Last Saturday morning I headed out to Liberty Hill to ride the Armadillo. This is the third or fourth time I’ve done this ride. It’s a well organized, well marked ride put on by the Austin Cycling Association. Registration fees support their helmets for kids program. I rode 61 miles to train for the Bike MS event Ride the Rim that I will participate in out in Canyon, TX on June 22nd. Please consider making a donation to the MS Society in support of my participation!
Ride attendance seemed a bit low this year, probably because of the large amount of rain that rolled through the region on Friday. I’m always impressed by the people who ride the 105 mile route. Perhaps one of these years I’ll make a point to do that route because this ride goes through some very pretty parts of Texas. I had a good ride for the most part although it was a bit windy at some points. And the last 10 miles back into town were straight into the headwind and populated with a few annoyed drivers.
I set up my new Garmin bike computer on the handlebars of my bike and was able to see what direction I was riding in so I can tell you that the wind was out of the northeast. It remains to be seen how long I leave the display set up so that it shows me a compass heading, since I now can figure out where the wind is coming from quickly and then dread every “wrong” (into the wind) turn 🙂 The other cool thing about the Garmin is that you can now view a summary of my ride! I also carried along my GoPro, although I still haven’t figured out how to mount it to my handlebars successfully. More on that later.
The morning started out with very few clouds and at a reasonable temperature.
Hey look, you can see my shadow!
Horses! Wildflowers!
A cool, narrow, shady road
A wild game ranch. I saw some big horned sheep in the distance, but they were too far for pictures.
A rest stop on the grounds of an old general store that doesn’t seem to be open currently.
The little town of Bertram, Texas.
The open road!
One of the side of the road rest stops that I stopped at.
There’s a town called Oatmeal. It has a giant Oatmeal can. No idea if this is the center of town, because really it’s just an intersection in the middle of nowhere.
Another interesting rest stop that has sort of a pavilion created out of cedar tree logs. No roof really, just the structure.
One of the rest stops had a giant red blow up arch and a tent staffed by Clif bar employees handing out free samples.
A closer look at the old general store, it’s a place you can stop at on the way out and back on the Armadillo ride.
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