GAGA 2011

So there was a family reunion scheduled at my cousins house on the day I needed to do a long ride...with little bit of planning I figured I could pull it off.
Mom was ok w me riding there by myself once she found out I wouldn't be on 290, but I was wishing others could go w me, too.
Somehow I managed to talk MAD and KPT into going, also, thus the need for the second A in GAGA, the Great Austin to Giddings Adventure!

MAD dropped off a change of clothes w my mom on Thurs night. Friday KPT drove her car to Giddings on Friday, then took the bus back to Austin, an adventure in itself.
I drove my car to my mom's Friday night, gave her my stuff, realized my bike rack wouldn't fit on mom's car, so we would have to take them apart. Alison picked me up and took me home. Everything should be set. of course I woke up and remembered I forgot to get the cool ties to cool us down, oh well, we will live w/out them.

6:30 AM, MAD and I left the house in the dark to go fuel up at Mi Victoria bakery, surprisingly we beat KPT to the donuts! A donut and 2 breakfast tacos later and we are on the road!

8:55 AM in Elgin (27 miles), I think we must have taken longer at Mi Victoria than planned or I waited until I sent mom a text. Now for the roads we had never ridden on before, this should be exciting! Old McDade hwy, 'chased' by only 2 dogs luckily none of them got to close and didn't chase long!


The Old McDade Hwy ended into 290 at a section where cars were going 75 mph and there wasn't a shoulder to safely ride on. So time to put the second A in GAGA in place! We could see the sign for the turn, and there was a dirt road to get there! Road bike turns into mountain bike where's a cycle-cross bike when you need one? I was soon taking a hike w/ the bike cuz of the sand!

Well, at the end of the shortcut, we saw the road we needed to take--it was caliche (white hard packed dirt) that had just been covered with oil, but it soon went to pavement and we cruised on into the metropolis of McDade at 10:00 AM

McDade has an original strip mall complete with a saloon and a leathergoods place, all of which were closed on a Saturday morning. Maybe next time we can stop on the way back and see if the saloon is open.

After spending way too much time in McDade we headed down Old Hwy 20 to Paige. Well, about 15 mins into the ride, we run out of pavement.
Time to consult the phone...Paige is 6 miles away via Old Potato road and 290 (scary). So time to mountain bike w/ the road bike again! The second A in GAGA continues! The caliche wasn't too bad. The Caliche wasn't too bad.

But the red dirt and washboards turned us into bobbleheads on a bike.
MAD is 50 ft ahead of me cussing and KPT is 50-75 ft behind me dropping F & S bombs as her head and neck turn into a bobble head doll! I start giggling at them and at the @$$ chewing I will receive once we are finished "Kim, I knew I should have 'reconned' the road on my way to Giddings yesterday." and who knows what MAD would have said. Then I had this vision of them in a nursing home talking about bike adventures and bringing up the one 'where Kim wanted us to ride to her family reunion and we had to ride 5 miles on the dirt road!' I was giggling so much I almost had tears rolling down my dusty cheeks. At one pint we road past the site for some renaissance festival, one would think they would have appreciated a paved road, but no. And parts of the road were still paved...patches about 3 ft x 8 ft (what a tease) and you would look up the road and the red dirt would end, but no it was just an illusion and the white caliche was still there mocking us and our 8 mph stretch of bumpy road, I'll never complain about pot holes again, cuz at least pot holes are usually an indication there is pavement! Kristen was just a tad bit happy to see pavement!

Once at the Whoop Stop in Paige, mile 47, 11:30 AM (30 mins later than anticipated) we refueled (Moon Pies have no flavor, btw), kinda put on sunscreen (missed the upper arms), then headed off to Old Hwy 20...

After 1/4 mile of Old Hwy 20, we meet up w/ our new friend the caliche road! KPT stops and says she's not going on that way, MAD agrees, so we head back into Paige and go to the Yarnorama ...the playground for the fiber obsessed. MAD & I walk in and looks like there are 2 hippies teaching a weaving class. We get a strange look (was it the spandex? the helmet? or the leftover moon pie on the face?) and I ask if I can interrupt to ask a question about the road. It was confirmed that Old Hwy 20 is dirt from there on out. They don't even offer a different route or seem concerned...too much funny smokes or non Texan or both?
Once Outside KPT informs us that the 290 shoulder is better. I decide to call my cousin and see if she knows a different route. I call her home and her mother in law answers, the one who had given me answers about the condition of the county roads. When I tell her where we are and that Old Hwy 20 was dirt, she said, "Well Honey, you didn't ask me about that one!" Needless to say, she was able to give us an easier way to get to my cousins house--only 2 major turns!

So off to the FM road to the right of the Chevron as you face 290. Well, there is a line of cars waiting for the pilot car to take them thru the road. The road was freshly chipsealed and they were still packing one side. The flagger let us go through, "just watch out for the heavy machinery."

No drafting on this road unless you want to take the chance of rocks hitting you in the face!

After passing a burned area, several sweepers and other machinery, the chipseal ended and we got to turn on the road to Serbin.
Finally Serbin, a very small town with a historical marker. only a few more turns to go. We arrived at Camp Tejas, the map I had said the house was before the camp, so I call my cousin again, this time her father in law answers, he tells us we have 1/2 a mile to go.
We can see the white pipe fence he was talking about and there is a sharp hill to climb. MAD stands up and starts chanting something about beer! Needless to say she makes it up the hill first. We see the ranch and our welcome sign "The GAGA ends here!" that my cousin's daughter made, so of course we had to take pictures by the sign.

At the same time my relatives started gathering on the front driveway cheering for us and taking pictures! Wouldn't you know it, it was 1/4 mile of dirt road to get to the house!

After having our picture taken several times, we take off most of the bike gear, grab a cold lonestar and head inside to go jump in the pool, but we are stopped by the buffet of goodies on every horizontal surface that we must taste!
Finally the pool!

Maybe next time we will just call the ride the GAG and consult Carolyn (cousin's mother in law) about all the road conditions.

And hanging w/ the family was just as fun as the GAGA!

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Miles for this ride: 65
Miles for the week: 99
Total miles for the month: over 300
Total miles for 2011: 1018
Miles to go: 482 to hit 1500!
Odometer: 10827 (it rounds and I round the other stats thus the difference)