The BOB Has Arrived

What do you do when your best friend calls you, tells you he's going on an epic bike ride across the country, and that he's moving to Oregon when he finishes? Well naturally I quit my job, bought a bike, moved out of Boston, and flew down to Texas to meet him.

...So here we are: Austin, Texas. Meet TJ:

For the next few months, we're going to be biking from Austin to San Diego, up the West Coast to Brookings, Oregon, and seeing all the cool stuff along the way. Wait...when does it start snowing? Good thing I brought some gloves. But first thing's first. Welcome, the BOB:

Building up a Long Haul Trucker on the sidewalk. A huge thanks to Wheelworks in Boston for giving me a killer deal on the bike, and packing it up for shipment. The beast arrived in one piece, which is more than I could have asked for:

We've been down in Austin since Tuesday, seeing the sights and living the dream. Here are some views from the South:

Awesome bike path along the Colorado River (not to be confused with THE Colorado River...See: Colorado River - Texas)

 TJ outside the first ever Whole Foods (also known as the greatest place on Earth): 

Live concert at Whole Foods, which went extra good with a $4 bottle of delicious wine:

Barton Springs:

 Amazing Tex-Mex from Chuys:

Lady Bird Lake:

All the meat in the world. Salt Lick, possibly the coolest restaurant that ever was:

Congress Street at night:

There are 1.5 million bats flying out of here, but I doubt you can see them. See BATS:

6th Street on a Saturday night. Ridiculous: 

We stumbled upon Hill Country Running one afternoon, and stopped in to get TJ some shoes. These guys were the best! They gave us some free shirts, a discount on the shoes, and held up to the South's reputation of being incredibly nice, all the time. Check them out here:

A special thanks to our awesome friends Chris and Alicia, who we originally met at Ithaca College. They totally put up with all of our touring gear, stinky running shorts, and shenanigans until we stopped drinking and started actually planning this trip. You guys are amazing, thanks so much for everything:

Well now that I've officially revived this Blog, hopefully I can manage to keep it up. Check back soon for more tales from the (actual) road, and more awkwardly awesome pictures of TJ and I hanging out in spandex. 

Also check out TJ's Blog here:

http://gallopinggears.blogspot.com/

-Brian