Stream of Consciousness

Okay, so I am here in San Marcos, Texas, between Austin and San Antonio. I slept at Patrick Rougeau's house last night in Austin--Patrick is Christian Rougeau's brother, and Christian volunteers at the Mt Rainier Bike Coop sometimes. The day before I left Austin, Christian emailed me and told me that his brother lived there, and I needed a place to stay that night so I had Christian connect me with his brother. It was fun to hang out with Patrick, meet his and his girlfriend's dog, a pug named Rocky. I got to play lots with Rocky--he is very smart with lots of energy. Very fun to play with. He knows tricks, like he can stand on his hind legs, and turn around, he can roll over on the ground, he can beg, he can shake with each hand, and I even taught him a trick--to jump into my arms. He did that this morning when he was very excited to see me after a night without seeing me.

I also got to meet Patrick's girlfriend Gloria, and Gloria's two sisters Mari and Gabbi (Patrick please correct me if I have one of the names off). Gloria's parents are from Mexico, but they all grew up in Austin. They are "Austinites". Gloria and her sisters went out to a club last night because one of Gloria's friends owns the club and she is reopening it after being shut down for a while. It now has a new name and new feel. And Gloria got VIP tickets for last night. I would have gone but I wanted to get a good night's rest since I planned to bike 70 miles today or more.

Well, this morning, on my way out, I stopped at Fedex Kinkos to finalize my route using computer maps. When there, I remembered that earlier I had submitted a design for some business cards and they should be ready. Indeed they were, and I bought the design at half-price (the manager agreed for charity purposes). I took the design and had the copy center print off four sheets (card stock) for 20 cents a sheet, and then I cut the cards. This was much less costly than having them do the cutting. So now I have real business cards that say, "Undo Global Warming" and they have a map of the Americas and a little picture of a cyclist on his way to somewhere. And of course they have my blog address and other contact information.

Getting all that done, plus talking to a professional actor on the way out of the store, plus eating lunch at "Veggie Heaven" on 21st and Guadaloupe got me on the road at 1:30pm, and this did not leave enough time to arrive in San Antonio before dark. I met some guy on the way at a gas station who told me that the roads between there and San Marcos were great for biking with shoulders all the way. He drew a map for me of the route to San Marcos, and he mentioned that he used to live there. He recommended stopping here, as did the pro actor I met at Kinkos. I needed a good place to stop anyway, so I made it my goal. I made it to San Marcos, and then I went into another gas station and asked some young guy where the center of town was, where all the activity is. He directed me to downtown, which he mentioned was pretty much near the center of campus. I said, "Campus? What University lies here? He said, "Haven't you ever bee here? Where are you from?" I told him DC, and he understood. "Texas State lies here," he said. He told me the business program was good, but they basically have everything.

Okay, so I made it to a college/university town. Now I need to find a place to crash.