I was out in Austin, TX this past weekend.  My mom and dad reached their 50th wedding anniversary.  Wow!  That’s my 6-year-old niece.  I made her eat 6 green beans at dinner.  That’s how I got my kids to eat (and start liking) vegetables.

So… I had to take advantage of the opportunity and rented an Ibis Mojo.  It was 95 degrees with high humidity, which is terrible riding weather, but I didn’t care.

I went out to City Park Loop, which is a very fun and technical rocky ride.  I love it.  I noticed that the chain was sucking a little, but it was OK.

The next morning I went to the Barton Creek Greenbelt, a 14-mile out and back ride with a lot of nice singletrack.  Even their fire roads are loaded with rocks.  I was climbing up a rock and I heard a snap.  The hub froze and wouldn’t free-wheel.  I got to ride about half of the ride as a fixed-gear.  It wasn’t too bad though and the Austin Bicycle Sports Shop comped my rental!  The best part was paying $3 afterward to jump into the Barton Springs pool.  It is a huge natural pool and the water is 68 degrees year round.

My favorite booths were Palm, Magic Hat and Stone.  I also liked all of the beers from The Bruery and Haven Gastropub.  My ultimate favorite beer though was a sour from the Haven Gastropub booth.  It’s called “Cuvee des Jacobins – Rouge – Flanders Red Ale” and I made her pose in front of it.  We went there last night for dinner in search of it, but they didn’t have it!  HELP…where can I get more???

The parking lot was jammed on the way out, but we needed the downtime, so we sat in the bed of my truck and watched a bunch of drunk guys break out into an improvised version of MMA cage wrestling.  It was kind of intense, but nobody got hurt.  One guy threw up, but that comes with the territory.

I’ve been riding locally, mostly on my own.  I still do the Thursday rides at Whiting. I’ve also been out to Fullerton Loop a few times, and San Juan and done some docent rides.

My cousin from Hawaii was in town a while back.  It was nice to see him.  He has a one track mind… Partying!  It was great that he got to meet some friends.  Here’s a couple of squirrelfish (u’u) he caught off the front yard at the Hilo house.

So these are purple sage plants.  They’re actually a pretty rare site, but they are flowering right now and there is quite an abundance of these in the park.  I did some exploring out in Blair Witch and some of the best parts are still under water from the rains.  I rode several of the short up and down trails in Irvine Park and checked out the Nature Center.

I went down to Carnitas Los Reyes afterward.  There was a line out the door, which is typical on the weekends.  OK, it’s a dirty little taco joint with a “don’t ask, don’t tell” kind of kitchen, but it is the best place I know for cheap, great Mexican food.  This is all I have to say about that place:

Dear chicharron burrito (fried pork rinds),

Thank you for being so awesome.  Your beans, cheese, salsa, and grease-dripping meat put me in a food coma.  I long for the day I will return to eat more of your ancestors.

Love, Brad

p.s. I admired the velvet painting of the bandito with the caption “Fue borracho parrandor y jugador muy huebon el cabron”, which loosely translated means “He was drunk and looking very much like an asshole”.

I got my haircut in Placentia, so I brought my bike along and burned a loop out in nearby Fullerton.  It was perfect riding weather.  This is one of my favorite rides.  Brewed some Belgian Wit today, while watching Tiger Woods’ return to The Masters.

Sharon had sent out an invite to go out to Noble Canyon.  We’ve been wanting to go out there, but decided to do it as shuttles instead.  I was able to talk Janis into driving us down there and shuttling us up to the top twice!  The riding was spectacular.  Different sections reminded me of trails we ride like San Juan, Palm Canyon and Mt. Wilson.

Here’s the Stairway to Hell section.

Of course, anytime we’re within a 50-mile radius of Stone Brewing, we had to stop in.  It was packed today, but we got our food and a couple of beers, oh and filled our growlers.

I crashed the docent ride out in Weir Canyon, because Dave wanted to do the ride and then hit Mattern.  It’s typically a beginner ride, but they did some extra credit.  After riding out to the end of Weir Canyon, we headed up a ridge that overlooks the 241 toll road.  The wildflowers were out, so we did a little hiking around there.  It was a quick ride out and a spectacular lunch.

The goal: Drink beers along a 7-mile ride. Whew!

We brought Spring riding in with style.  It was Scott, Dave, Sagit, Akos, Terry and Brent.  It was a bold undertaking, but in the end we were successful.  It took a while, and we ended up coming out of the park under cover of darkness.

I dig these trees.  They’re called Blue Ceanothus.  When they’re in bloom, whole hillsides look blue.  Dave and Dr. Mike and I did a quick run up to Beek’s Place and back and then headed over to Mattern.