Rental bike at THE Whole Foods. They told me I was renting a hybrid.
I now hate Texas more than ever.
Do not get me wrong, I was not letting past experience be a predictor for future performance. All of my past trips to Texas have been for business and have been absolutely miserable through a combination of everything that can go wrong will and abysmal weather. I mean really- how often does Dallas ice over in the winter? Well, the only answer I have is every time I am there. I never messed with Texas but it always messed with me. Fort Worth and Houston never felt a need to correct the impressions of Texas that Dallas had left me with.
But Austin… Austin would be different. I was going by choice. It was going to be a nice 3.5 day long weekend/ mini-vacation. The first thing I did after booking my plane ticket was rent a bike. When I checked the weather a week out it was all glorious sun and temperatures in the 70s. Not only would I finish my Utilitaire, I would do every control point again. In one day.
It would turn out mistake one of the trip was rental bike selection. There is a little conference in Austin in March (my boyfriend was going for work hence my decision to go to Austin to tag along) and I was having a hard time getting in touch with some other places that rented bikes so I went with one of those places that just exists to rent bikes to tourists. The bikes were not sized well, were poorly maintained, and were 3 speed city cruisers when I had been charged for hybrids. They were not ideal for an 8 mile ride from hotel to downtown but I figured still better than nothing when I saw them (my ass disagrees, still).
The second mistake I made was not keeping up on the weather. My boyfriend checked two days out only to find such a drastically different forecast I was convinced he was lying to me just to play a trick on me. According to a friend of mine that lives there, the temperature dropped close to 30 degrees as I was flying to Austin. Friday ended up like this and Saturday was even worse. According to the travel guide I picked up on my library Utilitaire trip, Austin averages 350 days of sunshine per year. I feel robbed.
I have not even told you what happened before I left. My flight to Austin was Thursday evening so I went to the office most of the day first. My mother called while I was in meetings all morning. I got online before I checked my voicemail though and found a message from my second cousin in LA waiting for me. Our Great Aunt Midge, the last surviving sibling of my maternal grandfather, had died the night before. Later in the afternoon I received a message from my father. His brother, my Uncle Joe, had also died early that morning.
I decided to proceed with my plans and leave Austin early once I knew when all the services would be held. During my layover in Chicago I received a call from the owner of the pet service I use. Two different employees of his had been unable to get into my house that evening. There was no reason why they should not have been able to so he agreed to go pick up the keys and try it himself. I was close to fried at this point and called my sister to vent. There was no overnight delivery service within the airport so I could not ship anyone additional keys. I would just have to wait and see while pondering if the universe was telling me to just not go to Austin. When I arrived at my gate for my flight, they were offering $300, hotel, dinner and breakfast vouchers and a flight the next day for one person to give up their seat to Austin. I texted my sister since she lives for those kind of deal. Then they were up to $400. She told me to take the vouchers and get booked back to DC on my current ticket. $500. I was determined to have a nice partial vacation and got on the plane just as they involuntarily bumped someone. I landed in Austin to crappy weather and happy news that the cats had been fed.
Friday morning I discovered a day full of rain and the bike issue. I was not going to be deterred though and got my boyfriend and the bikes and began the ride downtown. Austin is a great city to bike in. The bike lanes are plentiful and extensive. There is a well marked network through the city. I quickly noticed the aggressive and antagonistic attitude common between drivers and cyclists in DC pretty much did not exist in Austin. When drivers wanted to make a right turn at a light where we were already stopped, they would stay behind us to give us plenty of time to get through the intersection before they turned across the bike lane. Other cyclists we saw stopped at red lights and stop signs. It was the nicest commute I have ever had as long as I ignore the part where we had to ride a mile north to cross the highway our hotel was on before we could head south into Central Austin and Downtown.
Friday and Saturday were both quite wet but I rode both of them- 10.95 miles Friday and 17.2 on Saturday. Friday was a little more shopping oriented since my boyfriend had not brought his bike gloves and neither of us had brought anything more than light weight base layers so I went out to pick up a few things. Luckily, we both had our rain pants with us. Both days I spent as much time as possible in coffee shops and other third spaces because the weather was just the icing on my cake of defeat for this trip. Friday was so cold, wet and miserable that we left the bikes locked up at the Whole Foods parking garage and cabbed back to our hotel. My boyfriend was the envy of the valet at our restaurant that night went I sent him into the bathroom with some dry, thick Chrome wool socks to change into. The valet was trying to dry his with the hand dryer. I was called a “good woman” more than once for that move. I had met one of the hostess at the restaurant earlier that day while buying those socks at Mellow Johnny’s where she also works. Like all the locals we met, she was really sweet and helpful despite the invasion occurring. She helped us figure out where to lock up the bikes for the night even though she still did not recommend it. Bike theft is a huge issue in Austin. With insurance, well marked bikes and very little love for them (the weather definitely colored our feelings for the bikes) we were willing to risk it.
I have qualifying rides both days, but I am going to invoke the rule where I can use two stops in one trip since I need to use my dinner trip on Saturday instead of Friday to qualify for that category (Whole Foods was less than a mile from the restaurant) and my favorite store that is not a grocery store was also on Saturday.
I got to THE Whole Foods (not the but THE- it is the original) around 9:30 on Saturday and confirmed both to my delight and disappointment that the bikes were still there. I went in for coffee and wi-fi. I needed to plot my day until 5:30. The temptation to go back to the hotel was quite high but I forced myself to make the best of it and at least ride around to different coffee houses for 8 hours. A little before 5 I went to Stitch Lab, a funky little fabric store in Austin that also has classes. I had really wanted to take their oilcloth class that day but it had been sold out with no cancellations. Luckily, the lovely owner Leslie agreed to give me a private class that evening! So I picked out materials and learned the tricks of learning to machine sew oilcloth. Now, to design some bike bags! If you are ever in Austin and have the inclination to do some sewing, I cannot recommend Leslie enough. She is a fabulous teacher and a lovely woman. The fabric selection is nicely curated and quite delightful. It took much restraint for me to not start buying things up on the spot.
The two bags I made. I have two smaller ones to complete that will nest in the one on the right.
After My Stitch Lab class, I headed back across the river to downtown to meet my boyfriend at Haddington’s to see if we could have dinner there. Again. We had gone the night before and loved it so much we wanted more. The bike shop hostess had put me on a reservation waiting list the night before and while I was sitting at the bar with a cocktail waiting for the boyfriend to finish his schmoozing, the hostess on duty called my phone and said she could seat us in 30 minutes. Most excellent. So another fabulous dinner was had.
The plan when we left Haddington’s was to ride toward the university to catch a bus back to our end of town. Unfortunately, we did not have the foresight to plan on what we should do if the bus was already carrying one bike. We should have left the boyfriend’s bike locked near the bus stop and taken mine back to the hotel sine I was leaving Sunday. Instead, we waved the bus on, set an alarm for the time the tracking system said the next bus would be at that stop and started pedaling. It was a tough ride on those bikes but at lest it was only misting and not too cold. By the time the alarm went off there did not seem much point in waiting for the bus so we trudged on in our misery. We made it back safely but were very cranky at this point. This is my third night ride for Utilitaire and my light setup is the same helmet setup documented in my previous posts (yes, i traveled with my own helmet/lights). I also had my trusty red Shower Pass rain jacket with reflective striping.
I woke up Sunday morning in Austin to a clear blue sky and the sun shining. I cursed Texas and shook my fist at the sun as my flight took off, taking me to NJ and PA for Some family mourning time actually happy to be ending my vacation an entire day early.
Ride 1 of 2 (11 of 12 total)
Control Card Category: Store that is not a grocery store
Date: 3/10/2012
Destination: Stitch Lab
Miles Completed: 17.2
Night Ride?: no
Ride 2 of 2 (12 of 12 total)
Control Card Category: Dinner
Date: 3/10/2012
Destination: Haddington’s
Miles Completed: 17.2
Night Ride?: yes
Read all posts in this series by clicking here.
View my progress on my Utilitaire Control Card
