October 11th, 2006
Livestrong Challenge Austin Day 2
Even though we tried to sleep in we were unsuccessful and were up and showering about 8 in the morning. By the time Paul, Ron, and I had rotated through the showers it was past 9:30 and we headed out to find a Starbucks so that they could get some coffee. I on the other hand loathe coffee so planned on getting a Chai Tea. Since we had no idea where one was we headed over to Sixth Street and headed downtown. If there’s one law of a downtown area its that you’ll find a Starbucks if you go down the busiest streets. If we had been smarter we would’ve read the sign in our hotel that said there was one there. Afterwards we swung by the convention center and realized that the Livestrong Village wouldnt open till noon so we grabbed Paul’s car to head over to the Austin Bicycle Sport Shop to get some supplies for the ride.
If you go to Austin I highly recommend the Austin Bicycle Sport Shop as its one of the nicest bike shops ive been in. We went there last year and I imagine it will stay a necessity every time we go to Austin. They’re also one of the sponsors of the Livestrong Challenge and last years Ride For The Roses, probably more than those but since i was only there for them can only say those for sure. Since my knees have been giving me problems since the MS 150 in New Bern we looked at some Speedplay pedals which Ill probably move to soon. Ill be getting the stainless steel X2’s before I attempt another distance ride such as the Livestrong Challenge. I also decided to get some Buzzkills, these are a special kind of endcaps that you put into your handlebars which will dampen road vibration. I remembered several sections of rough road from last years Ride For The Roses and decided it would be a good investment for as little as they cost. I can attest now that they were well worth the money and you should get some if you havent yet. Other than that we just picked up some CO2 cartridges for our flat kits since we couldnt take ours with us on the plane and Ron continued to try to talk his friend Paul into buying a bike and riding with us next year.
By that time it was time for lunch so we hit Chuy’s for some burritos. If you dont know about Chuy’s you probably havent read Lance Armstrong’s books. He loves the place and eats there often so last year for the Ride For The Roses we had to check it out. The foods good and the place is decorated with sculpted fish, elvis decor, and a psychedelic paintjob. Its a quintessential Austin experience that one should take in when in town. This year Ron and I decided to do a warm up run so we headed by a local running store so Paul could pick up some running shoes before heading back to the hotel.
By the time we got back to the hotel the Livestrong Village was open and we headed over so that Paul could see what the ride was about and get a sense of what was going on. Ron and I also wanted to head over to see if things had picked up since it was so slow and small the day before, in the end it hadnt. Our views on the village may have been tainted by the Roses ride last year since it was so large and over the top. If we hadnt been the year before the village this year might not have been below our expectations.
We changed into our running clothes and headed up Congress Street to the Capital building and past that onto the University of Texas at Austin. Ron had a request from a friend for a flex fit Longhorns hat so we figured around campus would be the best area. In the end we ended up in a shop called Tyler’s directly across from campus which turned out to be a great find. Inside we found a box of Nike 10//2 Lance apparel all marked down for clearance. Anyone whose bought these shirts know they run about $30-$40 dollars and we got several for half price. In the end Ron never found the right kind of hat but we did get some cool clothes.
We all took another round of showers and headed up to the Spaghetti Warehouse to carb load for the ride the next day. Basically we were following our footsteps from the year before when we had also eaten there. Its a pretty good restaurant with tons of pasta obviously and which is needed before undertaking a ride as long as the Livestrong Challenge. Apparently we werent the only ones with the idea as we had a 45 minute wait so headed over to Six next door while we waited for a table to open up. The day before a Trek representative had told us about Six. Its a restaurant that Lance opened after his sixth tour win and apparently his friend College sometimes works the bar. It just happened to be attached to the Spaghetti Warehouse so we headed up to the open air rooftop to get some drinks. It helped me come to the conclusion that I love rooftop bars and every city needs them.
After dinner, where i had a 15 layer lasagna and chicken pasta combination, Paul packed up and headed back to Houston while Ron tried to conk out for the ride. I used the time to knock out my accounting homework problems since I had finished the reading. It all balanced out because Paul ended up forgetting his laptop bag after he had driven an hour and came back to get it so we had to wait up for him to get there and grab it before crashing for the night.
