-Now that my friends...was a BIKE RIDE
-I literally have no idea how my legs are still pedaling
-That hill was like taking candy from a baby...a baby raptor!
-I always wondered what it would be like to take a bicycle to the top of a double black diamond ski trail...now I know
-It's peanut butter jelly time, peanut butter jelly time
-Peanut butter jelly, peanut butter jelly, peanut butter jelly with...chocolate milk...sorry no baseball bat for you Family Guy fans out there
Well today was fun. Now that it's over at least. I can officially say that today was the hardest day of my life...physically. The first 30 miles were cake but the last 75 was like cake left in a freezer for a year...aka...hard! I entered the famous hill country 30 miles in and still have around 100 miles left. And the sickest part is that the biggest and steepest hills...I won't hit until later tomorrow and mainly Friday. That is why I am now happy I came this far today. My original plan of taking it easy this week was thrown out the window today, but it will make the next 3-4 days easier. I planned on stopping after 65 miles today, but the campsite there was charging $17...ridiculous. So I rode an excruciating 40 more miles to a nice $8 campsite at an RV Park. Now I can go shorter tomorrow and Friday and break up the hills a little more. But boy was it punishing to get here. Not to mention the last 5 miles was in the dark. But the hills I had to go up at some points today were just silly, and not even good pavement! They were these stupid gravely roads which are harder to bike on without hills. The shortest hill today was the worst though. It was only about 20 feet up...but at an angle of about 40 degrees. I wish I was exaggerating...it was so hard, I had the bike on the absolute highest (easiest) gear and got up it by the skin on my teeth. I went up 3 hills that were over 750 feet of gradual incline...very very hard. Overall, I topped out at around 1,800 feet at my highest point...but I climbed to that about 4 separate times from various heights. But like I said, the hardest hills in this area will be conquered on Friday, I can't wait!
Really great views though, and the best are yet to come.
I finally made it to the RV Park in Comfort, TX and was given a small space to set up my tent between two RV's. I wish I had an RV but at least I can finally break in this tent. Looks cozy in there. I was given the spot directly across from two Austrians who are headed from LA to Miami but mostly on the same route as me, obviously in the other direction. It was nice to be able to talk to someone going the other way for more than a couple minutes. We were able to exchange good information about places we have stayed and places to avoid. They were really nice and gave me some good tips for down the road. I think I did the same for them. They left the San Diego area on Jan. 3 and are averaging about 65 miles a day. Which is good news for my hopeful arrival of early March! They also said to watch out for the thorns in the desert, where they had quite a few flats :/ I'll try.
Oh and Texas is definitely the best state for shooting stars. Not only is it a crystal clear sky most nights, but less lights to dilute the stars. I saw the most insane shooting star ever tonight. It had to have been a comet or meteor or something. It started off yellow/white zipping through the air, but never disappeared like they usually do. Instead, it kept going and turned a green/blue color. It only disappeared when it went to low for me to see over the RVs. Incredible...maybe it crashed somewhere??
Well it's cold out and I have nowhere warm to go so I'm going to go snuggle up in my warmish sleeping bag and pass out. Goodnight!
Happy Birthday Dad!!
Not 5 minutes after I read your blog the newsman was talking about a meteor that lit up the sky across Texas. It's great you got to see it. Nice tan, been golfing?? :D
ReplyDeleteHows the traffic down those long Texas roads? Looks like nare a vehicle in sight. Was wondering if its been like that through-out Texas so far? And beware of the desert thorns, I hear many riders complain about them. Keep it up your doin good. Nice photos...Richard
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments! The last couple days have been very quiet. I've passed about 2-5 cars an hour, if that. The hill country was even less. I went 4 hours yesterday and saw 1 car! The thorns will stink but hopefully I'll make it through alright.
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