Today was cold for Austin. Barely 40 degrees. I can’t believe how easy it is to get used to warmth and then 40 seems cold. I rode 50 miles today. Out West of town with Robbie for a couple hours. His computer programs must be pretty good. He doesn’t seem to have to be around that much. Maybe the other 90 computer guys working for him take up the slack. I don’t know.

Today I’m riding MTB, with Robbie once again. 40 something is pretty great temperatures for riding off road. I’m a little worried about my thumb working. It isn’t that great still from Jingle Cross. I’m borrowing one of Robbie’s bikes. He’s a big (tall) boy, so it might be just a tad large. That is fine. Beggers can’t be choosers.

The Verizon iPhone announcement today didn’t go all that well for AAPL (Apple stock) or VZ (Verizon). Both the stocks were down, on a generally up day for the market. But, I am relieved that AT&T isn’t going to be the sole provider of service for the iPhone pretty soon. I can’t say that I’m even close to pleased with the AT&T service. I thought it was bad in Topeka or Cable. Man, in Austin, it is horrendous sometimes. The data doesn’t hardly seem to work anywhere and the calling is hit or miss. More miss in my case it seems. Guess it is just the population density.

I’m going to have some Active Release Technique done at 11 am. I’m not really sure what it is, but I do have some issues. Maybe it will help. I’ll let you know on that. I hope it clears up some of my problems.

I need to get the other TRP CX 9 brake on my bike. The front brake is working great. So much more stopping power than a normal cantilever brakes. The adjustment is kind of tricky, but you don’t need a travel agent to get the levers to work good. Just a true wheel.

Okay. I’m getting real close to getting a ticket to Europe. I do have 4 days.

I went by Mellow Johnny's today and this guy was shopping too.

I caught up with him outside. This is his ride.

I heard that half the sales at Mellow Johnny's were jerseys, etc. Doesn't surprise me after going there.

Bromont and Stanley out on the path behind the shop.

This is the first electric car plug-in I've ever seen. It's in back of the bike shop. I'd forgotten that Lance is a spokesperson for Nissan and the Leaf.

This house is on our nightly dog walk. It is one of the most wonderful houses I've ever seen at night. Super simple. Elegant. The lights beside the front door are gas. The picture doesn't do it justice.

I’ve came down to Austin a lot of times for a lot of years. But, I’ve never ridden MTB bikes here. That seems weird to me now, but I’m usually trying to escape cold Kansas winters when I make my way down South.

Anyway, yesterday, Robbie Robinette took me for a tour of the Austin’s Greenbelt. It was great. I used Robbie’s Superfly hardtail. The fit wasn’t perfect, but the bike still rode crazy good. I’m not too into the wide handlebar/no bar end thing yet, so my bike handling was pretty off most of the day.

I’m not sure how far we rode. I think around 30km. It was technical most of the day. Robbie has the trails down. He was riding stuff that would take me more than a few tries to clean. Since it has been raining here, we had to do a bunch of U-turns because the water was too deep to cross. I was totally lost most of the day.

I guess I’m most surprised that there is excellent MTB riding right in the center of town. It started a mile from Robbie’s front door. And once you get into the canyons, you don’t see any sign of civilization for a couple hours. Pretty unique.

Before the ride, I went to see Dr. Jill Thomson, of Austin Sports Therapy to get some of my “issues” looked at. She spent nearly an hour with me. Working mainly on my sartorius muscle on my left leg. But, other stuff too. It was mildly painful doing the Active Release stuff at the time. I thought I’d be super sore from it, but I feel better, I think. I’m pretty worked, in general, from riding over rocks for 3 hours yesterday though.

I’m going to just ride on the road for a few hours today to see where I’m at. It isn’t warm here. I don’t think it got to 40 yesterday. The weather is supposed to be nearly 50 today, but using the temperatures right now, I don’t think it is going to be close to that.

My view most of the day. Robbie was riding way more stuff than me.

Creeping over a water crossing, trying to keep my feet dry. They are pretty slick with algae.

There are lots of elavation changes here. Pretty great views some of the time.

Dr. Jill Thompson. She is very good at what she does.

Shoulder tape from yesterday.

And leg tape.

Ann and I went to dinner last night at The Grove Wine Bar. It is a great place. Here is a photo of sampler #6, Spanish Reds. Ann in the background.