1,623 Total Miles ✔️
DAY 26: Day Off
We decided to enjoy a day in Austin. Chilled for most of the day and walked around to take some pictures and explore the city. Went to see some live music at night time, had dinner and went to bed. Austin was pretty cool, I really liked it.
DAY 27: Austin, Texas ➡️ Selma, Texas (65 miles)
Pretty windy day, which usually sucks because it feels like you are biking but not going anywhere. We got about 15 miles in and mike had an issue with his bike. A couple people pulled over to help and we temporarily fixed it and biked 2 miles to a bike shop. Fixed his bike and continued now fighting daylight (per usual). Luke gets a flat on mile 30 and we patch his tube and finish the day around 5:00pm. The hills of texas are starting to come around as we hit about 2,500 ft in elevation this day. Also had first bigmac of the trip.
DAY 28: Selma, Texas ➡️ San Antonio, Texas (35 miles)
At the end of the ride yesterday one of Lukes bags was hanging on by a thread. We had to find a shoe store to fix it so that he coukd restrap it to his bike. We found the shoe store in austin and after decided it was a good idea to find some tubes as well as we were popping them left and right and we were headed for texas. We did this and it was getting late in the day so decided to call it a day.
DAY 29: San Antonio, Texas ➡️ Uvalde, Texas (75 miles)
This day was pretty shitty all around. We were all very tired and it was extremely windy with winds blowing right at us. The roads we were riding on were also not smooth and at one point we were riding on rocks and dirt. Mike popped another tire so we had to fix that, but still managed to complete 75 miles which was huge (and also the only option with no towns in between).
DAY 30: Uvalde, Texas ➡️ Del Rio, Texas (60 miles)
We were finally on our way towards the desert stretch. We ended up passing the first southern tier biker so far this trip. He was going from san fran to south carolina and gave us a couple tips about what was coming. Luke popped a tire today because it seems like someone just has to pop one everyday at this point. We went to Walmart, bought some pb and j and some snacks because we knew there wouldn't be much after del rio.
DAY 31: Del Rio, Texas ➡️ Langtry, Texas (58 miles)
Extremely hilly day and the first day of just absolutely nothing. A lot of desert and mountains, one gas station, and we only saw about 5 total people this day. We passed through border patrol and could see mexico for the majority of the ride, which was pretty cool. We finally made it to Langtry, Texas to camp (where there is about 10 houses and seems to have a population of like 20). The stars at night were insane and there was no food just a spicket to fill our water bottles in next to the community center. We met a guy who was also biking across the country named Alex and we decided to bike with the next day.
DAY 32: Langtry, Texas ➡️ Sanderson, Texas (60 miles)
Alex joined us for our ride this day. He is from Ukraine and has been living in brooklyn for the past 8 years. Luke and I were ahead of Mike and Alex for a lot of the ride and Mike broke a spoke that we didn't know about because we had no service. Luke pulled over on mile 55 (of 60) and drove into some grass that punctured his tire in like 6 different spots from cactus thorns. We had to hitchhike because it was getting late and mike had the tool we needed to fix it. Some guy pulled over in a truck picked us up and brought us straight to the hotel. He was an interesting dude, pretty crazy, but very helpful for getting us to the hotel. Mike and Alex fixed the spoke temporarily and met us at the motel.
DAY 33: Sanderson, Texas ➡️ Marathon, Texas (54 miles)
Got up pretty early this day because we were headed to a famous hotel called the Gage Hotel in marathon. (A guy named Russ who saw Luke's post on LinkedIn bought us a night at this hotel, which was awesome). He put us in our own lodge area and also paid for dinner because of our story it was an incredibly nice thing to do for us. We wanted to get there as early as possible so we took off again (still including Alex). We get to mile 35 to eat some cheez-its, and notice mikes wheel is now warped. He has to hitchhike to get to the gage and the rest of us biked the remaining 20 miles. Alex had a warmshowers waiting for him in alpine (which was 30 more miles), so he went there. We had a great time at the hotel. A couple next to us (who we met earlier in the day) bought us margaritas. We ended up going to bed but knew we still had mikes wheel to deal with the next day.
Overall, this week was very different because of all the new views we saw. It was a lot more mountains and a lot less buildings and city. Something I've never seen before but really enjoyed. It was crazy to meet people that live in these areas with towns made up of a couple hundred people, but everyone has been so helpful. Stay tuned for next week's updates and check out my photos tab for more pictures. Thanks again to everyone who has been reaching out and donating!