Day 20: 20 mi E of Austin to Navasota, TX

Distance: 101.7 mi (163.7 km)
Cumulative Distance: 1,743 (2,805 km)
Average Speed: 15.3 mph (24.6 kph)
Climb: 5,548 ft (1,691 m)
Cumulative Climb: 94,773 ft (28,887 m)
Flats: 0
Cumulative Flats: 11

The weather gods continue to be kind to us. The threat of rain today never materialized and a high pressure system looks like it will keep it West of us for several more days. A foggy start soon turned sunny and beautiful with southeast winds being only an occasional problem. It was our last day in the Texas hill country and we can look forward to some flatland riding for quite a few days to come. We won’t miss the hills, but the countryside today was beautiful. Large lush “gentleman” ranches lining the roads with spectacular vistas and with the fields swathed in beautiful blue bonnets and Indian paint brush flowers. Beautiful horses, cattle, and Texas Longhorn steers were inside the manicured fences. It was a wonderful vision of Texas. It almost let us forget another dose we got today of terrible Texas road conditions.

We had a picnic lunch in Round Top in a park with a distinctive German flair as the photo shows.

Along the way we encountered a Frenchman, Etienne, who had biked from Cancun and was now headed along our route to the Mississippi where he was planning on heading North along the river, then East to Richmond, VA and then North to NYC. A six month journey by himself carrying all his gear with him. He mentioned that he had run across many bikers doing the Alaska to Patagonia ride - these people amaze me!

Finally of note to all you “Bubba” people, today we passed Bubba’s group of fourteen riders who had left San Diego on March 14th, ten days ahead of us.

Fur mich war es schon, einige deutsche Worte zu sehen, wie man auf dem Photo sieht. Unser Freund Etienne der von Cancun kam und noch weiss Gott wohin wollte, kann einen nur zum Staunen bringen.

Keith kummert sich um unsere Unterkunft jeden Abend und das ist auch kein einfacher Job. Oft gibt es in diesen kleinen Nestern nur 1 oder 2 Motels und wenn man anruft , meldet sich niemand. Aber Kieth hat es bis jetzt immer geschafft, uns ein Bett zu besorgen. Vielen Dank Keith.