Tina Guest Blogging from the Forest

My parents live about an hour outside of Austin in an area called the Lost Pines. You don't really think of trees when you think of Texas (at least I don't!), but this area is nothing but forest. So yesterday, I thought I'd just ride around the forest roads... What I did not realize was that the roads are NOTHING BUT HILLS.

Have I mentioned I have not yet mastered the art of skid stopping? Or should I say HAD not mastered it - these hills whipped me into shape in no time.

It may not look bad from this angle, but just take my word for it.

I stopped to die for a minute at a clearing in the woods.

There was some Deliverance shit happening nearby...There was a slew of roosters being tortured, or fighting, or screaming or something. I'm pretty positive I also heard a banjo. Then, this duo on a tandem randomly stopped on the road EXACTLY in front of me. One of them was blind - literally. I leaped out of the forest to introduce myself...and then rode to the city for the ladies' night ride.

Midwesterners, take note: sleeveless + sunny in January. What are we doing?!

Tina Guest Post: Riding Around Austin

Hi, This is Tina. Don't believe that "posted by Mark$ter" shit at the bottom of this entry. I'm guest blogging from Austin, since the real Bike Jerks apparently have nothing better to write about than holograms of Johnny Cash!

My trip to Austin began by getting the deluxe pat-down by security at the Milwaukee airport, thanks to my non-removable bike chain bracelet.

DAY 1: Pure rain. Boring. I said before I left, "Well, it's not gonna rain in Austin. It never rains there." Wrong.

DAY 2: Went to Fast Folks to watch Eric Puckett build my Drop-Out, which I had shipped from Milwaukee (since it'll be an interminable amount of time before I can ride it there).

Fast Folks is super awesome, AND it's owned by a girl. Big points.

Then, I met up with John Prolly. See his post of our afternoon HERE.

My hell-sled:

John and I randomly ran into a hodge-podge crew heading out to ride to the top of Mount Bonnell but rode off in favor of hitting up local bike shops.

Everyone keeps telling me about all these weekly group rides happening in Austin... This is new to me. I mean I know things happen in Milwaukee from time to time, but weekly rides of a different variety every day of the week?

EXAMPLE: Monday = Heavy Metal Ride (!!!); Wednesday = Girls' Ride; Thursday = "Social Ride" (I put that in quotes because it sounds ridiculous). Do other cities do this?

Super T And Her Dropout

Reppin' hard on PROLLY