Willow City Loop for my birthday

I was asked what I wanted to do on my birthday, my ideas were: bike Willow City Loop, go camping in Colorado Bend State Park with Jason, or have people over to decorate my back yard.
Marlyn said she would like to do WCL! I was thrilled!
Slept late & by 10:15 or so we were at MiV getting fuel for the ride.
For some reason it took us  forever to drive to Willow City, could it be the extra eclair stop in Dripping Springs followed by the coke stop in Johnson City?. I think we had wheels down at 12:30! Yikes!

Marilyn noticed this sign & was wondering what "western Pleasures" are, I'm afraid to google it!

Great time riding downhill. A nice man in a truck even warned us of it. Felt awesome to be outdoors in the sunshine with the wind blowing.

First cool sighting was the boot fence. I don't remember it being here in the past. We tried to see if there were any pairs of boots or if they  all belonged to someone with only 1 leg? Where did they get them? Some are still in good shape except for that cut down the back so it would slide down the fence & over the barbed wire.

Had to stop and take blue bonnet pics!

 Took a detour on Willow City Click road and we discovered these cacti blooming, after that we saw them everywhere.

I really wanted a shovel to dig one up, wonder how often they bloom?

Then there's the livestock on the road.  It's important to stop & look at them chewing.

This guy was an ass.

By then end of the ride the heat started to get to us, we were low on water & happy to be back in the car!

But what a fun day to be able to go on a country ride on your birthday with your best friend! Kudos to Marilyn for taking the risk! Hope she does some ride w ABCx this summer, she's a good cyclist.

On the way back, we spent some time at the Knot in the Loop, drinking a cold one & looking at the items on the wall. Once back in Austin we ate pizza and awesome cheese bread at  Austin Pizza Garden in Oak Hill with at least 3 little league teams & families. According to the historical marker Marilyn read, it used to be a brewery called Spoetzl or something like that she said, the one I read said it was a general store. You decide.

Commuted home on Monday & back on Tuesday, rear wheel still squeaks somehow... ugh, took it apart & back together Mon night. Great temp to ride in! With the fitbit, I did 48 flights of stairs home & 6o0 to work, plus about 3500 steps. At Willow City, it was 126 flights of stairs & 8000+ steps. fun with the FitBit.

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Miles for these rides: 21, 8.5, 10
Total miles for the month of April:111.94
Total miles for 2013: 538.69
Miles  til 2013:  1474.31  (got a long way to go, but it's getting smaller)
One way commutes in April so far: 6
Total one way commutes in 2013: 24
Odometer
Road: 13444
Cross: 1771
Trip2:
Road:264.86
Cross: 285.65