Sunny & Warm 78737 to Cold & Rainy 97229

My last few days in ATX were a blast. Clear blue skies with temps in the 70's. I spent the remainder of my time hanging out with friends and family. The riding in Austin was good because of the weather but the traffic seems to get worse every time I come back. I did the Johnson City loop 4 times while I was home along with a hand full of other rides. The Rio Grande team was in town for their training camp.


My second to last day in town I decided to go on the dam loop. It amazed me how much of lakeway is developed now. When I lived out there there was hardly anything and now there are shopping centers and housing developments everywhere, it was a good ride nonetheless.




Some pics from 360, this road sucks even worse than it did before.



After the ride everyone decided to meet up downtown. I'm still learning the little nuances of the bar scene but I've come to the conclusion that with the right group of people its a guaranteed good time.


Thanks to Scott, everyone besides him had a relatively inexpensive night. Thanks man.


My last day in town I went for a ride with dad. We revisited my childhood training ground at the Veloway.


This place on the weekends is packed! both with families and the most extreme weekend warriors. This guy passed us and gave us the look back at least ten times.


The best new thing about home came a few days before I left. Little Sophie, nickname 3G is a little hair ball of energy.



So now I'm in Portland visiting the ragin cajun.. I have never been here before but I like it a lot, minus the temps and rain. I seemed to have started the trip off right though. I got here with my bike case making it, but not my bag. It took the airline over 24hrs to get me my bag even though it was at the airport 10 hrs after I had got there. So with that being the case I borrowed some clothes and set out on our first ride.

The ride started out with some of the best weather Jason had seen in weeks. the sun was out and it was relatively warm. However by the time we started our 2nd climb the weather was clouding up.



At the midway point, AKA furthest point from home I flatted on the 1 mile stretch of road with significant traffic on it. And of course according to murphy's law it started to dump on us. As soon as we were riding again we were being pelted by ice chunks that stung really bad. It was one of those things where you didn't get mad, you just laughed really hard.


At the top of the third climb the scenery had changed significantly, from green and cloudy/rain to this.


At the top J flatted making the flat count 2.


Then on the way home we hit a road that used to be smooth but was now covered with sharp golf ball sized gravel. Thats when the shit started to hit the fan. Out of tubes now, J flatted again, (flat count 3) I think it might be a weight issue. Anyways he decided to try to ride home on the rim. Well after we got off the road he realized his front was going flat too, (flat count 4). Awesome! oh and for the record I'm blown from riding, and J is still doing 20mph on 1, then 2 flats. We eventually made it home, J riding 15 miles on flats.... yea, I feel slow. Today is day 2 of the Jason Sager training camp.....its 100% chance of rain and I can verify that with a look out the window. Today I'll probably die since yesterday I rode like a complete rookie riding hard up every climb. Oh well, it will be a character building experience.