Sailing Texas Style/Austin

Austin Texas

I left Houston astern on Friday morning and headed for Austin. I made a stop at a Sonic Burger in the little ole Texas Town of La Grange. I dig it as this is the town made famous by the ZZ Top tune, aptly named La Grange. " You know what I'm talkin bout. Just let know if you go to that home out on the range."

But, I just couldn't wait to get to Austin. And I did. I am staying with the nicest people. Of course you all remember my buddy John Gamble, well I am staying with his Uncle David and Aunt Barbara in their beautiful home. Once again I have scored and scored big time. Here are a couple of pictures of the loft that I am staying in.

Uncle David is a retired Doctor, and someone I would label as "activity man." He is on the go no doubt. Aunt Barbara is a highly green thumbed gardener and excellent cook. I'm in great hands.

I can barley keep up blog wise with all the things we've done since I arrived. Here is a shot of Austin and the Colorado River that runs through the city taken at an over look.

On the little tour of pleasures through Austin we made a stop at Lance Armstrong's Bike shop named "Mello Jonny's Bike Shop" and followed that up with a stop at Whole Foods World Headquarters. I had to juice at HQ.

We followed up after a good nights rest with a bike ride first thing, before the Texas heat built in. We were joined by David's two friends, also physicians, so I felt pretty good about my traveling health care team, just in case I biffed. This ride gave me an even greater appreciation for my rapidly growing excitement of Austin. Not long after our bike ride we went for a tour of Austin. One of the highlights was checking out the Texas State Capital and the Campus of The University of Texas at Austin. Pictured below is the infamous Tower on the campus where Charles Whitman killed 14 and wounded 32 in a shooting rampage in 1966.

But what ya'll are really jazzed about is the fact David owns a J-24 and is an active racer out of the Austin Yacht Club. And so I put on my nautical thinking cap for this unexpected sail on Lake Travis.

Wow is Lake Travis beautiful. We had beautiful conditions of 10-15 knots out the southeast and plenty of boats to race against, all J-24's.

We raced in two races, placing 3rd and then 2nd. I really have little racing experience, so it really was exciting, especially jockeying for position at the starting mark and then rounding the windward and leeward marks. My job was in the pit. In charge of feeding the spinnaker out the hatch and then retrieving the beast. We had such a good time and I was really excited to find a very active sailing community in central Texas of all places. Another notch in the Austin belt of awesomeness.

What else have I done might you ask? Well, great dinners each night, with fresh veggies from the Austin community garden. And this morning I made it to a yoga class.

And this afternoon David and I toured the LBJ Library. Love the history of our nation. It is very humbling to see things like the Presidential Limo and the bible used to swear in LBJ moments after the JFK assassination in Dallas.  All the upheaval of Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement is well displayed in exhibits.

You have to ask, well what is left to do? I'm stoked to report that activity man owns a cattle ranch in the hill country of western Texas. So I'm heading to the ranch tomorrow where I will stay in the bunk house before pushing further west and closer to San Francisco on Tuesday.

Capt Chris