Day #18 - 3/30/2011 - Giddings to San Marcos, TX - 72 miles

Here is the  72 mile route from Giddings to San Marcos, TX, home of Texas State University

Oatmeal, raisins & cinnamon with CNN before heading out.

 Unfortunately, even before we left the room, Lani confronted another flat tire.

Though the flat was unfortunate, finding it here was not.

The day's ride was pretty uninspiring except for when we biked through Bastrop State Park, notable for a wicked downhill on the approach to Bastrop where we hit 30mph.  In case you were wondering, the Garmin Edge 705, on its many screens, gives you your current speed (and time, distance, calories, blah blah blah).  But, on some of the faster downhills, I'm too terrified to take my eyes off the road ahead.  In those cases, when I upload the Garmin data to my netbook, I can review the riveting data.

We stopped briefly in Bastrop at a strip mall....it was the Jaliscos Flour Tortillas that caught my eye.  We were seeing a lot of Jalisco this and Jalisco that in these parts.  Jalisco is one of the 31 states that comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico...like our 50 states.  I'm figuring that many residents of Jalisco head North...to Texas...and cook things.

This is great...you can get your fresh tortillas with your ammo.

 In just a few seconds standing outside the Jalisco's Tortilla shop, we saw a steady stream of customers going in and out.  Lani and I were - briefly - excited, thinking we had an authentic lunch in front of us.  Instead, all they made were tortillas.  Go figure.

Of course, I asked before I took the picture.  The aroma was wonderful, but all they were churning out were tortillas.  I also wanted to walk into the adjacent Johns' Guns and take a picture, but was seized by common sense.  I can tell you that, looking furtively through the door, it looked like an armory.

We moved on and biked into the rural areas between Bastrop (population 5340) and San Marcos (population 52927, about the size of the student body at UF.)


Local market chains vary around the country.  Did you know that Sac-N-Pac was a family owned chain of stores that has been serving central Texas for 40+ years?  Neither did I.

Sac-N-Pac?..sounds like something out of a Farrelly Brothers movie.

Actually, I don't care what they call themselves...places like this were an oasis on the long stretches of rural highway between one 300 person town and the next.

Uhland has 386 people on 1.8 square miles.  I tried counting them all.

 Pretty much all there was along the highway were miles and miles of farmland and ranch.  Some of them, had a simple and iconic beauty.

More Texas Gothic: a small but immaculate house on a neatly xeriscaped property, the Flag of Texas flying high (with NO! American flag), surrounded by acres of groomed farmland.

 I'm telling y'all, DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS!  This slogan is everywhere, but especially prominent on the highway signs.  The expression is actually under a federal trademark and owned by the Texas Department of Transportation, created as part of an anti-littering campaign.  The expression has been co-opted by Texans as a sign of Texas pride.  The Texas DOT has had limited success in filing cease/desist orders against people who use the expression commercially.

The expression Don't Mess With Texas is actually a federally registered trademark of the Texas Department of Transportation.

After flying down some beautiful highway shoulder near the San Marcos Airport, we wound our way through some rural roads before entering a lovely stretch of San Marcos.

There were actually several more bail bonds offices just around the corner.  Note to self: if I ever move to San Marcos, don't live in this neighborhood.

 San Marcos is actually off the Adventure Cycling Association Southern Tier route, but Lani has a friend here from UF, Johann Souss, currently pursuing a Masters in Biology.  Johann had graciously offered to host us for two nights, providing us a rest day in San Marcos.  We went out for dinner.

We had some nice Mexican food for dinner.

And, one of the nicest things about the dinner, is that we drove there.  I got to sit in the back seat and I was just fine with that.


Johann had a small tastefully decorated apartment with enough from on the floor for an inflatable mattress.  Lani took the couch...I took the mattress, and another day in Texas came to an end.