I’ve been able to get out to ride the last three days. It’s felt great to get some exercise and get out in the sun. The previous couple days it was reasonably warm, but windy. Today though, much colder. Lower 30’s this morning so I waited till afternoon to get in another ride today. We topped out around 50. Cold enough I’m going to put on all the gear to keep warm. Here I am with scull cap over the ears, fleece jersey and neck gaiter.
On the eve of a lunar eclipse, it seemed appropriate to snag a photo of the moon rising over the Austin skyline tonight. I snapped this from the pedestrian bridge over Town Lake. (Yes, I know it’s now supposed to be called Lady Bird Lake now but I still think of it as Town Lake.) It looks like we might be in for a good eclipse viewing – if I can stay up or get up at that hour. If it were just at 3am instead… I seem to get up at 3 regardless.
Seemed like a good day for a hike on the trail nearby my place today. I decided to turn on Runkeeper at the point I turned around to head back to see how far I’d gone. You can see the full results here. Just shy of 4 miles total out and back. Runkeeper does a nice job of mapping the route as well showing elevation and time. You can also choose to view the map with satellite imagery turned on. I snagged a screen grab of it to post here. As you can see, the trail runs along the western edge of the development. Much of the green area on the left is preserve so lets hope it stays that way.
If there’s one season I miss living here in Austin, it’s Fall. We do see some fall color, but you have to go looking for it and it doesn’t usually last long. I took these pictures just before Thanksgiving out on a trail near my place. Unlike yesterday, when we were pushing 80 degrees, today it feels like Fall again so it seemed appropriate to finally get around to posting these. It’s become something of an annual thing to post similar finds.
Our get-away in August included a day of cycling in Marin and Sonoma counties on the Holstein 100. Kem found this ride online and it looked like it might be perfect for us to do while we were out in the Sonoma area tasting wines and otherwise just hanging out and enjoying the scenery.
With the ride being in its 17th year, we expected a fairly well organized and planned event. Generally speaking, that was true, but I was surprised to find minor details overlooked. The ride started in Tomales at the local high school and looked to be pretty well attended. The parking lot was jammed with cars. Tomales is small and the high school locker room has only two stalls. To be specific: rent a few more portable toilets next time – especially for the ride start/end. I think I waited 20 min or more just to use the toilet at the start of the ride. It was never quite clear whether there was or wasn’t going to be a mass start. We just took off ’cause it looked like others were already going.
Having just flown in from Texas and our typical hot August weather, it was a bit of a jolt to the system to start the morning off in the low 50’s with a steady drizzle. Ugh! I was freezing. Thankfully we’d planned ahead enough that we had jackets, but neither of us had packed anything for our legs. The day before though, we figured that might be a problem and we’d stopped in at Mike’s Bikes and I got some leg warmers. I was sure glad I had!
Conditions were not ideal for riding that morning – it was foggy and there was a steady drizzle going – but we came to ride and we were not disappointed with what we found. The route was interesting and the terrain varied. We started with the idea that we’d do the 100K ride. On that route we had a couple of really good climbs. The 2nd of those climbs was referred to by other riders as “the wall” but we found it wasn’t as hard as the 1st big climb of the morning.
The rest stops were great. There were plenty of interesting food choices and the folks tending the rest stops were nice and fun to talk to. The first one we pulled into was especially fun. They had set up wooden cutout cows and we took some pictures next to them. (See the one in this post.) They also had a big ‘hat with horns’ you could put on that was just perfect for a photo op. Sorry, no links to that one. 😉
Around 40 miles in though, we ran into trouble. Kem rounded a corner and caught the lip of the road and fell! She was really hurting and EMS came and carted her off to Petaluma. There she got some xrays and thankfully we concluded there was nothing broken or serious enough that it was going to require a further stay at the hospital. Just plenty of shoulder and thumb pain and a pretty good knock on the head. The EMS guys from Tomales were a great help and so were the other random riders that stopped to help and make the call to EMS. The crazy guy in the pickup that came by before EMS though and essentially told us all to “go to hell” was more than a little disconcerting. A big thanks to the guy from the coast guard whose name I never got that carted both Kem’s and my bike and me back to Tomales. That guy was a saint and more than did his good deed for the day.
All in all, despite the trouble we had, I liked the ride and route and would certainly recommend it. Maybe we’ll get a chance to ride it again some time but that’s a pretty big maybe, considering the logistics involved.
Though I’ve previously posted about our stay in Guerneville, I’m finally getting around to posting a few more notes about the trip I’m calling the “Great Get-Away” for 2010. The trip started with Kem and I heading to the Sonoma area with friends Jim and ML and hanging out for a long weekend in the hills above the Russian River. From that home base, we ranged down to Tomales for the Holestein 100 bike tour and up to Healdsburg and the Santa Rosa area for wine.
The house we rented was pretty nice. In addition to the view we couldn’t get enough of, you can see a shot of the back side and patio/pool in the post here. If you look close you’re see Kem lounging by the pool.
The picture of the wine was from Oakville grocery in Healdsburg. We stopped in there for a midday lunch. They make great sandwiches there. It’s right on the square in Healdsburg. It was well over 90 degrees that day and the rose wine hit the spot.
The other picture is another of the hills above the Russian River in Guerneville. We were blessed with some really great weather while we were there – as well as a full moon. I took this picture one evening from the deck of the house we rented.
Meanwhile, there was plenty of wine tasting nearby. I didn’t take the best notes in the world, but I still formed a few opinions based on the places we visited. You’ll find a few such thoughts below:
| Porter Creek |  Porter Creek was the first place we visited for no other reason than it was one of the first up Westside road that we happened upon. That and it looked so quaint. It’s a very small place. There’s a cute little house surrounded by flowers and around the side is a very small tasting room. Maybe because it was the first we tasted I wasn’t blown away by the wines, but I do remember the Zin being excellent. |
| Thomas George |  A little bit further up Westside Rd we found Thomas George. This winery was a fair bit more upscale than the much smaller Porter Creek. Tasting are in a big wine cave. I was a big fan of their Viognier and we returned here on the way back to the house to pick one up. |
| Hop Kiln | Hop Kiln was interesting not just for the old building they do the tastings, but also for all the other things you could taste in addition to the wine. There were mustards, oils and vinegars and someone was making and handing out samples of a chicken salad dish that was great. Unfortunately, I don’t remember anything remarkable about the wines. Maybe it’s because I was too busy tasting everything else. |
| Alderbrook | Alderbrook had some tasty Zins. |
| Harvest Moon |  Harvest Moon had some of my favs of the trip. We ended up getting the Russian River Zin and a Cabernet that we later enjoyed at the rental house. |
| Hook & Ladder | These wines are from the folks that used to make wines under the De Loach label. Small, family run, the name comes from the fact Cecil used to be a San Francisco firefighter in 1970. Wines were good and prices much better than most we tried in the area. |
| Ledson | Ledson is what I call a Disneyland winery. It’s very showy and there’s something artificially showy about it. Tastings (and clearly other events) are done in the Ledson castle. Tastings are correspondingly expensive. $15 for 6 wines, $20 for 9 wines. We opted to pass on the tasting. They do, however, have a great market right in the castle and they make some great sandwiches. We had a picnic under the trees on the park-like grounds. Don’t bring your own picnic basket of food though, you can only eat food there that you buy there. If you bring your own food or wine the very visible security staff is liable to throw you off the property. |
| Matanzas Creek | Matanzas Creek was probably my favorite of the bunch we tried. In some ways this place is probably just as upscale as Ledson but they’ve really done a nice job with the property. The lavendar fields that surround the place are not just for show. They actually harvest the stuff. It smelled great as we wandered around their garden. All the wines I tried were great. Not to be overlooked at this place was the fact that the guy helping us with tastings was very knowledable and friendly. I even remember his name: Ira. He really knew their wines and the area. In fact, I googled for Ira at Matanzas Creek and sure enough, I’m not the first person to notice how helpful Ira was. Don’t miss Matanzas Creek. |
We’ve spent a fun long weekend in the Guerneville area. I took a number of interesting photos along the way but we spent so much time enjoying this view from the deck/windows of the home we’ve been staying in that it seemed the most appropriate to post. I took this one only minutes ago while enjoying my morning coffee. It’s perfectly still this morning without a cloud in the sky and if you look close you’ll see the trees reflected in the Russian River far below.
The last couple of days have seen clear mornings like this although the first couple mornings were socked in with fog as thick as pea soup. Afternoons and evening have be sunny and clear and we were treated to a full moon last night that we watched rise above the trees. I’ll be sure to include a shot of that in a later post.
I was back in eastern Iowa with my bike recently. On the day before dad’s surgery, we made the best of the nice weather and thought a picnic was in order. Mom and dad drove over to Bellevue to the park next to the river, while I bicycled over to meet them. One of my favorite routes in all of eastern Iowa is the one from Maquoketa to Bellevue through Andrew and Springbrook. It’s a 46 mile loop or somewhere around that.
This part of Iowa is very rolling. There are some short but steep climbs on this route but it makes for some very pretty country. Bluffs border the road at some points. Then you descend into valleys where creeks run alongside the road. Lots of fields, farms and livestock. Redwing Blackbirds dogged me pretty much all the way over and all the way back. I’d forgotten how aggressive they can be. Perhaps I should say protective. As they swooped in, I was glad I was wearing a helmet. The blackbirds were joined by the much more pleasant sounding Meadow Larks and Cardinals. Familiar sounds to go along with the familiar sights.
The photo below was just one I snapped with the iphone camera on the way back to Andrew from Springbrook.
The Easter weekend’s coming to a close and before it does I thought I’d share a bit of the colorful wildflowers we’re getting at this time of year. We’ve got a bumper crop of wildflowers this year. So much better than last year when we were deep in the midst of a drought. All kinds have started to bloom but the Bluebonnets are particularly plentiful this year and always a favorite. About the only time of the year you’ll see people stopped by the side of the roads – middle of nowhere – taking pictures of their kids in some random ditch that’s suddenly become a garden.
If I get a chance I’ll look for some Indian Paintbrush and some others and get a photo or two of them too. I snagged this shot on a school yard in Williamson Cty. The place was loaded with ’em.
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The Rosedale Ride was this morning. Great weather for it, though it was a little more challenging than anticipated. Met up with Jim and his buddy Ken Herman for the ride. While I think we’d all thought maybe we’d be doing the 42 miler when we started, the ridin’ was easy for the first 25 or so and at the fork in the road we veered onto the 62 miler. Never mind we’d been enjoying a tail wind for that first 25’ish miles.
While most folks were enjoying a nice breezy spring day, temps in the 70’s on their way to 80’s, out there east of Austin on the barren plains (barren at this time of year anyway) we were thinking it felt a lot more like “wind”. What had been effortless became real work. None of us had ridden much more than 40 miles in recent memory so the extra 20+ against the wind felt a little tough. Thank God for the rest stops. I piled in the food to stoke the fire.
Ride participation seemed a little lower this year than other Rosedale Rides I’ve been to. Could have been due to other events. As we rode out north of town we went by the Champion’s Triathalon event at Lake Pflugerville. Lots of bikes/people out there. And today was the LBJ 100 too. So many rides and choices at this time of year.
Finished up the ride pretty much spent, cramping and dreaming of what I’d have for dinner. 😉 But no doubt, I’ll be back for more another year.
Finally a decent weekend for cycling in the Austin area. Not just decent, pretty much ideal. You know, a mid 70’s, cloudless, light breeze kind of day. Spring has arrived on cue. Trees and bushes have all decided now’s the time to bloom. And the Live Oaks are doing their best imitation of what passes for fall color – in the spring. Now’s when they finally get around to dropping their leaves and sprouting new ones. All in a few short weeks. This year they’ve developed a kind of brownish yellow that’s seems just a bit brighter than usual.
Couldn’t presuade anyone to go out to Liberty Hill but that’s where I headed. Got a late start because of the time change but still on the ride by about noon. For a change of pace I did a bit different route over otherwise pretty familiar roads. Here’s the route map. About 37 miles.
The route included one of my favorite stretches of road out in that neck of the woods, and that’s cty road 336 between Oatmeal and Liberty Hill. It’s not a long stretch, but it rarely has traffic and runs along a creek that’s just pleasant to look at. The picture below was taken along this route. You can see the creek in the background. I couldn’t honestly tell you what the pink flowered bush is. There seemed to be one of these around every bend today. I don’t remember these in other years. Maybe we’re in for a good display of wildflowers this year. All the creeks are flowing so we’ve definitely had enough moisture this winter. No doubt I’ll post a picture here when they arrive.
We might be in the bleak mid winter, but the frigid temps and days of rain yielded to sunshine and balmy breezes out of the south this weekend. At least temporarily. Though you had to look hard for it, there were signs of life amongst the browness. I took a long walk on Saturday down to the Panther Hollow Creek trail a couple miles from home. The rains had a steady stream flowing along the trail. Along the way back I spotted this tiny little flower trying to brighten up an otherwise barren looking spot. I don’t know what it is, but the flower was not a whole lot bigger than your thumbnail.
Just to give some perspective on the photo in my last post, I took this photo while on a walk yesterday. It’s maybe a couple hundred yards from my front door. It’s a shot looking back downtown from the hills west of Austin. The camera’s zoomed a little but I also cropped it so there’s some ‘optical zoom’ going on here. It’s easily 10 miles plus from this vantage point to downtown and with this lens and zoom there’s definitely some loss of clarity. Still, it’s not a bad view. The tallest of the buildings in the picture is the Austonian, which I also pointed out in the previous post.
And again for perspective, the left most tall building in the picture is the University of Texas Tower.
With the new year comes the thought I should consider posting here more often. I haven’t had that much occasion to be on the ‘road’ lately though so not as many interesting things – at least from my point of view – to post about. But it occurs to me that with my office move to downtown Austin, perhaps I could post a few notes about my downtown ramblings. One of the nice thing about the move to downtown has been the opportunity to take longer walks at lunch. While the old office location was near the Barton Creek greenbelt and a good place to hike, I couldn’t grab lunch along the way like I can now. Consequently I’m taking to the streets more when I can find the time. And lately, toting the camera along too.
So I took this photo looking back onto downtown from the pedestrian and bicycle bridge over Town Lake. This is about a block or so from the office. There’s otherwise no good way to walk or bike over Town Lake in this section of town so the pedestrian bridge is a real blessing. Walking the regular Lamar street bridge where the cars/trucks are is practically a suicide mission. I’ve walked it and you realize once you get out there on the narrow bridge sidewalk that you’ve got cars whizzing by 1 foot to your left and a long drop to the river 1 foot on your right. Yikes.
Anyway, in the picture you’ll see the old art deco Seaholm power plant right smack in the middle (retired). Behind it is the 44 story 360 tower. Far off to the right is the incomplete Austonian. I’m not sure what the other one with the crane is. These are only a couple of many high rise condos that have sprung up in recent years. You’d never know there was a recession going on judging by the number of cranes and buildings still going up. Then again, many of these got started before things began to tank.
Anyway, the choices are many and varied as I wander among the downtown hipsters so my personal ‘blog project in the near term is to occasionally try to take note of it.
I’d like to say I did something special to get my Christmas cactus to bloom so full this year but I didn’t. In fact I only occasionally remembered to water it. But I started noticing buds on it around Thanksgiving and it’s bloomed nicely in the last couple weeks. I don’t remember it blooming at all last year.
Rambling Roads 