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.