Day 34 - Austin Rest Day 2: Austin

Slept in today, or what is becoming sleeping in: 8:00. This trip is changing my sleep cycle and I don't like it.

I did a little work on the bike while watching TV, very relaxing, then hopped on the bike to explore Austin. I took a leisurely rude through the UT campus and decided that it's a beautiful university, more so than ASU (ouch! That hurt).

Next, the State Capital building, unfortunately I didn't feel I had time for the guided tour so I wandered around alone for a while taking pictures (see the Texas Capital Photo Dump if you're interested). It's a really nice building, now I have to visit the California Capital to see how they compare.

After the capital tour I decided to call UT and see if I could get a ticket for the UT tower tour. Public access to the tower was restricted after the Whitman shootings in 1966. In the late 70s the public was allowed to the observation deck again only to have access re-restricted after a series if suicides. UT recently installed a stainless steel cage barrier and tours are allowed again, with guards.

Unfortunately, all of today's tours were sold out, but I was told that if I came down I might get a no-show's ticket. I hurried off to see if I could in. Luckily, there was one no-show for the very next tour.

The view of downtown Austin and the University is spectacular from the tower.

Now that I'd had all of my fun it was time for errands: first a trip to REI for supplies (saw a party bike on the way); then over to Mellow Johnny's to see if the problem with my new chain could be resolved. Craig, the mechanic spent two hours working on the bike. He pulled the crank and filed the teeth on all of my chainrings (we decided to replace the middle ring), adjusted the front derailleur, re- mounted the crank and chainrings, took it out for a test ride, decided more work needed to be done, remove the crank and chainrings again, flipped the middle ring to adjust the spacing re-installed everything, went for another test ride and sent me out for a test ride. And charged me $0 for labor, I only paid the $30 for the new chainring, plus a tip so Craig could get a six pack. I was a little annoyed with Mellow Johnny's yesterday, but now I'm pretty happy with the service.

Craig recommended the BBQ at Lambert's so I ride over there for dinner (at the corner of Guadalupe St. and Willie Nelson Blvd.). Had a pint of local IPA, a BBQ brisket sandwich and a side of jalapeño cheesy grits. Delicious and all for $9 because it was still happy hour.

Before heading back to the hotel and calling it a night I rode through the South Congress and 6th St. Area to check out the scene, and went in search of the Peached Taco, a food truck I had read about. Found it before too long and had a Banh Mi Taco of BBQ pork belly and a Dr. Pepper. Yum.

All in all it was a pretty good solo rest day. Still seems that there is still a lot to see. Hopefully I can get back to Austin soon. I like it here.