Spring Tour Day 1 - Austin to Temple, TX

Oh yeah. 83 miles. Beautiful day. The trike is fixed.



Life is good.

Here is the sunny happy morning in the hostel.



With crew races going on in the river outside.



We were on the road about 8:30. First stop was the eminently competent Breed and Co. hardware store, where the nice old Texas gentleman in his suspenders immediately located a stainless steel 1/4" 28 tpi nut so I could fix my brakes. (The BROL board thinks I am not fixed yet, and I need a British standard 1/4" 28 tpi nut, and they may be right, but for the time being I have brakes on both wheels.)



Next was breakfast at some 24 hour joint packed with weirdos. It had a french name but they made realy good breakfast tacos.



We were on the the road for real around 10:30.

We were outside of the built up regions around Austin in 20 miles or so, and it was all cotton farms more or less, with the odd Ostrich operation.



We also saw some longhorn cattle and a pecan orchard. As you go north from Austin, cattle replace the cotton fields.

The find of the day was this place.



Remy's German Restaurant, in Taylor, TX. It doesn't look like much from the outside. There is an open patio with iron works decorating the windows. Inside was one customer, an old lady at the table in the back who appeared to speak no English working on her needlepoint, and a hefty German waitress.

The menu was all German food. Jim and I both ordered Stroganoff. The waitress said "Ve haff ze goulash today."

Jim switched to goulash. I hesitated and looked at the menu. Goulash looks like stroganoff with beef as well as pork, and you can have it on potatoes instead of spaetzl if you like.

The waitress said "Ze stroganoff iss for ze ladies."

OK, I'll have the goulash.



OH MY GOD WAS THIS GOOD. Homemade spaetzl noodles to die for. Succulent and tender meat. Delicious savory sauce. And what you are seeing here is the lunch special portion, half price and half size. I had to make a supreme effort to finish, and I'd just ridden 40 miles.

Also worthy of note was the truly stunning artistic decor of this place.



These are jigsaw puzzels with silver gilding, glued to a backing board and hung on the wall. They are on every wall. They are almost all scenes of wolves and Indians.



After this experience is near the top of stumbled upon restaurants ever. The tab came to $15.16. For both of us.

Ee had no problem finishing strong after all that goulash. It was a beautiful day, in the low 60s, sunny and with a moderate tailwind. We were in well before dark to the Motel 6.


Just up the street was our dinner choice, the Texas Roadhouse. Mmmmmm steak.



Unfortunately, it's Saturday night, and the wait for a table was an hour. We went to Denny's. Woe. And got some beer from the gas station up the street.

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