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!