Author: chas

New web address: ramblingroads.com

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I was actually kind of surprised to find that the domain name “ramblingroads.com” had not been taken already. It seems like every time I’ve ever looked for a domain name someone’s already taken it. But, not this time. Cool. So, I’ve snagged it and now this ‘blog is set up as just plain old http://ramblingroads.com.

The free WordPress subdomain URL I’ve been using for this has been quite sufficient for my purposes but I figured what the heck, why not. Fiddling with this stuff is fun and I like keeping some of my notes here so why not settle in and do things properly.

The Willow City Loop

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This past Saturday I had planned to ride the Pedal Power Wildflower ride. Turned out though that the winds on Saturday were blowing at a sustained 20-30mph most of the day. I opted out of riding in that. Getting pushed all over the road and slogging against the wind for hours isn’t generally my idea of a good time.

Sunday, on the other hand, was absolutely perfect around here. Sunny, little or no wind, and temps a comfortable 73. What a difference a day makes. A perfect time to go out and ride the route that we were supposed to have done on Saturday. The route map was posted online (see the route map) so Kem and I drove out there on Sunday morning and did the 62 miles. It’s really a beautiful route. Yeah, it’s hilly and the roads are kinda rough in places, but it just has such great views.

The whole ride had lots of great wildflowers to see, but the Willow City Loop part of it was particularly prolific this year. Most noticeable right now of course were the Bluebonnets. We encountered several other bicyclists doing the route on the same day. Mostly though, there were a LOT of Sunday drivers just out poking around the Loop. The number of cars, trucks and motorcycles easily out numbered the cyclists by a couple orders of magnitude. Thankfully, everyone was going slow.

One of my favorite rides.

TX wild flowers

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TX wild flowers

Originally uploaded by chas.

I can’t seem to get enough of the flower pictures this time of year so thought I’d post another one. Part of it of course is just the fun of messing with the camera to see what I get. Close-ups with this particular little camera I’m using don’t always pan out. Then there are ones like this one that turn out great.

The walk from the office to my place takes me through what’s essentially an unmaintained part of the office park and there’s a carpet of different flowers that have been sprouting like weeds there.

Easter Hill Country Tour ’07

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The Easter Hill Country Tour is supposed to be 3 days of wonderful cycling in the Texas Hill Country. Well, this year the weather conspired to make that only one day of wonderful cycling. Friday was fantastic, but on Saturday and Sunday, we were treated to an unusual snap of cold weather. Our blue skies were replaced by freezing rain and sleet. Not the best of conditions for cycling. Still though, we made the most of the time we were able to get out.

You can check out a Flickr slide show and a few more pictures here.

Some of the fields of Bluebonnets along Friday’s route were just amazing. The picture below was taken just south of Enchanted Rock State Park and was one of the better roadside displays.  The flowers stretched on as far as you could see.

TX Bluebonnets

2007 Rosedale Ride

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This past Saturday was the weekend for the annual Rosedale Ride in Austin. The Rosedale Ride’s been going on for years and is a benefit for the Rosedale school. You can read all about it at the link above.

It’s always been a well supported ride and well attended. The route is over the mostly flat terrain east of Austin. The difference between riding east of Austin and riding to the west where I live can be dramatically different. To the east, plains. To the west, craggy hills. As this article on the Balcones Escarpment describes, to the east: farmers, to the west: ranchers.

Saturday turned out to be a nice day for riding and the route is a pleasant ride through farmland and pastures. It always reminds me of many rides in Iowa. It looked doubtful earlier in the week whether I’d even go because it’s been pretty rainy here. But on cue, the clouds parted and a blue sky emerged just as we were about to take off on the ride. Too bad the wind was blowing at 15+mph out of the southeast though. We slogged through most of the 2nd half of the ride against it. The tailwind at the start was awesome though!

Kem and I had other things to get to on Saturday and opted for the 45 miler. The other people in the picture to the right were doing the 62 miler (100k).

This is probably the best time of year to do a ride out on the east side of Austin. Things are really green and despite the flat nature of the farmland, you get some pretty nice vistas. And as the picture below of Kem rounding  one of the country roads will attest, some nice looking fields of colorful flowers.

kem-yello-rosedale

Redbuds

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The spring weather continues here and lots of things are blooming in Austin. The picture here this time is of a Redbud tree – or so I’m told that’s what these trees are. I got out for a couple of bike rides this weekend and these trees are in bloom everwhere. I had no idea there were so many Redbud trees around here but right now they’re really showy so you can’t miss them. I pulled over at one point and snapped this shot. Not that this is any more full of flowers or beautiful than so many of them. But the foreground plants here were really nice. Looks like some kind of Agave.

Despite the blue skies in the picture, that seemed to be one of the few times the sun was out this weekend. Lots of clouds and plenty of wind – at least it seemed so on a bicycle. The blustery winds often made the cycling slow going. Still though, it was good to get out.

It’s Starting to Seem like Spring

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I snapped this picture on the walk back to the office from lunch today.

It’s probably hard to tell, but like a lot of wildflowers here in Texas at this time of year, this flower is really small. You can get some perspective by noticing the 3-leaf clover just to the upper left of the flower. The whole flower is maybe an inch across. Anyway, this is pretty representative of the types of things you’ll find sprouting around here at this time of year.

We’ve finally gotten some much needed rain around here. In fact, it’s raining here again today and everything is greening up really fast.

This little one had popped up next to the parking garage, along with several others like it. I noticed them on the walk home at lunch and brought the camera with me on the return trip. The same area has Bluebonnets growing but they’re nowhere near flowering yet. I’m bound to snap a shot of them if/when they do emerge.

Spokes ‘n Spurs Bike Ride

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Saturday was the 2007 Spokes ‘n Spurs bike ride in the Liberty Hill area. I did the 60 miler with Kem and Jim Moore. It was ideal weather for cycling. The Spokes ‘n Spurs ride is a benefit ride for the Spirit Reins ranch and was really well attended.

The route takes you from near Liberty Hill to Burnet and is quite nice. Not really all that hilly. Just rolling and pretty countryside. Excellent rest stops with great snacks. Better than average, that is. In general, it’s a well run event.

Would loved to have done a ‘recovery’ ride on Sunday but it’s been off and on rain most of the day. More on than off in the afternoon and this evening.

The ride in to work

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Not everyone would probably be all that thrilled to bike to work. But there’s a few of us that like the idea and I have a very, very short haul to go – thankfully – to my office. It’s actually easier and faster to go by bike than by car.

Here’s a shot of my Breezer that I snagged this morning. It’s just perfect for the short ride in. Classic commuter style bike. Fenders, rack, chain guard, lights, rubber pedals, big ‘ol tires, kick stand and a pretty cushy seat. Oh, and a bell. Weighs a lot but then I’m never going to be going too far on this bike anyway so it doesn’t matter. Great for a ride up to the coffee shop too.

Maybe I’ll post some more on other bikes I’ve got some time.

A ride from Bertram to Lampasas

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Turned out to be a nice day for a ride on Sunday the 25th and Kem and I both wanted to get in a nice long ride. As it turned out, so did Nat and Charisse, so they joined us. We took the drive up from Austin to Bertram and parked at one of the quicky marts to do a route from Bertram to Lampasas. Check out the details here.

The route is one of the better ones in central Texas. Rolling hills, nice long vistas of open country, cattle, goats and mesquite. The traffic on this particular occasion was light to nil. On occasion you can get a fair bit of pickup truck traffic but they’re usually very gracious about sharing the road. I did have one occasion last year when I was purposely run off the road by someone on this route but that’s the exception rather than the rule.

Keep an eye peeled for dogs.  While I’ve done this route and never encountered any dogs, twice now I’ve been chased down and had to outrun them. Such are the hazards of cycling far from the maddening crowds. But on the upside the views and fresh air usually make up for it.

The route’s 25 miles up and 25 back for a nice rolling 50. Lampasas is at the 25 mile mark of the ride and a good place to fuel up with water and other things if you didn’t bring enough along. There’s no place at all to stop otherwise. No cattle guards, but the road surface is the type of asphalt made from small stones. On a road bike sporting 100psi+ tires, plan on feeling plenty of road surface.

Cycling from Florence to Salado (Texas, that is)

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I haven’t been doing the best job of keeping this ‘blog up to date. But, I was thinking, maybe I should start keeping track of some of the bike routes I’m doing here.

Here’s a map I snagged from Gmaps Pedometer of a route I did last week. The traffic around Austin is kinda nasty so I try to find rides outside the city. This is just part of a route I did many years ago on an overnight ride to Salado from Austin.

I drove up to Florence and parked in the ‘downtown’ area of Florence. That’s where I started the ride. There’s not much to Florence hence the quoting of ‘downtown’. There’s a handy little grocery store in the main part of the downtown area though (on main street) so a good place to start from. You can pick up water or other stuff there. It’s the kind of grocery store you really only find in really small towns like Florence.

The route from Florence to Salado isn’t very heavily trafficked. Part of it (the part in Williamson county) has a shoulder. But that doesn’t last long. Most of the route is in Bell county and there is no shoulder. But there wasn’t much traffic. About 19 miles out you hit the I-35 frontage and from there can make your way over the overpass and into Salado. Salado‘s a cute little town and when the weather’s hot is a good place to pick up another bottle or two of water.

The ride back to Florence seemed more up hill than I would have expected, but part of that was due to the fact that I had a 10-15mph headwind. At least that’s what it seemed like. By the time you’ve gone over and back and meandered around Salado, you’ll have ridden 40 miles if you do this route. As a someone that used to live in Minnesota, I still marvel I can do this ride in February.

Frozen Rosemary

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Yet another picture of the massive ice-over of Austin. This one of a rosemary bush near my office. Virtually everything was covered with a half inch or more of ice. As of this morning (Thursday Jan 18th) it’s all beginning to come off. Makes a great sound as you walk around. Everything is crumbling… slowly.

Siena & Tuscan Hill Towns

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Siena

Stayed one night in Pisa, but just enough to get our bearings and then off to the south and Pienza. Stayed just outside Pienza at rural B&B. Wonderful quiet place named Le Traverse. A short hop into Pienza, a quaint town with interesting restaurants and shops. Pienza is home to Pecorino cheeses. Who knew there were so many types. From Pienza, trips over to Montalcino and Montapulciano, both homes to excellent red wines of the region. Montalcino is home to Brunello and Montapulciano is home to Vino Nobile. Now in Siena. 2nd of two rainy afternoons, but otherwise very nice. Great to just hang out at the very large Il Campo – essentially a very large open plaza area with many cafes. Currently staying just a block off the Il Campo at Palazzo Masi. A bit loud late at night though and quite a lot of traffic on very crowded streets. Pedestrians and cars & trucks share the same roadway. Watch out! Food’s been quite good. Found a great little place last night named La sosta di Violante.

Gatwick – still enroute

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Arrived safely in London at Gatwick. The flight was uneventful – which means good. No problems with security at this point but that’s because we’d read about the required bag sizes beforehand. I have a very small carry on – basically a large camera bag – and it went through without any problem. They were checking everyone’s bag very closely, and making most people put their bag in a little box to check its size.

Long layover here in Gatwick, hence the time to get on the internet here and make this post. There are plenty of shops but with hours to kill I’ve pretty much been through them all and I really don’t want to buy anything. Don’t have any place to carry it anyway. Sure hope bikes that have been checked are going to make it through ok. #

The flight to Pisa from here still doesn’t leave for a few more hours. Will probably grab another quick bite beforehand because otherwise it won’t be til tomorrow for anything to eat.

The ‘internet’ room here is located right next to the smoking section – ugh. Hard to breath around here.

Wonderfully sunny day here at Gatwick. With all the time to kill waiting for the connection, would have been nice to get out and explorer a little but dealing with security would have been a hassle so opt’ed not to do that.

Sorry, no pictures to post here yet. The only ones I think will be able to be posted are those through Kem’s phone. She’ll be able to email them directly to this blog. But before that works, someone at her office must set the ‘filter’s correctly. So, perhaps in another few days.

Not that much yet to take pictures of yet anyway, though we’ve managed to snap a few of each other as we start the journey. Will post a complete collection at the conclusion of the trip of course.

For now, it’s off to wander the airport a bit more and get in a little more reading. I have 2 books with me so plenty to keep me occupied. Though I’d rather just people watch some times.

Next stop, Pisa.