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!