover that there is really nice natural spring swimming at the State Park as well. We could have just come here directly – and enjoyed the afternoon without the stress . . . 

But then, Diana and I are not known to be particularly good at knowing when to take it easy . . .

LBJ Library. Great place. Super informative. Sobering look at the Vietnam war era. I’m always struck by how little my generation knows about the ’60’s. I think it was still too painful for our teachers so they just kind of skipped it . . . LBJ is such a tragic figure. Did so much good with things like the Civil Rights Act, but ultimately stepped down as a pretty unpopular figure . . .

Cyril and Rosa. 

Except for our short stretch on the Katy Trail we have not seen a single person bike touring on this trip – until yesterday. Cyril and Rosa are from France and have apparently traveled around the world on their bikes twice already – including two times through Mexico. They had lots to say, and they promise that the Mexican people will be wonderful. 

They make Diana and I look like complete glampers. They don’t stay in campgrounds. They just set up camp wherever they find a good spot along the roads. They are clearly not in a hurry. They have ALL their stuff and, I think, because of that, just move along at a leisurely pace. Probably reflects a better sense of enjoying the journey. Diana and I are too much the impatient Americans to be quite that relaxed. 

They headed out toward Laredo and Monterrey. But my guess is that we’ll see them again along the way. I hope so. Fun to know some people we’ll encounter south of the border. 

Lots more to say about our wonderful day with Karen and Dave – our Warm Showers hosts and definitely our favorite people in Austin. No. Our favorite people in Texas. And considering there are 30M people in Texas that is saying a lot. 

But those stories will have to wait for another day. Heading to San Antonio tomorrow morning . . .