Day 13. Left Austin. On to The Hill Country.

Left Austin in the rain and into 15-20 or so mph headwind. We changed the route and headed towards Dipping Springs with Bulverde, TX as our goal. We were offered a place to stay there with Liz and Dave. Liz grew up in the same small town, Abbotsford, WI, that Lynn grew up in and that we all graduated from. Liz’s older brother Joe was a big part of TOT 1.0 from Wisconsin to Louisiana.

I wasn’t able to take any pictures beyond just a couple as we left Austin. It rained pretty much all day and I was soaking wet and tried to keep my phone dry as much as possible. This caused me to miss one turn as I had to try to memorize my turns as best I could.

Lynn found a great-tasting sausage kolache for lunch and a huge chocolate chip cookie/brownie for an afternoon snack. Beyond that, I had some trail mix and a few honey stinger chews. I felt I didn’t dare stop more than a few minutes at a time for fear of stiffening up. I was able to stay warm enough with just a jersey on but was wet all day, around 9 hours of biking.

We hit the famous “hill country” and this with the continuous wind, near-constant rain, and rather heavy traffic kept me busy.

Photo credit: Michael Ortiz

75 miles, probably the most challenging day so far, even counting the 94-mile day.

I learned via Facebook that Ashley, the young lady we met at the Odessa event on March 7th, is in San Antonio right now receiving a deceased donor kidney and pancreas. We’ll try to see her and her family while we’re in San Antonio.

The Blue Bonnets are in full force.

Photo credit: Michael Ortiz

Hit some muddy singletrack leaving Austin.

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