Today, we rode our bikes up and down what seemed to be a gazillion hills.  Shoot me!  I can’t wait to be out of Texas Hill Country.  There was more of the same scenery we’ve been seeing for over a week with more longhorns, more road kills, more monuments, more of Ed’s back, etc, as we rode through Smithville, Plum, La Grange, Rutersville and Oldenburg. 

When we got to Warrenton, things started getting more interesting, whimsical and fun. 

We had heard about the pie at Royer’s in Round Top, and it did not disappoint.  

Royer’s made an exception for Joe, who’s 71. He and Tom R were good for business, downing 4 pieces of pie with 4 scoops of ice cream.
We camped at an RV park in Carmine and, due to no grocery availability, ate out again–our best meal yet. Why didn’t I take a photo of that?

I got a late start leaving Austin, today.  The new pedals I bought on Tuesday, when I had my chain replaced, weren’t working with my cleats,so I had to return them and ride over to REI to get pedals that do. Then I had to make a trip to the post office to return my broken Garmin and to mail a box of things I’m not using home. I didn’t get on the road till past 2:30 PM.

I somehow had the impression that hill country ended after Austin, so I was a little surprised to run into several steep hills, including one with an 11% grade, before I even got out of town. The entire route was hilly, but there is no wind, so it was a nice ride all day long.

I made it to Bastrop in time to spend a little time in the historic downtown. 

I then met the guys at the Roadhouse restaurant for dinner, before riding to our campsite to set up my tent in the dark and take a cold shower. I’m not complaining about the shower. I was happy to have a shower, even if it was cold.

Our dinner conversation included detailed discussion on some probable rainy days ahead on the route. I’m dreading them.

Hey, where did two whole days go?  We arrived the Hostels International Austin Hostel Monday afternoon, and now it’s Wednesday night, and we are preparing to leave tomorrow AM.  I’m going to miss the comfortable bunk bed, warm shower, full sized towel and wifi.

I forgot to mention that on arriving here, I had a couple of packages awaiting me, and I’m sure you know how fun it is to get a package in the mail.   One was the Ortlieb handlebar bag I purchased but didn’t bring, because it weighed so much and didn’t seem necessary.  Now that most of the heavy duty climbing is behind me, I am willing to take on the additional weight in exchange for the convenience of having things I use frequently more easily accessible.   Thank you to my ex-husband, Jerry, for being willing to dig through my office to find the bag and hardware needed to install it.  It might sound like a small task, but it’s not when so many other things in my house have been piled into that room while repairs are completed on other parts of the house.

The second package was from my sister Janette, who lives in Dallas.  I left some resupply items with her before I left, like travel sized shampoo, conditioner, soap, sun screen, vitamins, chain cleaning patches, rubber gloves, etc., anticipating needing things sent to me every few weeks.  I’ve been using everything so sparingly that I somehow made it to the mid point of the ride without completely running out of anything, but I’m close.  So she gathered up what I needed and a couple of clothing items I had shipped to her and mailed them to the hostel.   It’s nice to know I have what I need to make it to the finish. Thanks Janette!

Tuesday, my new Garmin arrived, and that was another joyous moment.  It was sheer torture riding without distance, heart rate and cadence (the number of revolutions per minute my legs are pedaling) data for 2 days.  The cadence information is, to me, like a tachometer in terms of helping me know when to shift gears to keep from burning my legs and knees out.  I watch it constantly, especially when climbing.  Likewise, I am constantly checking distance and incremental distance to navigate.

So what did I do with two days of free time?  On Tuesday, I slept in till almost 10 AM, and it felt so good to have a long night of rest.  After catching up on the blog, I headed out with Neal to a bike shop to get my chain and brake pads checked.  My brakes were okay, but I needed a new chain, so while the mechanic installed the chain, Neal and I went across the street to a little Mexican food restaurant for lunch, and it was mucho delicious!

 

From there, we rode up to the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum on the University of Texas, Austin campus.  This was my third Presidential Library visit, and like the others, the exhibits were enlightening and inspiring.  I was pretty young when LBJ was President, so didn’t have awareness of the many programs and laws he influenced during his time in office.  As an adult, and a Human Resources professional, many of them have been integral to what I did for a living.

Austin has a lot of bike trails and paths, so it was easy to get around.  A good part of our ride back to the hostel was like a scenic, quiet joy ride along the Colorado River and Lady Bird Lake.

Today, I spent a good part of the day scrubbing my gear and rounding up things I don’t use to send them home.   I packed them up to mail them out, but didn’t have time to get them to the Post Office.  Instead, I made a run to REI with Ed and Tom R to exchange my air mattress for one that doesn’t leak and have to be blown up during the night.

Then Ed and I went on a Segway tour of downtown Austin. Our tour guide was not the best (deja vu of the guide at Seminole Canyon), but it was fun cruising around and not having to pedal up all the hills. Some of the highlights of the tour were the State Capitol building, the Texas Africa American History Memorial , the Driskill House Hotel,  and sculpture of Willie Nelson, and the Graffiti Park at Castle Hills.

When the tour ended, I hightailed it back to the hostel to meet up with Ken Flake, a friend who was in the Tempe 7th Ward with me when I was growing up and lived just a block away from my family’s home.  Now living in Harker Heights, a suburb of Fort Hood, he was able to drive down after work, bring me dinner from a nearby barbecue place, and sit out on one of the hostel picnic tables with me to catch up on old times.

And he got to meet and chat with all the guys in our group who are staying at the hostel and get a look at hostel living.  It was so good to see him and hear about his life and family.  Ken has been blessed with a good wife, a great life and a strong testimony of the Gospel.  Thanks for taking the time to drive down to see me, Ken.  And thanks for bringing me dinner.  Much appreciated!!!

After Ken left, I rode to the grocery store to buy a few items I am almost out of.  It may be a week or more before we are in another town with a regular store with regular merchandise and regular prices, and by then, I will be out of sunscreen, lotion, lipstick, and a couple of other items I carry full sized containers of.   I am now fully supplied for the second half of this journey.

Tomorrow, we will be camping in a state park, so most likely will not have wifi.

 

 

 

Yay!  We made it to Austin!

By the time we left Johnson City, 5 of our group had ridden ahead and were already in Austin, leaving 6 of us to make the ride today.  We ate breakfast out, then hit the road together, expecting a day of hill climbing, a water crossing, and the steepest hill climb of the tour.

I failed to mention, yesterday, that my Garmin took a fall and the LCD screen failed, so today, I was without both the map to Austin and the ability to navigate with turn-by-turn instructions, due to no distance data, so I absolutely had to have a riding partner all day long, just to be able to find my way. Tom C volunteered, as Erwin, his normal riding partner, was up ahead in Austin.  A powerful hill climber, in spite of the fact that he is pulling a Bob trailer, Tom had to wait for me after the uphills way longer than I had to wait for him after the downhills.  Riding with a sissy girl must be a real drag.  I felt sorry for him and especially for Ed and Ken, who have ridden with me so much.  I’m sure I have held them all back.

An entire day of hills was a bit ridiculous.  I actually looked forward to the water crossing and steep climb just to break things up.  When we hit the entrance to Pedernales Falls State Park, the water crossing was not far away.

This particular section of road has constant water flow, so the road is mossy and slick, and riders in the past have fallen when they tried to ride across it.  So Ed was first to cross, and he bravely rode across with no issues.  Tom R walked, then Tom C walked, so I walked too and so did Neal.  After the fact, I wondered if I should have been more daring, but I’ve already had 3 falls on this tour, so I stand by being conservative and walking.  (More sissy girl.)

Once across the water, we were faced with a super steep grade, and it was a lot of work pushing our bikes up the hill to to a point where we could actually get back on and ride again.  Ed was able to shift into his granny gear and ride up that hill–something that motivated me later when we hit that steep hill.

Up to the point where we were entering Austin, our ride was on scenic 2-lane country roads, with steady traffic in both directions, making it difficult for cars to pass us.

The route always aims to keep us off major roadways, so after the country roads, we rode through Barton Creek, a beautiful area of high end homes, and the last 1/4 mile of Barton Creek Boulevard is where our 18-19% grade awaited us.  I was at the back of the group when I started the climb, and after the difficulty pushing my bike uphill after the water crossing, I was determined to ride the entire hill and not walk.  Up ahead, I could see that Tom C and Ed were going to succeed in the climb, but Tom R was walking, possibly due to his bad knee.  I killed myself to get up that hill.  There is no way I could have pushed my bike up it.  And climbing it wasn’t a matter of leg strength;  it was more a matter of my heart exploding from sustained beating like a bunny rabbit.  I can’t remember ever huffing and puffing as much as I did on that climb, the steep portion of which was probably only 1/8 mile.  Later, when I met up with Neal at the hostel, he asked me, “You didn’t make it up that hill, did you?”  Apparently, he ended up walking part of it, and was hoping I caved in and walked too. Nope. 

Once in town, we ended up on bike paths that took us under freeways, through parks and a section of downtown, along the Colorado River and Lady Bird Lake, and to our hostel, that surprisingly was on the Colorado River.

 What a location!   We are staying in a cramped 14 bed co-ed bunk room, but it is just a place to sleep.  My top bunk looks pretty comfortable compared to sleeping on the ground, and there are real towels to dry off with after a shower, instead of our chamois-like pack towels.   After a couple of nights of this, we might be missing our tents, but right now, this feels like luxury to me.  I’m looking forward to a good night’s rest and sleeping in tomorrow.

 
 

Last Night

I’d like to write about today, but there was an incident in Ladybird Johnson Municipal Park, last night, that cannot be ignored.

There was a guy hanging around the restrooms drinking a large bottle of Vodka and talking on his cellphone, as we were setting up our tents.  Later, he moved his assortment of belongings to the campsite just past ours.  And I use the term “belongings” loosely, because his looked more like what a homeless person pushes around in a grocery cart than camping gear.  It almost seemed as if  someone had abandoned him in the campground, like an unwanted puppy.

When everyone in the campground went to sleep, the guy alternated between snoring loudly and ranting in a drunken stupor about his girlfriend and women in general–using colorful, hateful profanity.  Being in one of the next tents over, I couldn’t sleep.  I was afraid he was going to come over and take his anger out on me. So I had my pepper spray at the ready and was prepared to scream at the top of my lungs.

A couple of times, he called his girlfriend to cuss and rant on her, then at about 1 AM, his girlfriend drove up to his campsite in a large pickup truck, revved the engine and started yelling at him.  Both under the influence of something, they were now screaming at each other full on.  She started revving the engine and pushing his chair with her truck, and I’m in a nearby tent.  At this point I dialed 911.  As the situation escalated, I could hear Tom R on the phone, and assumed that he too was in the phone with 911, which he was.

Before the police arrived, she had circled around and driven her truck between the closely spaced tents of members of our group and a group of college geology students who were camped beside us.  She could have run over any one of us.  With the arrival of 2 police units, she sped off, and the guy ran and hid somewhere, leaving his pile of belongings behind.  Tom R, Ed, Neal, Joe, 3 college students and I all talked to one of the cops about what happened and decompressed for a few minutes while the other cop chased down the girl.  It was a relief to know she wouldn’t be back, but the guy was still on the loose.  We all went back to bed, and I was finally able to sleep.  The next morning, the guy wandered back into his campsite, but we were so busy packing up to try to dodge impending rain, that beyond putting a call in to tell the police he was there, we ignored him.

Today

Fredericksburg is a good sized town with an LDS chapel, so I planned to part with the group after breakfast and go to church.  On the way to breakfast, it did rain, but my rain gear kept me mostly dry.  When our breakfast at the downtown German Bakery was over, I had a few minutes to read the inscriptions on the monuments in the downtown area before riding up to the chapel.

I learned that Mormon settlers had been sent to that area back in the early days of the church, and they started a successful water mill.  But bad weather resulted in them moving away from the area.

 

I was a little embarrassed to show up to church in my cycling clothes, but that’s pretty much all I had to wear.  At least I was fully covered.  It was nice to be able to take the sacrament, but once that was over, there was nothing I could do to stay awake, due to sleep deprivation from the night before.  I did enjoy singing the hymns and hearing a couple of good stories that stuck with me, and I kept my head in that zone for the rest of the day.

Behind the curve on time to get to Johnson City, as I rode back to get on the bike route, I passed signs for the US Pacific War Museum that caught my attention, so I decided to check it out.  I  spent almost 2 hours looking at what one of the docents considered to be the most impactful sections of the museum, but it truly would have taken at least a day to thoughtfully see the entire museum. While I had heard of all the Pacific Rim countries involved in World War II, the role each played and impact the war had on them never really jelled in my mind until I wandered through that museum.  It was very moving and sad.  Sure we won the war, but the cost in lives and suffering was monumental–and this was only looking at the war’s impact on counties in the Pacific.

Fredericksburg had many other historical sites I just had to completely ignore, so I have added this town to a list of places I hope to return to someday when I have more time to take it all in.

To make up time, I decided to scrap the Adventure Cycling route that takes side roads, and ride US Highway 290 to Johnson City, because it would cut an hour off my ride time. That was a solid 3 hour white knuckle ride, with no bike lane, and with cars and Texas sized pickup trucks flying by me at 75+ miles per hour.  But I needed to get to Johnson City by dinner time.  The route reminded me of the chili farms around Hatch New Mexico, except, instead of growing chilis, the Texans were growing grapes.  I probably passed over 40 wineries with tasting rooms which, but being a non drinker, didn’t interest me.  (Sorry, wine drinking friends.  No photos.)

But as I closed in on Johnson City, things started to get interesting.  Dinner was seeming less important now, as I pulled up to the Johnson Settlement, which is part of the LBJ National Historic Park.  There was a cinder trail I could ride my bike on, instead of walking a mile, so I decided to tour the site and check out the home and buildings that LBJ’s grandparents built back in the frontier days when they drove cattle and faced Comanche Indians.

Miraculously, I made it to town and our campsite with just enough time to put up my tent, take a shower and be ready for our 5:30 ride downtown for dinner.  Once back at the campsite, we had our map meeting and an early birthday celebration for Tom R.  And there was only one other thing I had enough energy to do:  Sleep.

We got up early today so we would have time to say goodbye to Clare. She was so sweet! She hugged each one of us, told us she would miss us, and personally invited us to come back to visit her. Even offered to pick us up at the airport in Austin.  I doubt that any trail angel will be able to top her hospitality and kindness at this point.  

Ed and I rode out together, this morning, with Neal and Ken just behind us. We were flying down the road beside the Guadalupe River, enjoying the scenery and the cool air, and effortlessly ticking off miles. 

As we rode through Hunt, we started seeing groups of Ford Model Ts coming from the opposite direction–a lot of them.  When we stopped to talk to a few of the owners who were stopped for gas, they told us there were about 100 of them on the road today, all part of the Texas T Party Model T Club. You’d be proud of me. I didn’t even ask about their politics.  

Later we were passed by dozens of Ford Mustangs and after that, dozens of BMWs. Do we have car clubs like these in Arizona? If we do, I must not get out much, because I have no awareness of them.

We stopped at the Arts Center in Ingram to enjoy the replicas of Stonehenge and a couple of the Maori statues on Easter Island–all built by a couple of local men. 

 

I wondered if I would build something of that scale if I had a bunch of land and free time on my hands.  It would have to be a whole lot of both, let me tell you.  

When we got to Kerrville, we were ready for a second breakfast.  When Ken, Neal, Ed, and I stopped at a corner to discuss where to eat, and a nice man pulled up to ask if we needed help.  He referred us to an award winning breakfast spot that was just a few blocks off the route, and its breakfast buffet was amazing.  Eric caught up to us, and the 5 of us knocked down an unbelievable amount of food.  We’re burning so many calories that we eat like a bunch of high school football players, except we hopefully have better manners. 

Back on the bikes, the route took us away from the Guadalupe River and back into hill country and winding roads.  We passed miles and miles of ranches, grazing cattle and sheep, and a few farms and orchards. 

When we arrived at our campsite at Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park, we had just 7 cyclists on board.  Rich and Chris had ridden ahead to Austin, Erwin was spending time with a female friend who flew out to see him, and Tom C was in town for Catholic Mass.  

Being short of shared equipment that would have been required to cook dinner, and also being short of people, we decided to ride our bikes back up the road to a crowded pizza place we had passed on the route.  

And that is where a few of us had a lifetime first–our second restaurant buffet in one day. Once again, we ate way too much. 

We are expecting rain in the morning.  Hopefully it goes easy on us. 

Did I mention that we are in Texas Hill Country?  We have had poor internet and phone capabilities, the past 3 days, so keeping up with the blog has been a challenge.  It’s now 11:36 PM, everyone else is sawing logs, and here I am just finishing yesterday’s blog and starting today’s.   Wait. I need sleep too. We all eat breakfast at the same time, so we also wake up at about the same time.  

Today was the halfway point of the tour in terms of days on the road, and tomorrow will be the halfway point in terms of miles.  This called for a celebration, but we didn’t have anything planned. After all, we are in the middle of nowhere, camping out as we move down the road. But an opportunity to celebrate presented itself today. 

The route was, well, hilly–just like the past few days have been.  We planned to ride 42 miles and stay in the By the River RV Park in Kerrville.  Neal has a widow friend named Clare who lives 30 miles into today’s ride and invited us all to stop at her house for lunch, so that was the plan. 

So here is how the day went.  I spent most of the day riding with Tom R. As soon as we pulled out of Lost Maples, we were cold turkey in a 600 foot climb at 10 and 11% grades. Good morning legs!  

From then on, it was hills, hills and more hills–we’re talking steep hills–and numerous crossings of the Guadalupe River.  

On the way down each hill was a sign warning of possible water in the road, and at the bottom of each hill was a water gauge.  The scenery was spectacular with tall trees, leaves changing colors and pristine river water.  Who knew that this kind of beauty exists in Texas?

As we neared Clare’s house, the scenery clicked up a knotch to beautiful waterfront properties, private camps for youth, and resorts.  

 

Several hundred feet of fence had a cowboy boot on every fence post
Clare’s mailbox was marked with one of the reflective triangles we wear on the backs of our bikes. We pulled in to find 3 of the guys lounging on the front porch, soft drinks in hand, munching chips and several types of dip.  A spunky, tiny little lady with a huge smile greeted us with Lucy and Chacha, her white lab and poodle. This was going to be a great stop. 

At least a couple of us dozed off while we waited for the others to arrive.  Two of the guys had other plans, so they skipped out on lunch at Clare’s, but the other 4 arrived within an hour. Clare, who loves to entertain people, laid out quite a spread with a variety of breads, luncheon meats, cheeses, tossed salad, potato salad, deviled eggs, beverages, warm bundt cake, fresh out of the oven…..the works.  We were in heaven. She kept asking if we would like to stay over at her house, and the more she asked, the better the idea sounded. 

The group consensus was to call it a day and stay with this tiny little lady who lives in a house 12 miles short of Kerrville. We can make up the lost miles tomorrow.  Today, we got to relax and enjoy some authentic Texas hospitality and have an unplanned celebration of reaching the middle of the tour.  

Clare put in a call to the friend who owns a few hundred feet of the Guadalupe riverfront across from her house, and got permission for us to use their pavilion and river access. After giving each of us a towel, Eric, Ed, Tom C and I walked over and dunked ourselves in the refreshing river water. We played a little frisbee before lounging on the boat dock and just plain relaxing. 

Meanwhile, back at the house, she was preparing another spread for dinner that included pork cutlets, augratin potatoes, another green salad and fresh homemade rolls.  Dinner was delicious, and once it and the map meeting were over, most of the guys went to bed, leaving just us bloggers to enjoy our wifi service while we have it.    

Look for more about the miles of huge ranches with 10 foot tall fences in one of my upcoming posts, when I am not so sleep deprived.  Dick Cheney was hunting at a ranch like these years back when he shot that wealthy attorney in the face.  

 

Can’t think of anything that stood out as special, today.  I was part of the duo responsible for laying out breakfast and lunch fixings, so I got out of camp a little late, and luckily ended up riding with Ed. We had a 42 mile ride ahead of us with 3 significant climbs indicated in Ken’s notes as being 6 and 7% grades.  No problem. 

The three climbs surprised us, but only because they were so much steeper than we expected. The 8 to 11% grades were challenging, but at this point, we are pretty unstoppable. We dialed in our lowest gears, got in a rhythm, and  muscled our way through them.  

 

Last night, we stayed at the Three Sisters RV Park and actually thought the place was owned by 3 sisters until today when we stopped for a snack at a big high end biker (motorcycle type) hangout.  The place was stocked with all kinds of “Twisted Sisters” merchandise with 3 hot babes on it, each babe labeled with her own Ranch Road. Turns out that one of the roads we have been following is part of one of the most popular Texas Hill Country motorcycle loops, Twisted Sisters, which is made up of Ranch Roads 335, 336 and 337.  Having seen  large groups of motorcyclists on the route, this totally made sense.

 

A sign up ahead on our route read, “Caution Next 12 Miles, Since Jan. 2006, 12 Killed in Motorcycle Related Crashes.” That got my attention. Ahead of the sign was a winding road with steep ascents and descents and a complete drop off on one side of the road. On one of those descents, there was a 20 mph sign, and believe me, I took heed and slowed down. 

 

Some of the Texas Hill Country roads aren’t winding at all; they’re just plain Hilly.  

A short while later, we stopped in Leakey, a little tourist and fishing town, to get the milk shake that last year’s ride leader mentioned in his notes. Unfortunately, we never found the described place, but instead, we found a cool barn/shop full of handcrafted  gifts. I was with 4 guys, at this point, and they all bought something, so I caved in to the peer pressure and bought myself some cheap earrings that are made from part of a bullet casing.  Just my style, eh?

We continued to look for that milk shake, and in doing so stumbled onto a place with a chicken fried steak lunch special that was to die for.  After eating the dessert that came with the lunch special, we were ready for a nap, but alas, that was not to be.  We had an appointment to meet the rest of the group at a grocery store up the road to help them haul food for dinner a few miles up to road to camp. 

 

I forgot to mention that along the route, today, we ran into two couples of 65 year olds from Spokane who are riding the Southern Tier route together. Turns out they left San Diego the same day we did.  It didn’t take us long to figure out that we were kindred spirits.  We shared some of our adventures with each other and had a few laughs with them before pushing on.  When we arrived our evening destination, Loat Maples State Park, there they were again–camping next to us.  

We only had a 53 mile day today, so I  spent a little time alone checking out Fort Clark before I started my ride. The fort was established in 1852 as a strategic base for defending frontier settlements and controlling the Mexican-American border.  Many Infantry Regiments and almost all Cavalry Regiments were at one time stationed there, back in its day.  It even housed Confederate troops during the Civil War.  Through its inactivation after World War II, it was an active Horse Cavalry installation

The most interesting thing about the post is how military it still seems after all these years.  Most of the buildings are now privately owned homes, but many of the commercial buildings still serve the purpose they served back when the post was active.  And it seems like the people that live there behave like a tight knit military community. I like that.

Once I left the fort and started riding through Bracketville, the town felt like it was an extension of the fort.  People were friendly, drivers were polite, and many of the buildings in town looked like they dated back to when the fort was built.  

The day’s ride was almost all on a bumpy chip seal road, the survival of which required several stops to add to the layer of ointment on my saddle zone.  

The scenery changed from rangeland to trees as we navigated non-stop hilly, winding roads with a few water crossings. The good thing about the hills was that for every bit of climbing we did, we got back an equivalent downhill run. 

And for another entire day, there was no food or water available between our start and end points, so I had to ration my food and water to make it last through the day. 
The most beautiful stop of the day was a crossing of the Nueces River near its headwaters.  The river is entirely spring fed, so the water was crystal clear and looked like water you would see in the Caribbean.  

Shortly after resching the Nueces, I crossed over into Real county, and my life changed as the road surface was suddenly as smooth as butter.  Aah…the simple pleasures of a cyclist. 

Arriving Camp Wood, which, by the way, has no military connection, I was in the mood for chocolate. Even though it is a very small town with a population of only 706, there was a chocolate shop with an old fashioned soda fountain to boot.  I scored a huge chunk of milk chocolate and a chocolate malt, making my day complete.  

Well actually, our dinner completed my day. Tom C and I had dinner duty, and since he arrived the RV park 90 minutes before me, he emptied his bag and headed back into town to round up the food for dinner, breakfast and lunch.  For dinner, he bought 5 pounds of super delicious barbecued pork, canned baked beans, and ingredients for both a tossed salad and–get this–potato salad.  When I arrived, I found him busy chopping up potatoes to boil. Pretty ambitious fella, if you ask me.  I helped him chop all kinds of veggies for the 2 salads, then made a run to town for salad dressing and beverages.  Got back just in time for one of the best meals we’ve had on this trip.  

We camped at Three Sisters RV Park and occupied a huge grassy area and a pavilion with a full kitchen.  Tents were set up everywhere, with 7 on the grass and 4 under the pavilion.  I went for the concrete floor of the pavilion to avoid having to deal with morning dew on my tent and footprint. 

We woke up early, this morning, to get an early start on the 64 mile ride ahead of us. Before putting my clothes on, I opened the door to see what the temperature was like outside, and it was raining–again.  The rush to get out the door came to a screeching halt. Eric and I rode out together at around 9 AM with an amazing tailwind that upped our speed to 20 mph on flat ground. 

Our first stop was the Amistad Reservoir. When the  dam that form the reservoir was completed in 1969, water flooded several valleys covering ranches in buildings that have been purchased by the government. Nowadays, scuba diving enthusiast have dive sites in the reservoir. 

While stopped on one of the bridges across the reservoir to take pictures, I put a phone call in to Dex Tooke, a member of our 2017 Race Across America (RAAM) crew and an ultra cycling icon with both the book he authored, “Unfinished Business,” and the  RAAM qualifying race he runs, “No Country for Old Men”.  It turns out that Dex lives in Del Rio, just a couple of blocks off our route and only 2 miles up the road from the reservoir, so we stopped in to see him and meet his puppy, George.

Eric, being the impressionable young man that he is, got a kick out of Dex’s man cycling cave, race memorabilia, signature glasses, way of life and persona.  He’s one of a kind, and seeing him again was the highlight of my day. 

In second position behind seeing Dex was our lunch in Del Rio.  Ken had offered to buy lunch with tour funds, as there was no food available for sandwiches and snacks. The group consensus was oriental food, so Eric and I rode over to meet the group for lunch at the designated Chinese buffet. No one else from the group showed up, and they really missed out. The food was delicious. 

After lunch, we backtracked to Walmart to restock our snacks, bug spray, etc., then I got caught up in a few phone calls.  Didn’t make it to Fort Clark RV Park till past 6 PM, and even though much of the day was downhill and with a healthy tail wind, I was still completely wiped out when I arrived.  

You can’t dream this stuff up.  Yesterday, for 55 miles of cycling, there was no civilization, so we had to carry extra water and and snacks to survive the ride.  Today was going to be different.  Twenty miles outside of Sanderson, in Dryden, there was going to be a little cafe where we could get breakfast, so our breakfast offerings were pretty meager.  Then 40 miles after that, in Langtry, was going to be the only convenience market between Sanderson and Del Rio,  which is another 63 miles up the road.  Our plan was to all meet up at that convenience store to carry a portion of the groceries for the next 3 meals the remaining 20 miles to the campground at Seminole Canyon State Park & Historical Site, where we planned to bed down for the evening.  

Since we were facing our longest riding day yet–81 miles–we got an early start. Ed and I started riding about 20 minutes before sunrise, but some of the others started out in the dark.  

Ten miles into our ride, we ran into fog that not only erased our visibility, but was so heavy it felt like a mist. 

When we hit Dryden, the town with our planned breakfast stop, we were disappointed to find that it was no longer in business. There were no other open markets or eateries, so we put on our big girl and boy panties and kept cycling down the road.  

At the 60 mile point we hit Langtry, where the entire group was rallied in front of the market to each pack a portion of the next day’s food on their bike.  The only problem was that the store closed a year ago when the owner died, so there was no food and no water to be had.  How was this going to work?  We had planned to camp at the state park 20 miles up the road, but with no food available for dinner or breakfast, we needed to move down the route to the next town with something we could eat.  

While all those details were being worked out by the people in the group with strong opinions, I walked over to check out the nearby train that was waiting on the tracks for another train to pass–an entire train of military vehicles headed to who knows where.  

It of reminded me of when I arrived at Fort Hood during Desert Storm. During my first few weeks there, one or more trains arrived on the railhead that passes thru Fort Hood and were loaded up with CONEX boxes, vehicles, and armored aircraft and vehicle to be moved out to a port for shipment to Iraq. Hopefully today’s load is not headed to Korea. 

Meanwhile, back at the former store, the guys called ahead to Comstock, another 10 miles up the road from Seminole Canyon, to verify that there was food in town and that there was a place we could stay.  Hallelujah, there was.  

With that settled, Ed, Eric and I embarked on a couple of side trips–the first to the one and only available water stop for the entire day–the Judge Roy Bean Museum.  

We were pretty focused on that water, but would have been thrilled to find a vending machine with either snacks or soft drinks, but that was not to be. We fell back on looking at the museum exhibits full of stories on the judge, who was quite a character.   

Following the museum, Eric and I high tailed it up the road to get to Seminole Canyon, where the last guided tour of ancient pictographs departed the visitor’s center at 3 PM.     The 20 mile ride would normally have taken us 90 minutes, but being in Texas hill country, half of the ride was uphill, which slowed me down big time.  Eric flew past me, as I chugged up the hills, and I told him I didn’t think I would make the tour, but I would still go to the visitor center to see the exhibits.  Even though I was in a major hurry, I had to stop for a couple of photos of spectacular scenery.  After all, there was a good chance I would miss the tour anyhow. 

I killed myself on those hills, but still didn’t arrive the visitor’s center till 6 minutes past the start of the tour. I was a little disappointed, but it never hurts to ask for an exception, which you can always count on me to do.  When I explained to the ranger that I had ridden my bike 80 miles to get to get to that tour, she let me run up the trail to catch up to the tour group.  Well actually, the running was down, as the trail dropped 3/4 mile down into a canyon where an Indian tribe once lived.  The tour would have been better if the young lady who was our tour guide had facts about the tribe and pictographs, but she didn’t.  She instead pointed out things like the prickly pear cactus and other plants I grow in my yard.  

When the tour was over, we climbed back out of the canyon to find the visitor’s center was closed.  I was out of water, with still another 10 miles to ride, so the rangers let me and Eric back in to get water, and from there we talked them into letting us buy ice cream and soft drinks.  They totally made our day.  As we sat outside in the shade and snacked, the temperature, which had risen to 97 degrees, dropped a little, making the last 10 miles to Comstock a little more pleasant.  
Our motel was nice and clean, and these signs in each room explain why. 

Ed had an incident on his bike, today.  Hooefully he used one of the old towels to dry the abrasion on his arm. 

Today is Sunday, again, and I’m trying to figure out how I’m ever going to get to church on this ride.  If I ever do anything like this again, I will plan the route so I have Sundays off and also so I am in a town where there is a church to go to. I just don’t have that control over our itinerary this time around.  So there was no church today, but I can say that today was the most restful day we’ve had on the tour.

Today’s riding conditions were the most restful we’ve had on the entire tour. When we pulled out of Marathon this morning, there was a little bit of climbing, but the grade was only 1 – 2%. The temperatures were cool, the road surface was perfectly smooth, and there was very little traffic. 

 

About a third of the way through the ride, the road pointed downhill, and for the last two hours into Sanderson we were going between 16 and 22 mph down hill with no headwind.  We couldn’t have asked for better riding conditions.

 

The short riding day allowed me time to both watch Music and the Spoken Word and take a short nap.  It was a very nice, laid back day. Tomorrow we kick back into high gear with an 81 mile day.  Followed by a 74 mile day.   

One third of the miles we are covering on this transcontinental bike ride are between the east and west borders of Texas.  That’s a lot of Texas.  Last night was another super windy night, and it was still blowing when we woke up this morning. Ahead of us was a 58 mile day, at the end of which it was my turn to shop for the next 3 meals and prepare dinner with Ken.  Riding out of Marfa, we (Ken and I) were riding into a strong headwind.  Not a good start to the day. 

Our first stop was the Marfa Lights viewing area.  It was 9 miles down the road from Marfa, so none of us ventured out to see the supposed cosmic experience that takes place there.  

Check out the map on the side of this RV that shows where it’s been
Parked in the parking lot was the Cruising Nomads RV–the coolest RV I have ever seen in my life.  A couple from Czech Republic have been traveling the world in it for almost 3 years, and after finishing the US, Central and South America, they will return home and be done.  Talk about an adventure. They were asleep when we rode through so we didn’t get to talk to them, unfortunately. I’ll bet they have some stories to tell. 

For the next 17 miles, as we rode toward Alpine, we fought headwinds–even when we were going downhill.  

At one point, we were passed by 49 Mustang Shelbys owned by members of the Terlingua Preservation Society, which was having it’s annual gathering in Alpine.  

There was so much going on in Alpine that we forgot about the headwind.  

All those Mustang Shelbys that passed us on the highway?  They surrounded a performance automobile business in town and had people crawling over and under them.   

A talented mural painter who lives in Alpine has left her mark all around town. 

My favorites surrounded the Thai food truck where I ate lunch. 
A few miles outside of Alpine, we ran into a take-off on Marfa Prada–Marfa Target.  Okay, so it’s not an official art installation, but it caught my eye.  

The wind died down just as we started a descent that lasted through arrival in Marsthon, where we were spending the night.  We were so happy to get to the RV park early, but our joy didn’t last long. There were stickers everywhere in our large group campsite.  I found some cardboard to put under my tent to keep them from puncturing my Therm-a-rest, and all of us had to park our bikes away from the campsite to avoid flat tires.  

I The only grocery store in town just barely had enough food choices for us to put together a pathetic breakfast. Our lunch fixings were even worse.  There was no way to squeeze a dinner out of what they had on the shelves, so we had to order out the only other food available in town that fit our budget–pizza.  

After dinner, some of the RVers were flying drones, so we wandered over to check them out.  In talking to them, we learned that they are both  amateur astronomers.  One of them owns the RV park, and the other is an astronomy and photography enthusiast who comes to Marathon every year to view the sky.  Being in the middle of nowhere, the stars and constellations are more visible here ethan most other places in the United States.

So these 2 guys invited us to a star party at which they rolled out 6 telescopes, a couple of them very large ones donated to the local schools by the McDonald Observatory.  The RV Park owner apparently has so much expertise and knowledge that he is the keeper of the telescopes and teaches astronomy to the school kids.  So tonight, he and his guest spent about 2 hours teaching us and about 10 other people about astronomy and telescopes, and showing us constellations, planets, the surface of the moon, etc.  We could not believe what a fascinating learning opportunity we stumbled upon in a little RV park in Marathon TX. 

After sleeping in till almost 10 AM, I was feeling great, but wasn’t moving too quickly.  Ed and I hopped on our bikes, dropped my laundry off at the laundromat, then headed to Marfa Burrito for breakfast.  The burrito was huge, but flavor-wise, it didn’t come close to the breakfast burrito at The Burrito Company in Ahwatukee. 

While waiting for my laundry to dry, I watched a mural painter working at the business next door and overheard people talking about the 5 PM start time for the annual Marfa Open Art Festival.  

So I decided to head back to El Cosmico to take a nap in one of the hammocks and finish yesterday’s blog.  I could see the art galleries after 5 PM when the festival began.

Also hanging out in the hammocks were two beautiful young ladies, Asiya and Isabel, medical school students who were taking a couple of days off from their studies in El Paso.  

They reminded me of how I sold myself short by not doing something big with the brain power I had back when I was their age, but it was a different time back then.  They really inspired me with their confidence and ambition.  When I get home, I plan to do something big with my brain too.  It’s never too late. 

Later in the afternoon, Erwin, Tom C, Chris and I headed into town to eat dinner at the food truck and check out the art festival. When we learned that the food truck was not going to be open for another 1.5 hours, we went back downtown to the festival.  While down there, we ran into 3 friends who are riding their third section of the Southern Tier route together–the El Paso to Austin section. At the rate they are going, it will take them 5 more years to finish the route.  

The art in Marfa is all minimalist, and most of it is very abstract. I wandered through over 20 galleries and, while most of iwhat I saw was interesting to look at, I didn’t see a single piece of art I would want to own. 

I did see a couple of posters and puppies I wouldn’t mind owning.  In fact, the pup posing on the matching cowhide is high end performance art, in my opinion. 

After eating dinner at the food truck, we headed back to the RV park to get things organized for totmorrow and to hit the sack. 

If you asked each of us how our day went, today, the answer from a good part of our group would have been that it was the hardest day on the tour.  But there have been so many days, where, within minutes of starting the ride, I thought there was no way I could finish the route, but somehow I just kept hammering at it and muscled through it  And after the fact, it would be hard to rank one of them against the others, because the factors that make them difficult are all different.  For me, yesterday would be in the top 5 most difficult.  

During our dinner, last night, even though there was only a 15% chance of rain, it poured.  I ran back to gather up all the electronics that were charging and to zip up the open rain flies on 6 tents.  Crisis averted, but then as we went to bed, the wind kicked up and gusted all night, an omen of the day to come. 

Ahead of us, this morning, were 74 mostly uphill miles with absolutely no services of any kind on the route, so we were all loaded up with extra water and very aware of how much food we were carrying to replenish our energy. We pushed out at first light, which in the central time zone was now an hour later, and immediately found ourselves peddling into a heavy headwind.  I would have been happy to ride the entire day by myself at my own pace, but there’s no way I could ride into that wind by myself. 
I frantically started looking for someone to ride with so we could trade off on breaking the wind.  Catching up to Tom C, Erwin, and Eric, was impossible, as they were going too fast.  Pedaling ahead, I ran into Tom R and Joe, who had stopped to take a photo and were riding a little slower. 

The two of them ride out together each morning, but at some point, Joe kicks into his Superman gear and jettisons ahead.  When Joe reached that point and rode ahead, Tom and I made a pact to ride together and trade off breaking the wind a mile at a time, and I will love him forever for hanging with me throughout the entire day.  For the half of the rest of the day, this was my view, as I attempted to stay within a wheel of his bike.  

The first 20 miles of the ride was on perfectly smooth pavement, but that all changed when we entered  a section of road that was under construction to get new chip seal and bridge barriers. 

The chip seal surface was bumpy and was taking a toll on our sit zones for 25 straight miles when we crossed into Presidio County, where the road hadn’t been maintained in who knows how long.  For 35 morenmiles, our wrists, shoulders, and tender sit zones took a serious beating.  

Stopping numerous times to apply and reappply shamy cream helped, but the headwind, the grade and the bumps were conspiring against us.  

About 10 miles into that last section of road, I clipped Tom’s rear wheel, as I followed him, apparently a little too closely, and me and my bike went on a collision course that for a split second was pretty scarey.  The last thing to hit the ground was my helmet, and I thank the good Lord for that.  I was completely decked out on the pavement with my bike laying on me while I assessed the damage:  nothing broken, no concussion (I was still thinking clearly–I think), no bleeding, but a hole in the right knee of my sun legs, very minor raspberries on that knee, my right hip bone and my right shoulder, and a little scrape on my right shift lever.  Am I lucky or what? (Don’t answer that. We may not agree on the correct response.)  Tom lifted my bike off of me, and I layed on the pavement for another minute or so. Thank you Tom!

As we rode on, I recommitted myself to doing everything in my power to keep myself safe on this ride.  That fall could have easily played out much worse, and a broken bone would have ended the ride for me.  I have come way too far to not finish this ride over something as stupid as inattention, and I need to make it home safely so I can continue to be my daughter’s Mom and my grandbaby’s Grandma. 
I know this is out of order, but there were a few highlights in the day, besides Tom’s sharing the load with me.  

A little before the halfway point of the day we rode into the town of Valentine, which in 1881 was a Southern Pacific Railway station. At one point it had a booming population of–get this–600. When the railroad stopped passenger service to Valentine and then in 2010 relocated the train station to Van Horn, the population dropped to 134. So now the place is almost a ghost town, but the families have come together to make sure the library stays open, and it is a really cool library.  

The second highlight was just a couple of miles further down the road in the middle of nowhere–the “Prada Marfa” permanent land art installation.  It looks like a Prada store, I guess  (I’ve never really paid attention to designer brands and stores, so I can’t be sure), but the doors are sealed shut, and I heard that the glass is bullet proof.   I also heard that it is a tour bus stop on West Texas bus tours. 

We lucked out, and the last little bit of the ride was downhill.  We arrived Marfa low on water, out of food, and starving.  

We headed straight for  Dairy Queen (Pecan Cluster Blizzard) to refuel ourselves, then headed to our resting place, El Cosmico RV Park, with just enough time to pitch our tents before nightfall. 

I plan on catching some quality sleep tonight.  We have a layover day tomorrow, so will be able to get some R&R and check out the galleries here.