Today was my last day in the office.  I manage a small team and hence made certain to write all employee evaluations, discussed those evaluations and made sure tasks and people were transitioned as best I can.  Cleaned out the cubicle and packed everything up.  I enjoy my work and teams I work with – but will also be nice to take a long break, doing different things.

Over the next week is what I jokingly refer to is transition to becoming “homeless and unemployed”.  In addition to starting a vacation + leave of absence for until July 2013, everything from my Austin apartment needs to get packed into storage and I give up the apartment.  Monday morning I pick up a U-Haul truck and load everything (keeping the TDA items to the side).  Just to add fun, I also have a closing sale for a condominium I owned in Portland, OR.  Keys have been turned in and paperwork signed but assuming buyers financing completes, the official sale will be done by Thursday.  I also drive up to Colorado after that.

Also in next week, is day the Sudan Embassy gave as pickup date for my passport.  I hope it has a visa stamp attached.  This has been a somewhat frustrating saga.  I originally sent in my passport to a visa expediter on October 25th.  It went to the Sudan Embassy in Washington, but they returned it five weeks later and said they needed more information from TDA.  So we pass along info as best we can and resubmit.  I was given a pickup date of December 28th for resubmitted passport.  Still no indication if it will have a visa attached, but if not I need to get the passport back to try in Cairo.  A visa expediter is supposed to ease this process but they can’t tell me any more than I can do myself and only a level of indirection here.

In two weeks is day I fly to Egypt. My bags aren’t yet packed but I’ll go through checklist and assemble things at same time I pack the apartment for storage.  Once in Egypt, it will be one more week until we start.  The trip itself will be a pretty big change from living/working in Austin, TX particularly after flurry of activity to have all in place for departure.  Unfortunately, I’ll get in some bicycling but not as much as perhaps might want, however will look forward to changing all that in Cairo.

It will nice to finally be on the road and have a simpler life with lots of cycling…

[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
Prior to the ride, I stopped for a breakfast at nearby Jack in the Box. I actually left an hour before sunrise with my lights on since I needed to cross Austin from Southwest to Northeast and figured I’d have less traffic. Riding went well though I still had some stop lights. After crossing middle of Austin, I went outbound on Springdale and then met up with US 290. US 290 had wide shoulders at this point, but it was still nice to take the next westbound exit and the backroad (Old Manor Drive) in to the town of Manor.

[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
I had cycled 25 miles and the Manor grocery was nice place for a stop. Overcast skies, but temperatures still ranging from 60F to 80F today. July and August can be hot in Austin, but in return there is some nice cycling in December. After Manor some more back roads for 13 miles until I reached Elgin and US 290 again. Once again, decided to stop since I wasn’t certain how many places I’d have in next stretch.

After four miles, I had a left turn onto TX 696. This was small back road. There wasn’t much of a shoulder, though there also wasn’t much traffic. Austin is on edge of “hill country” but the hills are to the west, so this part of the route kept pretty flat. It was a nice gentle ride through ranching areas. At the 64 mile mark I came into the small town of Lexington. Lexington was big enough to have a main road (77) and a bypass (77 business) though both were still smaller roads. At the south end of town was a little restaurant that served an excellent burger. It was only 11:30am, but I’d already cycled two-thirds of the distance, so had a relaxing lunch.

After lunch, it was back to TX 696 and quiet country cycling. At almost 70 miles my cycle computer beeped and displayed “low power”. A little later it beeped again and turned off. Here was the overall Garmin Report. This same computer had lasted a full 100 mile ride before, so wasn’t quite certain why it wasn’t holding as much charge this time. However, the overall route was pretty easy to understand. At 79 miles I met up with TX 21.

TX 21 was a busy four lane highway, but fortunately it also had wide shoulder. I cycled nine miles into Caldwell and stopped for one more break here. After that rode the rest of the way to 7 Oaks Bed and Breakfast. As requested, I called them half an hour in advance to alert them to my arrival.

[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
I was the only guest at the Seven Oaks B&B and had a quiet restful stay. I read a cycle account and had an early nights rest after a long but good ride. The next morning after breakfast, I cycled another 14 miles to the airport for College Station and rented a car to drive back to Austin. Overall a good training ride and chance to get on the bike. I did drop off the bike on my return at Mellow Johnny’s bike shop to have some professional mechanics make a good once-over prior to the trip, though the bike has otherwise been riding well.

On September 8th, I bicycled from Austin to the Alamo in downtown San Antonio.  It was a fun preparation ride.  My Africa bike was still in Portland, so I took my commuting bike.  Weather forecasts showed a cold front coming.  While the predicted highs of 93F were only slightly cooler than normal – lower humidity and a north wind combined with coolest weekend since moving to Austin for a great cycling day.

I still decided to get out early, about 5:15am and rode the first hour and a half with lights.  This worked fine since it was mostly routes I already knew – though FM1626 was already busy at that time.  By 6:45am as it was getting light, I passed through Kyle and 18.5 miles.  From here some nice backroads and into San Marcos at 30 miles.  Until San Marcos I had been able to avoid the I-35 frontage road but here I reached I-35 and cycled alongside for about 8 miles before finding Hunter Road and quieter riding.

New Braunfels was next town and crossing wasn’t too difficult in early morning.  Not long thereafter 482 provided some more country riding before things started getting busier about 65 miles leading into San Antonio.  This last stretch on Old Nagadoches Road started becoming busier without much of a shoulder but most traffic was reasonably behaved.  Google Maps bicycle route picked some smaller roads to lead me right into downtown San Antonio.

Including some stops for food, I was at the Alamo by 12:45pm.  7 1/2 hours since starting.  A nice tailwind and some good cycling overall.  In afternoon I explored the downtown including the River Walk and some of the shops as well as the Alamo itself.  Stayed overnight in hotel and then next morning cycled ~9 miles back out to the Airport to rent a car and return back to Austin.  Overall, an excellent and fairly easy training ride.