October 21 - Blanco to Austin, TX

October 21 - Friday; Blanco to Austin, TX; 67 miles.
It was a nice night for camping in Blanco. The temperature only went down into the mid-50s so this was the first day in a few days that I only had a long-sleeve shirt on over my jersey and no other cold-weather clothing.  The park was peaceful and the facilities very nice. About my only complaint (and not that I’m complaining because those of you who know me know that I don’t do that) is that I’ve pitched my tent in the dirt almost every night. Not a biggie, it just gets everything dirty; tent, sleeping bag, clothes. I hope we run into some campgrounds with grass soon – which we should as we head further east into “civilization”. It was 26 miles from Blanco to Waring where we ate breakfast. The terrain was a bit hilly but no wind to speak of and, as I mentioned, the temperature was very mild. From Wimberley it was another 26 miles to Mountain City where we met up as a group to begin the ride through Austin. The ride through Austin had a lot of route changes but they were easy to spot and we made it through the downtown rush-hour traffic and to the motel without incident. We arrived as a group at about 5:00 pm, checked in, cleaned up (a shower with a real towel was REALLY nice) and went next door to a Ethiopian restaurant. My dietary needs are relatively simple and consist primarily of “junk” so I didn’t especially enjoy the Ethiopian cuisine and can now mark that off my list of things I never wanted to do in the first place but did once anyway. Only some genuine Texas BBQ is the antidote. To my pallet it pretty much tasted like “dirt” but the rest of the group enjoyed it so I guess it’s not too much to take one for the team now and then.