Queueing in sleet at Denver

Certainly a change in weather and temps on the way home.  Left Austin at 78° and arrived in Denver at 32° and sleeting. As you can see United’s regional jets still require passengers to queue up on the tarmac, but this keeps us tough and probably the price down.

Fortunately it was in high 50’s in Durango and by mid-afternoon it was 72°.  After unpacking and shower the scale showed I’d gained 4.2 pounds.  Kinda disappointing since I’d figured I could easily eat all those milkshakes, fries and ice cream when I was burning over 5,000 calories a day.  Stanna was kind saying, “it must be muscle gain.” (Update: next day I was back down 3.6 pounds so it must have been water, cuz you don’t lose “muscle” that fast).  My send-off meal was a several-thousand-calorie Bacon Ruben with fries.  This restaurant, called Bacon, was quite unique with a very limited menu and all except the fries included bacon, even the pecan pie. I was hoping my metabolism was going to carry me

though this dining experience.

My only chore in Austin besides, silently celebrating my end-of-ride (Ivan was only half done and I’m sure it’s going to be different riding by yourself), was to score a bike shipping box.  Ivan & Jean had friends – Christi & Steve – who came up to Austin in their Suburban for the day (on Christi’s Birthday incidently) and shuttled me around for a box and shipping it.  And it was a TV show that Christi saw about the Bacon restaurant, so we all, including their Freshman UT daughter, tried out this iconic diner for our lunch. Great place for a “big lunch”. Turns out shipping thru FedEx at $60 was much cheaper than the United oversize baggage fee of $100.  I lucked out on shipping, both price and convenience.  Thanks to Christi & Steve.

Keep an eye on Ivan’s blog jgicblog.com he’s still going on solo to Vero Beach, Florida.