Saturday, March 21, 2009

Spokes and Spurs Ride

They postponed the Spokes and Spurs ride last weekend since the weather was awful, cold, rainy, and windy. It was beautiful today. I would say this was my first "long" (43 miles) road ride since Longhorn. This ride was also really hilly.
Hills just before the last rest stop
I dropped Jeff off at the shop on my way to the ride, he and Nic were doing bike repairs at the last rest stop. I got out to the Spirit Reins Ranch and got registered with no problem, I ran into Coach Gina and talked with her for a few minutes. Just before we started I also ran into Maggie. Jeff put a different stem on my bike last night, so I spent the first few miles just getting used to the slightly different way my bike was handling (and climbing hills). The signs on this ride were great, there was never any question about exactly where to go. There were rest stops about every 10 miles and I had decided that I would stop at all of them since this was my first long ride and I didn't need to try to go fast or anything.
The first rest stop had Girl Scout cookies- yum! The second had homemade oatmeal cookies- yum again! The hills were tough but not too bad. Some of the downhills were really steep, I'm probably the only person in the world who hates going downhill fast. It freaks me out. One was so steep that I actually got off and walked down it. The last rest stop was sponsored by Performance Bike and Team Roadkill. When I got there I got to see Jeff, and I hung out for a few minutes. For the last few miles the wind picked up and I had a headwind back to the ranch. I didn't even mind, it was such a beautiful day and at that point I only had a few more miles to ride anyway.

They had a transition area and a 5k run course set up, so I decided I would do a very short run, about 15 minutes. I saw Maggie finishing her ride while I was running.

After the ride they had fajitas for lunch, a live band, and pony rides. This was great ride, I couldn't believe how well organized it was and it was a beautiful day.

After the ride, Jeff and I went out to Flat Creek Estate Winery to pick up our wine club case of wine. We had lunch on their patio. It was the perfect day to be outside.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Things we Love about Austin

Wow, I haven't posted anything here in over a month! I guess that means it's been a quiet month. For the most part it has, although my parents visited at the end of February. My dad took some great pictures of wildflowers and the UT campus, we had a lot of fun in Austin, but we didn't take any pictures of Austin fun that weekend. My parents loved Homeslice Pizza and the Zilker Botanical Garden.

Since we have lived in Austin for over 6 months now, I thought I'd start a list of things we love about Austin.

Barton Springs Pool
TriZones
Town Lake Trail
Jeff and I can both bike ride to work
First Thursday
Kayaking on Town Lake
Curbside recycling
There are tons of beautiful parks all over Austin
Festivals (Austin has a festival for almost everything)
You can get almost anywhere in Austin in about 15 minutes (except during rush hour)
Tons of great places to eat
Zilker Botanical Garden
Museums on campus
Tons of cool, unique local businesses
Walnut Creek Park
St. Edward's Park