Day 29 - Johnson City, Tx, 48 miles, 1,311 miles total

I had a pretty slow start this morning.  Mr. Google had me riding a maze of streets in South Austin into a pretty strong headwind.  At one point it put me on the Sunflower Trail, a nice bike path through many trees and bushes.

But soon the pavement turned to decomposed granite, and then mud.  I have never experienced Texas mud before, so I don't know how common this is.  But this mud almost turned to cement.  It caked on my tires in seconds and wedged between the tires and fenders to the point that my wheels stopped in their tracks.  I had to drag the bike back to a lawn area and lay it down.  I couldn't turn the wheels at all.  It took 45 minutes to dig all the mud out so I could continue on.

The very inviting Sunflower Trail...

..lured me into the trap.

Much of today's route was on shoulderless roads with more traffic than I would have preferred, even though this photo makes it appear to be deserted.

I'm beginning to understand why they call this "hill country."

Getting near Johnson City in the Texas hill country.

This really reminds me of Panama, minus the jungle.  We had to ford several streams there.  I was glad to see this though.  I rode through it three times to try to get the remaining mud off of my wheels.

The hills and headwind were a real workout today.  So I'm glad to be taking the next two days off.  Z is here now, and she is a sight for sore eyes.

NEXT---)