Day 30: Bracketville, TX to Seminole Canyon State Park, TX

Daily Miles: 70.3 Total Miles: 1647.7

Off-road adventure before disaster struck

Today was an awesome day! I headed out of the hotel this morning around 9:45am and planned to meet up with Mary ~30 miles into the day in the Mexican border town of Del Rio, TX. Riding out of Bracketville on US 90, the road was once again terrible. I was slowly making my way along when I saw two other cyclists going in the opposite direction riding along the dirt road that paralleled US 90. These dirt roads seem to be used primarily by the hundreds of US Border Patrol vehicles that I saw yesterday and today (and will probably continue to see until I hit New Mexico). I yelled out and asked the cyclists how that dirt road was, and they said it was better than the road I was riding on. I decided to move on over and give it a try and for the most part, they were right. The road was sandy, so I had to exert more effort, but it was quite smooth. There was no head-bobbing or bone-rattling, and for the most part the ride was much more comfortable.

Photo-op with one of the VT grad recumbent cyclists

After about 3 miles, I may have gotten too comfortable, and forgot what I was doing, because before I knew it, this dirt road headed down towards a dry creek bed and I barreled down into it at over 15MPH. I hit the rocky creek bed, nearly snapped my wrists in two, and used all of my strength to stay on the bike. It's a miracle that I did not bust both of my tires and once I peddled back out of the creek bed unharmed, I decided it would be better to take my chances on the shoulder of US 90.

Mary raised suspicion at an Immigration Checkpoint

After about 19 miles the road quality improved dramatically and I was able to ride comfortably the last 11 miles in to Del Rio. I had to make a few turns to avoid the heaviest traffic areas, and as I was pulling back up to US 90, realizing that Mary was nowhere in sight, I pulled in to a Ramada Inn to call her. As I pulled up I saw three other cyclists also arriving. They were all riding recumbent bikes, and I stopped and chatted a good 15 minutes with the three of them. We traded shortcuts; they gave me the heads up on a good shortcut in West Texas that avoids some big climbs and cuts out some interstate riding (and also cuts out several miles).

Entering the Amistad Recreation Area

Finally near the end of the conversation I learned that two of them were Virginia Tech graduates! Small world. After a few minutes Mary arrived, we bid my fellow cyclists goodbye and then took advantage of the glorious strip mall environment of Del Rio and ate lunch at a Chili's. We have a feeling this will be the last place like this we see for many miles. After lunch I prepared to head on the ~30 miles more to Comstock, and before heading out it felt really warm, so I decided to check the temperature... 88 degrees and it would be rising to 94 as the afternoon continued. Ug.

Some of today's awesome scenery

Riding out of Del Rio I passed over the Amistad Recreation Area, a huge lake/reservoir that I think is shared between Mexico and the US. Amistad means friendship in Spanish, so that's why I'm thinking the two countries share this water. However, based on the extreme presence of border patrol, I don't think too many Mexican boaters get a very friendly reception if they venture into the US side of the reservoir. The lake area was really pretty and after passing through I once again began to climb. The terrain again was completely different today, and I thought it was very cool. A lot drier land and more rocky. As I continued on US 90 towards Comstock I was riding at a very good pace. I felt really good and strong and when I met up with Mary 10 miles from Comstock I told her I felt like riding on an additional 9 miles to the entrance of Seminole Canyon State Park. Those 19 miles flew by, and I finished up the last 5 miles of the day at a blazing 18.2 MPH pace. Yesterday I met another cross country cyclist named Jim and he told me that we should definitely try to visit the park. The canyon is supposed to be beautiful and there is also a hike that goes to well-preserved caves that were hand-painted by Native-Americans generations ago. Mary got the details while I was riding out, and at 10am each day there is a guided hike out to the painted caves. Our plan for tomorrow is to sleep in a little and then head up to the park for the hour long tour at 10am. After the tour I will bike on to Dryden, TX ~60 miles down US 90. Tonight we are staying in Comstock, a town of maybe 20 people, in a quite nice local hotel that caters to people visiting the Amistad Recreational Area. We had sandwiches at the only restaurant in town and are now in the hotel relaxing and looking forward to a new adventure tomorrow.

Day 29: Leakey, TX to Bracketville, TX

Daily Miles: 70.4 Total Miles: 1577.4

Climbing out of Rio Frio Canyon

It was hard to leave our little cabin this morning, both because it was so nice and also because I did not want to climb out of the canyon. After wasting as much time as humanly possible, I had no choice but to leave around 10:15am. And, like most things, the climb out of the Rio Frio Canyon was not nearly as bad as I had imagined. The rest of the day, however, was way worse than I had expected. The climb out of the canyon was a pretty rough one. I climbed about 800' over the first 5 miles of the day, but the grade of the road wasn't terrible, and the scenery was really pretty.

Crossing the Nueces River

Once I got out I had a series of small climbs and descents for another 8 miles before descending big again, this time into the Nueces Canyon and on to the only town I passed all day, Camp Wood, 20 miles into my ride. Since I still had a long way to go, I pressed on and Mary stopped to buy us some lunch to eat later in the day. As I left Camp Wood, I turned due south on Road 55, and was hit by a pretty significant head wind. Also to note is that today featured the most consistently terrible roads I've faced to date. I've ridden on worse roads, but only for a few miles.

Beautiful views

Today for about 58 of the 70 miles I was on bone-shaking terrible chip seal. After about 10 miles riding into the wind and on the chip seal, I met up with Mary to eat my lunch early. I was already completely worn out and still had 40 miles to go. After eating, I decided to abandon the shoulder, and just ride on the road, where car tires had worn down the chip seal a little bit and the ride was slightly smoother. This improved my speed slightly, and I was able to ride on the last 9 miles on 55 before turning westward and minimizing the effect of the wind. The rest of my ride was on the virtually completely empty Farm Road 334.

Riding off down the lonely Texas roads

I stopped briefly two more times to meet up with Mary for water. It was incredibly hot today, and I think I ended up drinking over 4 liters of liquids. My final stop was 10 miles out of Bracketville, and I sent Mary on to scout out a hotel while I endured 8 miles of the worst roads I have ever ridden on, followed by 2 miles of glorious pavement. Once I hit the Bracketville City Limit sign and the good road my speed shot up to over 18 MPH for the last 2 miles of the day (I averaged 11.4 MPH today, incredibly slow). This morning Mary talked to the manager of the cabins we stayed at last night, and he told us that we should stay in the small hotel in Bracketville owned by the proprietors of the Alibi Grill. Mom drove on out there, dropped the cabin manager's name, and tonight we are staying in the very nice, comfortable, and beautifully decorated accommodations. We had dinner at the Alibi Grill - rib-eye steaks, baked potatoes, and salads, and it was really good. We're still in the restaurant using the wi-fi, but we're getting ready to head back to the room to get to sleep early. We're all covered if any crimes are committed tonight, because our stay comes with a built in alibi!

Day 28: Kerrville, TX to Leakey, TX

Daily Miles: 60.3 Total Miles: 1507

Not the first thing you want to see in the morning

As I turned on to today's route, I saw a sign welcoming me to the Texas Hill Country Trail. I would follow the trail the entire day, and let me tell you, they were not playing around when they named this area. The day started out pretty flat leaving Kerrville towards Ingram. I was riding in the road because the shoulder was in an awful pre-paving state, when I saw a lady had pulled over and was flagging me down. I stopped to talk, and she insisted on giving me a ride about 2 miles up the road to Ingram because a cyclist had recently been killed while riding on that road.

Riding along the Guadelupe River

I thanked her but told her I had come too far to skip ahead 2 miles, but promised her that I would ride on the terrible shoulder until I got to County Road 37. She was a super nice lady and also a cyclist, so I spent a good 10 minutes chatting with her and getting the scoop on today's ride. She told me that there would be a TON of climbing, but that it was really beautiful and she turned out to be completely right. She also told me about the exotic animal ranches I've been seeing. Apparently all animals that are native to Texas have a season, but exotics can be hunted year round.

You may even be able to hunt dinosaurs here

This has created a huge industry for people who want to trophy hunt, and are able to pay enormous sums for, really crazy animals. To each his own. After telling her bye I headed off down the shoulder and before I knew it had turned on to a completely empty 37. There was a tiny bit of climbing up to Hunt, 12 miles into the day, and the last town I would pass before Leakey (pronounced "lake-y"). I stopped in to the only store in town to use the restroom and there met a couple who are cycling from LA to New York. They were really nice, and definitely intense.

Pecan orchards along the route

Today they were riding 100+ miles and had already knocked out 40 by the time I saw them 12 miles into my ride. They told me that the road from Hunt to Vanderpool was "basically flat with a few small up and downs" and then from Vanderpool to Leakey I would have some huge climbs followed by a huge climb out of Leakey tomorrow. Excellent, I thought as I wished them good luck and headed out. Now, I don't know if these two were crazy, boldfaced liars, confused because they had just ridden 40 miles downhill, or had previously biked straight up and out of the Grand Canyon, and considered that a "fairly challenging hill", because THE ROAD WAS NOT FLAT.

Riding through the Frio Canyon

The total elevation change was well over 600' from Hunt to the turn-off for Vanderpool, often up incredibly steep grades and also included big downhills to cross over the Guadelupe River, only to have to climb back up again. I was exhausted and drenched with sweat by the time I made it to the turn off 32 miles into the day. I will say though that I thoroughly enjoyed today's ride. The hills are challenging (and sometimes enough is enough), but the scenery today was beautiful.

The open road

I loved riding by the Guadelupe (although by the 85th crossing I was a little over it), and even riding by the ranches was cool. I just kept my head down and did my best to look nothing like a blackbuck antelope, hoping that no exotic trophy hunter would shoot my bike out from under me.Fortunately, by the time I made it up all those hills, I was sufficiently scared of what constituted "some big hills outside Vanderpool", so I had Mary scope out an alternate route and she came back with excellent news.

Our pretty riverfront cabin

Instead of following the ACA route and turning down 187, I stayed straight on 37, endured some more good sized climbs, and then ran into 83 South for the last 19 miles into Leakey. In the end I ended up cutting 5 miles off the ACA route and enjoyed a nice wide shoulder the entire ride on 83. I also enjoyed a crazy descent into the Frio Canyon valley, dropping nearly 1000' over the last 15 miles of the day. Unfortunately, first thing tomorrow I will be climbing back out of this canyon, but thems the breaks. Now Mary and I are enjoying a beautiful cabin right on the Rio Frio and we're getting ready to head out for dinner in this tiny, motorcyclist-friendly town. Tomorrow I continue on the Texas Hill Country Trail, but I will finally be riding out of hill country, nearing the Mexican border, and preparing myself for empty, lonely West Texas.

Day 27: Blanco, TX to Kerrville, TX

Daily Miles: 59.0 Total Miles: 1446.7

Hello, Hill Country!

On the road again! Last night I didn't get much rest and felt really exhausted when I woke up this morning. I decided to go back to sleep until 8am, and did feel a little better when I woke up. We still had to eat breakfast, pack up the car, and drive the ~45 miles back to Blanco, so it was 10:15am before I actually got on the road. And I am not going to lie, the first 5 miles were brutal. It was like my body was rejecting riding my bike. I was barely going 9.5 MPH on what I thought was relatively flat land and felt like I was dying on really tiny hills. Upon reviewing the elevation change info on my bike computer, I realized that I had climbed over 300 feet in the first 3.5 miles. Once I got over that initial big climb, I finally got my head on straight and got back into the groove, and it's a good thing I did.

Roadside attractions in Waring, TX

The first 40 miles of the day were full of countless incredibly steep hills. I would climb, climb, climb, sometimes on roads with 14% grades, and then I would fly back downhill, cross over a tiny creek, and then climb, climb, climb again. At one point the road was so steep that I leaned back a little as I climbed and my front wheel came up off the ground like I was popping a wheelie. I couldn't stop climbing because I felt like I would fall over backwards if I tried to clip my foot out of my pedal. It was intense.

This escaped lamb couldn't get back in the fence

I also rode past a lot of ranches today, apparently many of which contained exotic animals. I only saw animals at one, and there was a wide variety of tiny antelope, bigger antelope, and some bigger sheep/rams. Pretty interesting. By 2:30pm, I had made it the first 40 miles into Comfort, TX and meet up with Mary to eat lunch at a local diner. The food was good, but unfortunately when we walked back outside we learned it was raining. Great. I put on my rain jacket and proceeded to knock out the last 19 miles to Kerrville. The rain only let up for the last mile, and I actually rode right past a pretty nasty motorcycle wreck. It looked like the guy on the motorcycle was heading East, had lost control, and slammed into an oncoming vehicle. It happened right before I got there, and the guy looked pretty cut up, but he was alive and talking. The shook me up, and I decided to stay on the main road, State Road 27, instead of veering off on the smaller country roads that the ACA Route suggested. I saved 5.5 miles, and ended up having a big, safe, well-paved, shoulder all the way to Kerrville. I met up with Mary once again and we drove a few miles up the road to our hotel, a Comfort Inn, that is actually really nice. It has an indoor pool and hot tub and we took advantage of those before heading out to a great dinner at Grape Juice, a cool place serving up a variety of wine, unique beer, and "simple food." We both had great dinners and now we're back in the hotel, getting ready for bed, and hoping we don't run into more rain tomorrow.

Day 26: San Antonio, TX (Rest Day)

Mary bustin' down the door to see The Hunger Games

(This post is from yesterday March 27, 2012)

Today Mary and I enjoyed an awesome rest day in San Antonio, Texas! We both slept in... I didn't even open my eyes until 9am! Then we spent a little time relaxing, catching up on e-mails, and writing postcards. For lunch we headed a little farther out of town to enjoy an interesting movie + dining experience: the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. It was a really cool movie theater where you can order food, drinks, etc. all while watching your movie in a standard stadium seating theater. They also have fun theme nights and other events.

Unfortunately I didn't find a bike in the basement

We saw The Hunger Games, and it was really great. We both loved the movie and loved the whole experience. It's hard to beat matinee movie tickets paired with a matinee pizza lunch special! After the movie we headed down to check out the Alamo, and it was small, but still really impressive. We had a great time reading about the history of Texas and how we won it from Mexico (despite losing big at the Alamo). We were pretty tired after that, but managed to muster up the strength to do a little shopping at the River Center Mall and then head to the trendy King William neighborhood for an excellent Mexican dinner at Rosario's. The restaurant has been voted the best Mexican restaurant in San Antonio and Mary and I can't disagree. It was really delicious! We headed back to the hotel fairly late, but well-rested and ready to get back on the road.

Day 25: Lockhart, TX to Blanco, TX

Daily Miles: 60.5 Total Miles: 1387.7

Today's roadside flowers were cacti

Another beautiful day on the road! I was pretty nervous about today's climbing, but in the end it wasn't all that bad. And now I have a little more confidence, which is good because the climbs are only going to get worse as I continue westward. This morning we woke up and went to a nearby diner for breakfast, since our hotel didn't offer any. We had huge pancakes with bacon, homefries, and coffee. After that, I was full and ready to go.

Interesting windmill

Once I got out of Lockhart, I had a lovely ride on completely empty roads for around the first hour. I then moved on to a busier, but well-paved road with a nice shoulder. I rode through Kyle, TX and then continued on to Wimberley, 36 miles into the day, to meet Mary for lunch. Wimberley was a really cute town with a lot of shops, restaurants, and cafes. We ate right in the middle of town, and had a nice relaxing break. I got back on the road around 1pm, and it was, once again, really hot. And that's just when the climbing got more intense. I slowly made my way up, up, and up to finish the last 25 miles to Blanco. When all was said and done, I had climbed just under 2000', officially entered Texas Hill Country, and made it in to Blanco right before 3:30pm.

Plugging along up the hills

I quickly changed out of my bike shorts, Mary and I grabbed some ice cream at Dairy Queen, and then we drove the ~45 minutes down to San Antonio. Our hotel is in a great spot, and we had plenty of time to walk around the downtown area, eat a great Italian dinner, and take a boat tour of the Riverwalk area.  We are looking forward to doing more sightseeing tomorrow and really taking full advantage of our rest day!

Enjoying San Antonio!

Day 24: La Grange, TX to Lockhart, TX

Daily Miles: 61.7 Total Miles: 1327.2

UT-Austin campus

Today was another day of climbs, but the roads were much better and I really enjoyed the ride! Staying in a hotel right on the route worked out really nicely and I hit the road at around 8:30am, about an hour and a half earlier than the last few days. I am not blaming our late starts on Mary, but I will say that when I left this morning she said, "I'm going to get ready and I'll see you in about an hour." Well, 3.5 hours later... she finally caught up with me. The day started with a very thick fog and I decided to veer off the ACA route again in search of better roads. Instead of taking small country roads for 40+ miles to Bastrop, I opted for the direct 35 mile route on State Road 71, a busier road with a huge shoulder protected by a rumble strip. The first 6 miles on this route were on a terrible chip seal shoulder, but after making it through that it was the smoothest sailing on to Bastrop.

Mary in front of the Texas Capitol building

I knocked out the first 37 miles of the day, and stopped for a rest and snack and to wait for Mary. It was almost noon when I stopped and it was the first time the sun broke through the fog. It did not take long to heat up. I rode the last 25 miles on to Lockhart on considerably worse roads, and in considerable heat, but made it in just fine. After finishing up the ride around 2:30pm, I quickly showered and then Mary and I drove the 30 miles in to Austin. We had a nice time walking around town, checking out the State Capitol building, walking around the UT Austin campus, and enjoying ice-cold bubble teas.

Who could resist eating at the BBQ Capital of TX? 

It was fun to check out the city, but we decided to head back to Lockhart for dinner, since we learned that Lockhart is the BBQ Capital of Texas! We ate dinner at Black's BBQ, and it was delicious!! If you're interested, you can find them online, and they ship anywhere in the US. After dinner, we saw a strange sculpture of a fish, and Mary took it upon herself to get into the fish's mouth for a photo. As she was trying to get out a man came out of the building and told us he was a preacher there and wanted to know if we were photographing his fish.

Mary says this fish is nicer than some hotels we've stayed in

We thought we were in trouble, but it turns out that they're collecting photos of people with the fish, so we're going to send him Mary's pic. Once again I climbed over 1500' today, making my 3 day climb total about 4600'. After all of this climbing I am currently sitting in Lockhart, Texas, at an elevation of 534'. This means that for all the climbing I have done, I've also done a lot of descending. Well, tomorrow I will finish the day in Blanco, TX which sits at about 1700'. I am pretty nervous because if the roads stay the way they have been tomorrow will feature a brutal amount of climbing over a fairly short 62 miles. I'm hoping for a nice gentle 1% grade all the way from here to Blanco with no headwind. But I don't think I'll be so lucky. The good news is that after tomorrow's ride, Mary and I are heading down to San Antonio for a rest day. We're going to be staying two nights near downtown and are looking forward to visiting the Alamo, enjoying the Riverwalk, and we might even sneak in a trip to the movies. After all of this climbing, my legs (and the rest of me) are really ready for the rest!

Day 23: Washington, TX to La Grange, TX

Daily Miles: 59.9 Total Miles: 1265.5

Texas blue bonnets. Beautiful!

Today was a hard day, both mentally and physically. Both yesterday and today I climbed over 1500 feet and today the climbs and the awful road conditions really took their toll on me. Before I get into the description of the ride, I want to explain a bit about Texas roads. A large percentage of them are covered with a material that I have heard called, "chip seal." As far as I can tell, to make chip seal they coarsely grind up a bunch of gravel, larger rocks, glass, dead armadillos, old Dallas Cowboys memorabilia, and anything else they can get their hands

Staving off a nervous breakdown at lunch

on. Then they mix the material with tar and finally spread this extremely bumpy mixture over the roads. Over time the chip seal starts to break apart, wear down, etc. And then they just pour more fresh chip seal on top of it. To get an idea of what it's like to ride on, first picture what it's like to ride over a rumble strip in your car. Unpleasant, isn't it. Then try to imagine what it would be like to just ride, all day, for hours, on that rumble strip. Now imagine you're doing that on a bike while trying not to get run over by the speeding motorists, because every single road in Texas, even if it has no shoulder, has a minimum speed limit of 60 MPH. It is extremely STRESSFUL and uncomfortable.

Antiques? In the eye of the beholder...

Ok, now for the ride: I started out in Washington, climbing and climbing and in about 5 miles made it to the intersection with Rt. 105. The ACA map called for me to double back a mile to get on an unsigned country road, but I saw plenty of cyclists riding down 105 and decided that I didn't want to double back. I was also hoping that the road conditions on 105 would be better than the country road I was on. I headed out and the road was somewhat better, but still awful. I continued on to Brenham, about 18 miles into the day, and knew that I needed to get on US 290 West to continue on to Burton to meet up with the ACA route.

Antiques as far as the eye can see... 

Like a fool, I followed a sign that said, "Turn left for US 290 Junction." I went about 3 miles before stopping to check my phone, only to realize I was going ~8 miles out of my way and had to sort of double back to get back on the direct route to 290. Grrrr. I finally got back on track and met up with mom to have some food. I was really feeling out of it, my legs were super tired from all the climbing, and my nerves were frayed from the constant jostling of the road. After the snack I felt better and pushed on 20 more miles to Round Top. After getting off of 290 the stress level once again went through the roof because there was virtually no shoulder and an insane amount of traffic on this small country road. Where the heck are all of these people going? As I neared Round Top, I figured it out: they were going antiquing. Apparently the 15 mile stretch of Texas Farm Road 237 from Round Top to Oldenburg is the antiques capital of Texas and these three weeks, from now until the first week of April are peak antiquing season. Good. Lord. This was the last thing I needed. The road was completely terrible. The tiny shoulder sloped down, so the one time I got on it I nearly lost control and came within a millimeter of sliding off the road. Finally, I made it in to Round Top and met Mary for a very good late lunch at a Mexican place. Now that I am done riding and still alive, I have to give props to Round Top and its equally tiny antique-friendly sister cities. One of my favorite quotes is, "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." I have never seen a better example of this philosophy than what these tiny towns have done. They are doing quite a bit, attracting hundreds of vendors and thousands (if not tens of thousands) of customers, with what they have (absolutely nothing, but land and in the case of Round Top 93 inhabitants), where they are (in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE). Well done. I can give credit where credit is due. Originally, I had planned on doing ~72 miles today to set up a short day tomorrow, but once I made it to lunch, I knew I would be stopping my day at 60 miles in La Grange. I got back on the road, and within 8 miles the road surface improved dramatically, and I was pretty much able to coast in to La Grange. It was still after 5pm when we got in, and we're staying the night in a local hotel right on the route. I'm hoping to get an early start tomorrow, so that I can finish up early and we can spend the afternoon in Austin. Wish us luck!

Day 22: Evergreen, TX to Washington, TX

Daily Miles: 65.8 Total Miles: 1205.6

Best ranch sign we saw all day

Today was another great day! We had breakfast at the hotel, did some last minute shopping at Walmart, and then drove the ~20 miles back to the route. I started my ride at around 9:45am and from the very beginning I was climbing and climbing. The first part of the ride was through the Sam Houston National Forest, and it was very pretty with lots of trees and cattle ranches. Shortly after heading out we passed a ranch with a HUGE cow sculpture serving as it's sign.

Riding over Lake Conroe

It definitely induced a double take! Today was the first day with virtually no wind, and, even despite the climbs, I was making good time. Mary was waiting for me in New Waverly, about 15 miles into the trip, but I was flying along and didn't see her until after I had already gone by. I assumed she saw me and would just head on up the road 15 more miles until the next turn, but I rode on and on, and no sign of Mary. On the way I crossed Lake Conroe on a long bridge and saw lots of boaters and fishermen enjoying the nice weather.

Great guys who maintain the Texas roads 

I finally made it to the 30 mile point and called Mary. She was afraid that I was just going really, really slow and hadn't made it 15 miles yet! At the turn, there were two Texas state road workers there having lunch in their truck. They offered me a place to sit and some water and I chatted with them while eating my snack and waiting for Mary. They were really nice guys, and very interested in the trip, and I thanked them for keeping the roads in their county in excellent condition. After a bit Mary arrived, all four of us chatted some more, and soon it was time to hit the trail again. I rode on another 19 miles to Anderson where Mary and I met again for lunch at Kott's Cafe. We had really delicious burgers and I highly recommend this place to other cyclists (or anyone else who finds themselves in Anderson, TX).

Beautiful day for a ride!

We had a super-nice waitress whose daughter was getting ready to leave for Uganda to work as a special-ed teacher. We talked about our trip and her daughter and had a really nice time getting to know each other. After lunch it was a short 17 miles to Washington through Navasota to finish up the day. The last half of the day was spent riding through fields upon fields of gorgeous wildflowers, and the combination of the flowers, sun, and green grass was just delightful. After finishing the ride we drove back to Navasota to stay the night and took advantage of our hotel's pool, even though it was freezing cold. We had a great steak dinner and now are back in the hotel getting ready for bed and preparing ourselves for tomorrow's ride.

Day 21: Kountze, TX to Evergreen, TX

Daily Miles: 68.6 Total Miles: 1139.8

Photo op with our new friends

If yesterday was a good one, then today was a great one! I felt really great today and the miles seemed to be flying by! Well, once I actually got going, that is. We woke up, had breakfast, and I headed out of the hotel at about 9:20am ready to hit the road. Yesterday about 15 miles out of Kountze I felt like my front tire was low, so I checked, it was, and I filled it up. I normally fill my tires with air every other day, but I wanted to check that front tire again this morning before I left, and once again, it was low. I filled it again and everything seemed to be fine until I disconnected the pump and heard all of the air rushing out. Hmm... Not good.

Pretty roadside flowers

I had noticed yesterday that the valve had a weird bluish rust on it, which I think came about because the bike sat in the rain the other day. I knew I had to replace the tube and, once I got it out of the tire, I noticed there was a tiny pin-prick sized hole right by the valve. Very strange, but I guess it was caused by the rust. I have been dealing with some numbness in my hands for the past week or so, and changing the tire was a little trickier than it should have been. Fortunately, I had Mary there with me to do some of the unscrewing of bolts and getting the tire on the rim. She was a huge help, and we got it changed in about 15 minutes, much quicker than dealing with the rear tire. By 10am, I was finally off, and feeling great. In no time I had knocked out the 20 miles to Thicket, and as I pulled up to Mary's waiting car, I noticed she had made some new friends. She was surrounded by 3 60-something gentlemen, two of which were on bikes and the other was driving a SAG (support and gear) vehicle, just like her! They were really nice guys, also riding the Southern Tier, but they were riding it 1-2 weeks at a time when they could get time off work.

The open road

They are raising money for MS research, and we had a great chat with them before heading our separate ways. I decided to push on another 30 miles to Shepard before stopping for lunch, mainly because there were 0 other places to eat on the route. Once again, I felt really strong and was really enjoying the ride in the beautiful sunshine. In Shepard, I met up with Mary and we had a great lunch at the Happy Days Diner. It had a 50s music theme and offered up perfectly yummy diner fare. After lunch, I had 18 miles left, and had run out of steam a little bit. A headwind kicked up, the road surface was awful, and it was HOT. After about 12 or so miles, the wind shifted a bit, there was a big downhill, the road got better, and I finished the day in Evergreen. Mary was there waiting and we drove down to Cleveland, TX to find a hotel. We got in at about 6pm, and in a few minutes are heading out for Mexican. We're hoping that tomorrow is just as nice as today!

Day 20: Merryville, LA to Kountze, TX

Daily Miles: 63.1 Total Miles: 1071.2

4 states down!!

Helloooooooo Texas!! Today was a good one. We were able to sleep in a bit today since the rain was still forecasted to be coming down until about 10am. We both woke up feeling good, had a decent breakfast at our hotel, and then drove back to Merryville. We pulled in to get my bike down at the same shop we stopped at yesterday. The guys working there remembered us, and had a lot of questions about the trip and encouraging words about the quality of Texas roads. Just as I was hopping on my bike to head off, one of the guys came back out and gave us a few calendars as mementos from Merryville. It was really nice, and one of the multiple examples of great encounters we've had with the people on this route. When I finally headed out it was about 10:30am and I knew I had a ways to go.

Texas better not mess with Mary!

At the 3.5 mile mark, we hit the Texas border, and we stopped and had our obligatory photo shoot. This is going to be our last state line for a long while, so we made the most of it. After that I really had to get rolling. For the first part of the ride the roads were almost empty and it felt like I was riding through a water-world. Everything was flooded, usually all the way up to (or actually over) the road, and it looked really serene and beautiful. And then that serenity came to a screeching halt,

Riding through a water-world

when I got onto a Farm Road 363 and spent the next ~18 miles trying not to get run over by any of the hundreds of logging trucks that were flying past me as I teetered along the shoulderless road. It was extremely stressful, and I was glad to make it to Kirbyville, get off that road, meet up with Mary, and have some Subway lunch. It was relatively cold today, so it was a little hard getting started after lunch, but I finally got in the groove of things and pressed on another ~27 miles on

Finally the clear skies made their return

US 96 to meet up with Mary again in Silsbee. US 96 was a much more comfortable ride, since it had a huge shoulder. The ride was still a little stressful, because there was a ton of traffic and the speed limit was 70MPH, so the amount of road noise was out of control. After resting again with Mom in Silsbee, I had less than 15 miles to go to Kountze. The dark clouds finally went away and I was able to spend the last part of the day riding in beautiful conditions. I finished up the ride and we made it to our hotel around 6pm. We just finished cleaning up and are heading out to dinner soon. It feels good to be in Texas!   

Day 19: Oberlin, LA to Merryville, LA

Daily Miles: 56.7 Total Miles: 1008.1

Today we saw lots of canoe rentals instead of farms

We hit 1,000 miles!! Today was a race to beat the rain, and while I didn't quite make it to Texas, I put in a valiant effort. I really tried to focus on my nutrition during today's ride. I ate a good breakfast, had something small every 30 minutes, and drank lots of water and Gatorade. And I was feeling MUCH better. I woke up early today, at 6am, because I knew some serious weather was heading our way. By noon there was a 50% chance of severe thunderstorms that would increase to 100% and last through tomorrow morning. I was on the road before 8am and enjoying a great tailwind. I was making great time on really nice roads, until about mile 17.

The storm starts to roll in

We moved into a new parish, the road got much worse, and the rain started. I was still able to hold a good pace, but slowed down a bit. Still, before I knew it I was meeting up with Mary outside of DeRidder, LA, 34 miles into the day. I had a snack and chatted a bit as the rain let up, but then decided to press on because I still had a feeling the big storm was coming at noon. At about the 50 mile mark, the road turned south, directly into the howling wind, and the sky darkened considerably. I slowly made it the ~5.5 miles on to Merryville, and when I got there Mary was no where in sight. I said, I guess I'm heading on to Texas, and pressed on. Within a mile of passing the Merryville sign things got much worse. The sky went pitch black, the rain started coming down in sheets, the temperature felt like it dropped 10+ degrees in a matter of seconds, and lightning lit up the sky. The next thing I know, Mary pulls up and we decided to call it a day.

Safe in the car

Fortunately we found an awning to pull under to load up my gear. Even despite the strong headwind the last ~6 miles, I finished the day at a record pace, 13.6 MPH, knocking out the 56 miles in just over 4 hours, and finishing at about 12:10pm, right when I had predicted the big storm would come. The terrain today was different than yesterday. There were very few farms, and tons of rivers and creeks. The only real industry we saw was tourism, mainly in the form of canoe rentals. We drove on about 30 miles to Jasper to find a hotel and decent places to eat. We had a great lunch at Fratela's Italian restaurant, and might just go back there for dinner. We're spending the afternoon staying dry, resting, and writing postcards (one can be yours for a small donation at http://camo.donorpages.com/CyclingforCAMO2012/CarriePerdue/). I am hoping the rain lets up early tomorrow, so that we can get back on the road!!

Day 18: Bunkie, LA to Oberlin, LA

Daily Miles: 64.9 Total Miles: 951.4

Starting the ride near Chicot State Park

Today was a rough one for several reasons. First, I had a pretty significant headwind for a good part of the day which at one point had me rolling along, on completely flat land, at under 8MPH for several miles. The second big issue today had to do with my nutrition. I woke up today and ate a small breakfast (some fruit and a Clif bar) and after starting I immediately felt out of it. I continued to ride and made it to the 20-mile mark and decided to stop and eat more. I had another Clif bar, more fruit, some nuts, and a lot of water. I kept riding on to Mamou, ~38 miles into the day, battling the headwind, and felt awful. We stopped and ate lunch, and after I ate, I felt really cold, nauseous, and light-headed. I went to sit in the car and decided to do some research. It turns out that I had "bonked", apparently a fairly common occurrence among long distance cyclists, which basically means that I pushed my body to the point that I had an abnormally low level of blood glucose.

Crawfish farm (the things in the water are nets)

For more info, click here to read a very well-written and informative blog on the subject. I had most of the symptoms (including irritability, which Mary might argue is just part of my personality), and proceeded to treat myself by drinking a lot of Gatorade and letting the carbs I ate at lunch kick in. I was finally up and feeling better around 3pm and hit the road again. The route finally changed direction, and I no longer had a headwind to contend with, although I still wasn't going very fast. The wind was more of a 85% crosswind 15% tailwind.

Rice farm (we think)

It still vastly improved my speed and I finished out the last ~26 miles of the day by about 5:30pm. All in all, I rode almost the same distance today as yesterday, but today I spent over an hour more on my bike. The route was really interesting today and after I started feeling better I really started to appreciate it. We rode through mainly crawfish and rice farmland and the types of farms were both very interesting to see. Once again, almost all of the land is flooded, but now I think it's by design. At least I hope so, because the weather forecast is calling for a huge storm that's going to dump 15" of rain on this region. Mom and I are heading out now to eat Chinese (so that I can carbo-load for tomorrow's ride), and we're hoping to beat the storm tomorrow. Wish us luck!