run 1:42:00 [3]
Ran some trails in Bastrop State Park, a pleasant enough outing. I saw some orienteers leaving the park as I was coming in, and while I was running, I was wondering what the orienteering there would be like. An awful lot of what I saw was pine forest with a pretty dense understory of what I'm guessing is some sort of invasive ornamental shrub, and that part of the forest would have been pretty tough going. There were also some more open parts of a scruffy sort of oak dominated forest with some scattered glades that would have been more runnable. Maybe other parts of the park were more like that.
But the highlight of the day was my visit to Austin, where I paid a visit to the SRV statue. Which proved to be much more difficult to find than I would have guessed. I google mapped it before getting there, and the address looked easy enough. In the end I walked around nearly an hour or more before finally spotting it--from the wrong side of the river after having been mis-directed there by friendly Texans. It turned out that an alarming 100% of all Texans I stopped and asked for directions were unable to give correct directions. It was almost like Jaywalk in real life! Bunch a BBQ eaters--what do you expect! ; )
The walk was well worth the effort, however. For one, I did persist and attain my goal of seeing the statue, and for another, the riverside area was plain abuzz with all kinds of runners, walkers, and onhanging dogs, making for great people watching. There was a fair bit of skin in plain view, and even one runner who by look and by form must have been a very, very good runner hailing from some highland region of Africa. Austin is obviously a very happening city and that's why I always say it's my kind of town.