Austin Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail and riding in the City.

May 4, 2011, Cottonwood Creek RV Park, Dripping Springs, Tx.
Today the weather cooperated and we had time to fit into our busy schedules another trip to Austin (lol). This time to ride our bikes on the Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail (TLHBT). 
I took the hitch off the front of our fifth wheel and put it on the back of the Jeep to load the bikes. Yesterday I made sure we had all our gear together so we could get an early start...early for us! We got on the road about 9:40. We've had unusual weather and it was in the upper 40's overnight but warming to the mid 70's.  Excellent weather for a bike ride.
We drove the 30 plus miles to Austin and then parked in Zilker Park.  Once again, under the Mopac (Tx Hwy 1).  As you may recall we visited Zilker Park to check it out on April 26th, 2011. 
Today we took off riding the bikes on the South side of Lady Bird Lake on the TLHBT heading east.

We started down the hard packed dirt trail.

The trail was very busy with pedestrians and joggers but I managed to get some photos without folks in them. Skinny tire bikes would find the sandy sections a bit sketchy.

Joyce at one of many scenic vistas along the trail.

Austin Skyline across Lady Bird Lake.

We discovered several of these pianos throughout the trails.

We never learned the significance of the pianos. Some were actually playable.

Barton Springs Pool

 Barton Springs Pool is a section of the lake/river that is fenced off for swimming.

One of several bridges.

Lotsa folks were out on the water.

Stevie Ray Vaughn Memorial on the trail.

Skyline from Pfluger Pedestrian/ Bike Bridge.

Lamar Blvd. Bridge

Pfluger Bridge

Another piano in the courtyard of the bridge catwalk.

The original Whole Foods Market?

Bike route map and parking.

Lance Armstrong Bikeway.

Joyce traveling down the Lance Armstrong Bikeway.

We rode into downtown for lunch on Music Row (6th Street). We ate at an overpriced little pub and had just an average meal. Afterwords we rode to Mellow Johnny's again in search of the Lance Armstrong Bikeway. The staff was kind enough to give us directions. Once on the bikeway we headed in the direction of the Jeep and ended up back on the TLHBT on the north side of Lady Bird Lake and followed that to Mopac which took us back to our Jeep.

We had a great time and couldn't have planned for better weather. Austin is such a bike friendly city. It has several bike lanes throughout the city and although we rode on many of the down town streets it didn't feel risky. We wished we had more time but we had to get back to Maggie and Rico.

Austin Bike Shops, Trails and More!

April 26, 2011 Cottonwood Creek RV Park.
About a week ago we moved from site 7 to site 11.

Our new friends Paul and Paula had occupied this site but they moved on.  We had stayed in this site last year.

This site has much more shade and protection from the wind. Like all the sites in this park, we don't have anything behind us but trees and the dry creek bed. We don't have any other sites on our door side, just more trees. So, we are very happy in our new/ old site and enjoy the visits from the many birds that frequent the green areas.

We both have a bad case of "hitch itch" and we are anxious to move on. It's especially hard when we hear from friends out on the road and headed for cooler climes! However, we still need to attend our son-in-law's "Winging Ceremony" in Corpus Christi on June 10th. So, we are happy to stay here in Cottonwood Creek RV Park until it's time to move back to Corpus. Once that's over we will quickly move north!

The park isn't very busy during the week and the temperatures have been in the upper 90's. It does get busier over the weekends. The few residents that are here are more reluctant to hang around outside now that it's considerably warmer. I've taken to keeping the truck and Jeep covered to protect them from the hot sun and the junk that falls out of the trees.

A few days ago we took a trip to Austin. We wanted to do some sightseeing and check out the bike trails along Lady Bird Lake and Zilker Park. We parked under the S. Mopac Express Hwy. to get a quick look at the trails.

From what I learned the Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail is over 10 miles long with several bridge crossings over Lady Bird Lake just like the one below.

There are several other trails to include The Lance Armstrong Bike Way that connect to the Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail and traverse the city. We plan to come back with our all terrain bicycles and explore as many trails as possible. When we left Zilker Park, we stayed on Barton Springs Road and came across a number of bicycle shops. We had to stop at a couple of them and look around. I've never seen so many bicycle shops within blocks or a couple miles of each other. Obviously, Austin is a very bicycle friendly city.

Along the way we came across Pecan Grove RV Park. What a perfect location for exploring Austin. I had read reviews on this park in the past and many thought it was "eclectic", "funky" and "charming". We took a quick look and noted that many of the RVs had not moved in perhaps years and probably would never move safely down the highways again. Most of the sites were very tight, certainly not our type of park. However, you couldn't beat the location for exploring Austin, provided you could even get a site!

We continued exploring on the south side of Lady Bird Lake on Barton Springs Rd. and decided to stop for lunch at Threadgills an Austin restaurant with lots of history. We had a good lunch that kept us full the whole day!
Threadgill's, South Austin
"Threadgill's World Headquarters"

Whether you come in for our renowned feel good southern food, to soak in the history of the Armadillo and its salad days of the 1970’s or to have a beverage and enjoy live music under the stars in the family and fun friendly Beer garden, you'll be glad you did! Come back often.

Before leaving we wanted to stop and check out yet another bike shop, Mellow Johnny's owned by Lance Armstrong. It is a beautiful shop with lots of inventory and memorabilia from Lance's racing career. There's even a small coffee shop. Definitely worth the visit when you are in town. We made a couple of small purchases. I tried to stay away from the road bikes as I sure miss not having one.

We couldn't head back home without stopping at the REI store, so we killed some more time there before heading back home. We had asked the park owner Sheri to check on Maggie and Rico if she could. As you may recall we had a problem a couple weeks ago with the air conditioner tripping its breaker. However, it's only happened the one time. Still it makes us nervous about leaving Maggie and Rico home alone. Sheri was nice enough to give us a call in the afternoon letting us know that everything was fine and that she had walked Maggie and Rico for us. You can't ask for better service.