The road from Del Rio to Austin was not as bad as I expected. The map I use from ACA made it seem much steeper than it actually was. Don't get me wrong, it was a tough ride through "rolling hills" narrow roads many times with no shoulder. There was very little traffic on the road so that made it better. The winding, rolling hills had no shoulders and it was a very very dangerous place to ride a bike. The only way to safely get up and down these hills is to make sure that there is no traffic behind you before you go ahead. The scenery was repetitive Texas high desert and then a forested area up higher in the hills. I am getting a bit tired of seeing the same things over and over again. Texas is a big place but a lot of it is wasteland. I took a few pics but nothing special. I did come across an injured bike rider. He was going down one of the rolling hills and wiped out pretty badly. He had a bunch of other riders with him and a support van so there was no help I could offer to them so I continued on a bit shaken. If I wiped out alone I would not have a bunch of other riders and a support van to help me out. It could be ugly. I just have to trust that I will not fall or get hit or something like that. Life requires taking some risk but seeing him down brought those risks home to me very effectively. My bike broke down so I had to get a ride part of the way into Austin to get it repaired. I just picked it up from REI and it was $189 bucks to fix it. I can't afford repairs like that. My money is running short now. I have been trying to do this ride on thirty dollars a day but those hotel/motel bills add up when I have to break down and stay in them. I will be doing a lot more camping and less hotel/motels for the remainder of this ride. My biggest expense is food now. I need to eat a lot to keep from losing too much weight. I will be doing a lot more cooking from here on out. More later...
