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| Rainy morning |
It rained from early yesterday through this morning, a damp first for this tour.
The cooler temperatures accompanying the precipitation made it easier to negotiate the numerous short-but-steep rollers between Austin and La Grange TX, my destination 77 miles to the east.
The vistas between Bastrop and Beuscher State Parks were particularly gorgeous.
At the entrance to Bastrop, I met two young ladies—Casey and Erin—who are riding the Southern Tier together.
We’re traveling at about the same pace but they’re on a much tighter budget than I am. (I told them the RV park I planned to stay in tonight was $15. They said they were hoping to find some place to stay free, maybe behind a church or even in a cemetery.)
We helped each other lift our bikes over some barricades that were completely blocking the road in Beuscher SP.
When I arrived at the La Grange RV park—the very nice Colorado Landing—the office was already closed for the night, and the phone was on voicemail.
I left a message on the voicemail. But with no response 15 minutes later, I decided I had better get a motel room so I wouldn’t get caught after dark without a place to stay.
The Oak Motel got a decent score on hotels.com. So I booked a room and pedaled over.
When I arrived 20 minutes later, I could see that the motel had some issues. It looked more than a wee bit neglected, and as if most of the rooms were being rented by the month.
Some Hispanic males were blasting music into the dirty parking lot outside their rooms. The one white guy I saw there had lots of tattoos, including on his face.
Nobody was in the office when I first arrived. But the owner’s daughter was there after I killed a half hour eating at the Subway next door.
The owner’s daughter apologized for the loud music.
She also told me she would totally understand if I didn’t want to stay there. She said she wouldn’t charge me for canceling, which her mother confirmed over the phone.
Thankfully, the owner of the RV park called to let me know I was welcome to camp there. So that’s where I returned. And it really was a very nice, quiet place.
Before I hit the sack, I booked a room for Navasota, tomorrow’s destination. But tomorrow, I’ll be staying at the Best Western, which gets pretty good reviews.
No more sight-unseen bargains for me. Too cheap often means no sleep.
Especially on these bike tours, I need to eat good food and get plenty of good sleep to continue. Eat, sleep, ride.
DM: 77, TM: 1,748.3
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| Sill raining |
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| Texas Longhorn |
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| Erin, l, and Casey |
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| Park charged us to ride through |
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