Last summer i started to ride long distances and really enjoyed the experience of discovering new landscapes and spending a lot of physical energy on locomotion. I did several rides across massachusetts using the red basket bicycle that i got in the acetarium. It was a japanese bike from the 70s in pretty good shape and with big tires. It glided fast even if only a few gears were working properly. I will write about these journeys later in this blog so i can provide more details about them. However, this entry is about my first long ride in texas, the state where i am living now. This journey went from the Hyde Park neighborhood in Austin, to the town of Plugerville in the north. Approximatelly 11 miles or 17.7 kilometers.
As you can see in this trace, the journey was pretty linear. The urban grid of Austin is not very complex and reveals the history of a rural town who tries to become a city by adding suburbs and expanding along an interstate highway. I tried to stay most of the time in little streets but after 30 minutes of drifting through residential neighborhoods i ended in the big avenue called Lamar. It was my only option to continue north. Otherwise i would have to take a highway.
Riding a bike in the Lamar avenue was kind of tough because the popular truckas texanas and big usvs tend to ignore the little bodies. Besides that, the surface of the street is plenty of little rocks and pieces of glass or other little sharp particles that are constantly moved by the automobiles tires and the wind. At two sides of the avenue an americana landscape of drive ways and stores with extensive parking lots invite the drivers to consume, eat, and fix their machines.
I found a random cemetery of eye reflective signals at the border of Lamar. It is not the first time i have encountered these pieces of the road. I keep finding them everywhere i go in Texas. As a hunter gatherer and bricoleur, i have become used to picking them up and collecting them. Collecting found objects is a practice that i enjoy when i am exploring a jungle, or walking at the beach, or climbing a mountain. In Texas, the road ecosystem lets you collect unattached road studs. Lost pieces of a car world.
