Jump to page: << 1 2 3 4 >>

Sunday, 28 August 2011 - Second-hottest day on record!

 
 

So today was apparently the second-hottest day ever recorded in San Antonio - 110 degrees Fahrenheit which is about 43 Celsius (the hottest was 111 in September 2000). Kristina's mate was having a baby shower this afternoon so I tagged along with the bike, left her to it, and with the 43-degree sun beating down on me I set off to scope out the hood. Just like yesterday when it was just a couple degrees cooler, I felt completely devoid of energy on the bike. Looks like 40 C (104 F) is about my limit before the heat starts to have an effect, although I have just come from the United Kingdom which probably doesn't help.

 
Anyway, this is Fair Oaks Ranch (which for some reason has its own Wikipedia page), and nice though it is there wasn't much I hadn't already seen elsewhere.
 
Deer all over people's properties...

 
 
Large brown properties...
 
US flags all over the place, etc.
 
Like what - randoms on bikes taking photos of everything?

 
 
Later in the day we had a massive rain shower that lasted for all of ten minutes but was thoroughly exciting for the locals nonetheless.
 
Our next stop was Medina Lake west of San Antonio, looking considerably low.

 
 
In the background there is a dam. We were talking to some folk who said they remember when you could swim up to that and see over the top hahaha - drought indeed.
 
Anyway, it was bloody nice, and the thunder in the distance just added to the atmos, as did the fish that randomly swam into us or would bite us every so often hehe.

 
 
Good times.
 
I was in the mood for some Texas BBQ for dinner, and apparently Rudy's is the spot for a bit of that. Pork ribs, sausage, turkey, and brisket (different part of the cow) - nom nom nom! I gotta tell ya, I'm loving Texas ;)

Monday, 29 August 2011 - Toobing!

 
Today saw us loaded on to this once-upon-a-time school bus and dropped off here - the Comal River in the city of New Braunfels, northeast of San Antonio.
 
 
And this is what we spent all day doing - tubing (or "toobing" as they pronounce it here hehe)! The Comal River is one of the shortest in the world, and is in fact a tributary of the Guadalupe River where we were on Saturday. Comal is fed by the nearby freshwater Comal Springs, and hence there is water here (albeit less than usual) unlike the section of the Guadalupe we saw on Saturday.
 
 

 
 
There were the occasional fun parts of the river - one such video here.

 
 
But for the most part we just cruised along (and ate grapes) for the two-hour route, and then did it all over again. Nice!
 
Some folk brought dogs along too, including this cute wee guy who couldn't swim (despite his best efforts) so he rode his bitch's back instead.

 
 
While waiting around to be picked up we found another old school bus. Kristina couldn't believe that we just don't have anything like the iconic American school buses where I come from. Different worlds I tell ya, different worlds.
 
For dinner I tried something called a po' boy - a traditional sub from Louisiana that usually contains roast meat or seafood as in this case. Good stuff!

Wednesday, 31 August 2011 - Toys!

 
New toys - yay! The little laptop there is just something cheap and crappy to take on our travels with which to get on the internet, use Skype, backup photos, entertain us if we get really desperate, and so on. Plus I need it to keep this website updated as we go - that was pretty much the real reason for handing over $229.99 to the man.
 
As for this beast with the big fuck-off lens, it was kind of a last-minute decision. My little point-and-shoot (awesome though it is) struggles in certain lighting conditions, which can make getting a half-decent photo out of it a time-consuming and patience-testing affair. Tolerable for the occasional trip, but for a seven-month jaunt around the world, not so much. This thing should have no such issues, but be that as it may I'm still in two minds about whether to keep it. On the one hand it's awesome, but on the other it's a big bulky piece of kit that might be tedious to lug around and liable to get damaged or stolen. Plus it cost me a grand. I've got another week to play and think about it.
 
 
Being a DSLR, you can do some pretty cool shit with it. For example, take these two shots here: left is Kristina's local pool, right is a parking lot in a nearby shopping complex. Take two additional shots - one at a lower exposure and one at a higher exposure, chuck all three shots into some funky computer software and you get...
 
 
...an HDR image! HDR stands for "high dynamic range", and in a nutshell is a post-processing technique of combining images shot at dark, medium, and bright exposures, adjusting contrast ratios and various other things to produce a more vibrant image than is possible in a single shot alone. Or to get more technical about it, HDR is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminance between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This website here has some awesome examples!
 
 
You can get quite artsy-fartsy with it all too if you're that way inclined. A DSLR camera isn't really necessary to do all this, but it makes life easier. Anyway, I'm off to play with my toys some more.

Thursday, 1 September 2011 - Gruene

 
Today we ventured out to Gruene (pronounced like "Green"), once upon a time a stand-alone town but is now part of New Braunfels (where we went tubing on Monday). Back in its heyday at the start of last century, Gruene was a significant cotton-producing community. However, the boll weevil blight in 1920 and the Great Depression in the 1930s completely ruined the town, and by 1950 it was essentially abandoned and had become a ghost town. Redevelopment and restoration of the area throughout the 1970s and 1980s gave new life to Gruene, and today it has a thriving tourist industry. The town still maintains the look and feel of old, and it's general store in particular is pretty cool.
 
 
Gruene sits on the Guadalupe River (which has had a mention three times now), but unlike the first time I saw it last Saturday, this section of it had some half-decent amounts of water. So after scoping out the town and stuffing our face with lunch, we spent the rest of the day cooling off and swimming here - nice :)
 
 
And I started having some fun with HDR again. Original shot...
 
HDR.
 
 
Original...
 
Artsy-fartsy HDR.
 
 
Original...
 
HDR, and how awesome does that look?!

 
 
On our way out we called into the general store to grab an ice cream, and I thought I'd have a go at the Love Tester here.
 
2/10 - Clammy.
 
Kristina on the other hand, 8/10 - Passionate. So there you go.

Friday, 2 September 2011 - Randy Texan women

 
The San Antonio River Walk by night (HDR on the right).
 
 
Kristina, Zach (her twin) and I ventured into downtown tonight for a few drinks. We wandered into some joint called Pat O'Briens which served up live music in one area, a club upstairs pumping out the doof-doof, and a piano bar out the back. They also serve a supposed world-famous rum-based cocktail called a Hurricane; world-famous in America maybe.
 
 
Zach quickly picked up a fan in grandma here, who was all over him like a fly on manure.
 
She was pretty fickle though hehe, much to Zach's relief ;)

Saturday, 3 September 2011 - The cycle "unfriendly" city

 
Another 40-something degree day, and I decided to cycle the 20-something kilometres into Downtown San Antonio hehe. I stocked up with Powerade and ice water and left Kristina's about 1pm, with my manly masculine chest exposed for all to admire (and to help cool me).
 
 
I started out on main roads before retreating into the suburbs. Kristina, who barely knew what a bicycle even was before meeting me, has always banged on about how I wouldn't be able to do in San Antonio what I do on a bike elsewhere because I'd just get wiped out by a car. Admittedly, if one was to drive into downtown they'd take the maze of highways, but no idiot is going to cycle down a highway and I found a suburban route that would get me there also - perfectly safe!

 
 
Hooray for shade, tail-winds, and a downhill route! Made the heat more tolerable.
 
In New Zealand they use bicycles, in the UK they push trolleys, and in the US the postman hoons around in these things (gives them somewhere to retreat when getting chased by a dog).
 
As good an excuse as any.

 
The areas closer to downtown are a bit rough in parts compared to those further north, but as long as you can put nice rims on your truck then you've got it made.
 
 
Not everyone is concerned with their rims however.
 
Pimp My Ride fail.
 
 
After an hour of winding my way through random neighbourhoods, and passing at least half a dozen (fenced) dogs that wanted a piece of me but only two other cyclists, I made it into downtown. And it was pretty quiet considering San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the US.
 
 
I basically passed right through and into the King William district. I'm not sure who King William was but his district is pretty damn nice! There's apparently quite a bit to see around here, but all I wanted to see was food and air conditioning.
 
So with that I headed to Mad Hatters to raid their drinks machine. If anyone cares, here is the route I took from Kristina's hood.

 
 
Kristina was coming down with the car to pick me up in about an hour (because I couldn't be arsed biking uphill all the way back again), so I went for a hoon around the central city to see what I could see. River Walk here which I've mentioned before...

 
 
Good times with the traffic...
 
and a very desperate man.
 
What happens after 2014?

 
 
I also found some sort of hot rod display, and these things were freakin' sweet, and freakin' loud!
 
Anyway, by the time I had to meet Kristina the odometer (which I reset back to zero when I left London) ticked over to 100kms, and they've been the sweatiest 100 I've ever done!

Jump to page: << 1 2 3 4 >>


Page Comments