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I cannot really put into words how I was feeling the last few days, let alone hours, before leaving... On my own... on a bicycle. I wasn't really thinking. I was scrambling. Scrambling to clean my empty apartment. Strategically packing my bike. Not really all that excited to say good bye to my very excited and supportive friends/clients. (I don't believe in goodbyes..therefore I am not very good at them..)
After the many errands and hugs....I was off! North East bound to the one and only College Station.
I planned on pedaling my way out of Austin early October 10th... I wound up leaving around 12 pm... late start (no surprise there!)
I headed out on Springdale (East Austin) kept East onto Loyola. As I got further and further away from the city, the roads got quieter, and the grass was greener, after all. I headed North onto 973.
I road through Manor, thinking I would go ahead and take 290 up to Elgin...when I got to the highway, I remembered why I like the back roads so much...it is quiet. it is country. it is green. Bliss.
I went back through Manor and headed East onto Old Hwy 290. When Old 290 turned into Littig, that is where the fun happened!
Already having a late day, I knew I wasn't going to make it to Aggieland with 5 more hours of daylight...so when you run into a Ghost Town. In the middle of no where Texas. You stop to check it out. No questions asked.
I pulled into the drive, and waved at a man laying gravel. Grabbed my trail mix, water, and phone. I walked through the "town", causally taking pictures for about 20 minutes. While on my way back to the bike, the man laying gravel, George, came up. He told me about the Ghost town. He owned the 15 haunted acres, and he built it all himself. While working at the attorney general's office for 45 years, he slowly built a ghost town in his spare time. He built the bar. The movie theater. Installed volleyball courts and horse shoes. As he was talking about it, you could hear the excited youthfulness in his voice. He was so proud of this town, that many people can come to enjoy. Kids can come to watch movies and run around. Or adults can cruise around through the haunted amusement after a beer and a burger.
I love that I ran into this place because I decided not to take the highway.
George and I had a glass of sweet tea.
It was nice to shoot the shit with a small town, Texan.
I asked him how he made this place happen...
He said, "Adding at least one board a day. At least. Just one more board each day"
After Texas style tea time, George went back to shoveling gravel, and I was back on the road. Pedaling.
Meeting George and taking the time to exchange ideas and stories really lifted the funk of whatever I was feeling the hours/days before leaving Austin.
I road for a few more hours through some nice small, windy, shaded hills. Following the train tracks into Elgin. I was hungry, and not quite ready to begin my diet of PB&J's quite yet. At this point I could eat anything...but when I saw the Mexican food restaurant I was so pleased!
Nachos was for dinner :)
The restaurant was quiet. There was a television in the back. A spanish channel, with some Mexican women, wearing brightly colored dresses were arguing about something...while and older Mexican man seemed to be a mediator of sorts...but really just seemed to be making the situation worse..haha..I don't know.
I chatted with the young girl, who was my waitress. She was in high school. I asked her about school and football (as that is how conversations are started here in Texas a lot of the time...). Apparently Manor High School and (her school) Elgin High, were rivals, both undefeated...they had a game in town that evening. That being said, I wished her school luck, finished my nachos, and unplugged my phone...I wasn't about to try and get stuck in the middle of a small town with a huge football game on the rise. (Although, it would be quite an experience.)
I headed East out of Elgin, toward Lexington on W FM 696...I was about 9 miles out of Lexington when the sun started to sink and the trucks seemed to be going a bit faster down this small country road. Called it quits around 7 o'clock. I was lucky enough to run into a church right when I started to feel iffy about the riding conditions...I thought I would just set up camp behind it. There was a plug outside and everything. I thought I'd check to see if the doors were open at all. Thinking it would be nice to have a roof the first night out. I was in luck, again. The side door happened to be open. It's funny how things work out...
I didn't get to sleep right away... feeling a bit nervous on Texans, guns, and breaking and entering (so to speak..). I was feeling slightly lonely and a bit weirded out being in such a still, quiet church.
It didn't help much that there seemed to be a squirrel eating nuts in the tree on the side of the church and throwing the shell down onto the tin roof every 15 minutes...but I was happy, dry, and safe. So it didn't faze me too much.
Every so often I would hear a new sound, besides the dogs barking in the distance, or the wind brushing the tree's branches against the fence. I would lay still, holding my breath for a few seconds... waiting, to see if the foreign sound, would sound again. Trying to decipher what this new noise could be. It was somewhat entertaining. The trucks passing on the small road at 70 miles an hour every 30-40 minutes, were surprisingly comforting.
After washing my face, brushing my teeth, and repacking my bike it was finally time to lay down. I didn't get much sleep, but was excited to get back on the bike, and down the road.
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