We started our day trying to find a jeweler to fix Christian's watch band (needed a new pin). We rode up and down several streets downtown to no avail. Not a single jewelry shop! We decided to head over to REI (Christian wanted to get a chair like mine). Maybe we would find a shop along the way...nope.
At REI, Christian got his chair. I asked the clerk if he knew of a jewelry shop where Christian could get his watch band fixed. The guy said they probably had the pin he needed. A guy came to the counter and, sure enough, found a pin that would work. After several tries to get it into the holes, the guy gave it to me. I managed to get it into the right place. The guy didn't charge us for the pin. He said I did all the work anyway! So, we killed two birds with one stone (an idiom I had to explain to Christian).
Lance...as in Armstrong
Next stop was Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop. This is the shop Lance uses (used?). With all the Lance debacle, I wondered how prominent he would be featured in the shop. Turns out, not so much. Oh, they had a selection of Livestrong apparel and accessories, but I saw nothing that actually mentioned Lance's name. There were no photos either. Christian had planned to get a "Mellow Johnny's" jersey until he saw they were $120! Not worth it. Instead, we both got "dry-wear" t-shirts with the Mellow Johnny's logo.
Having completed our shopping errands, we headed to the lake trail. I noticed the bike path we took to get there was called the "Lance Armstrong Bikeway". We were only on it for a short while. We dropped down to the lake trail and rode out to the Crenshaw Bridge (like I did yesterday).
We crossed the lake and headed back. On the way, we stopped to take some photos. A gal asked me about Betsy. She is a cyclist too and is thinking of getting a folding bike. I still have the Bike Friday cards I got when I bought Betsy (they are a marketing strategy of Bike Friday's--I can give interested people one of the cards--they have my name on them--if someone orders a bike and mentions my name--I get a $75 credit to BF). I gave the gal a card. We'll see...
Soon, Christian and I were getting hungry. We left the trail and went to the road in search of a restaurant (no, not Subway!). We found a Schlotzsky's (more plentiful than Subway here).
While eating lunch, I noticed I had a text from Dillon. He asked if I could get him some new flip flops. Since we weren't too far from REI, we went back there. To get there we went over another great pedestrian bridge (I think there are almost as many pedestrian bridges across the lake as there are car bridges). This was the Pfleuger (sp?) Pedestrian Bridge. I did a panorama photo including the bridge (see below).
After our second REI stop, we returned to the Lance Bikeway to take photos and ride the whole length of it. We eventually returned to the lake trail (officially called the Butler Trail). This time we stayed on the north side and rode back to the Trinity Street entrance.
Lone Star...as in Texas State Capitol
Once back on the city streets, we rode up to the Capitol Building. We did our own self-guided tour including the Capitol Extention (underground). From there we cut through campus back to Dillon's. All told, we rode a whopping 16 miles (seemed like so much more).
Licking Fingers...as in BBQ
The temps today were in the low 80s and humid. Christian and I took showers upon returning to Dillon's. Tonight was the night for BBQ! Dillon had heard a place called Iron Works BBQ was pretty good. We hopped the #10 bus back to downtown. Turns out I have ridden by this restaurant twice (both times in the dark).
The food was pretty good. We all had the pork ribs (finger-licking good!). The building was pretty rustic, but appears to have been frequented by a number of famous people (particularly political folks...the Governor of Texas, Dubya, and even Obama).
Longhorns...as in University of Texas
After dinner we caught the #1L bus to Guadalupe St. so we could take a walking tour through campus. We went to the Clock Tower, and a few other buildings. We stopped at the Turtle Pond, then worked our way over to the music building. Along the way we saw a small crowd of people looking at something. We went over to see too. It was just a baby possum (had it been a baby armadillo, I would have been much more excited). I must say, I didn't know there were possums here.
We saw a couple of Dillon's fellow musician friends up in the practice rooms of the music building. Those musicians are dedicated kids. It's Saturday, and they are practicing!
It was a great day today! Austin is, by and large, a very easy town to get the hang of. There are tons of cyclists everywhere! I think even Dillon would ride here if he had a bike (that's sayin' something too!)!
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