This morning the air was rather cool, with lots of fog. We went through our morning routines and were on the road by 7am. We headed out of Burton and made a few turns and road by the high school. The roads were pretty quiet and calm. Just like yesterday morning the ride was pretty quick to the RV which was at 19 miles today. We all stopped and filled up our bottles with water, I had my peanut and butter and jelly sandwich. From here we headed out to ride to a Barstop state park the ride there wasn't bad, it was rolling hills and the wind was calm. The RV had to park at a picnic area just inside the park entrance. That picnic area was at about 51 miles today.
We had lunch and moved right out of there and rode through the park. At first we were pretty excited, we were in a forest with trees all around us to shield us from the wind. Then we rode the first 100 yards...The hills were fast and steep. We had 12 miles of this road to ride through. I would go down a hill hitting 35mph and then shoot up the other side and dropping me to 7mph before I knew it. Let's just my quads were on fire before we made it out of that park. Once we made it out we navigated through Barstop, neat town. We actually had to ride on the shoulder of a highway for a few miles, that always makes things fun. Once we got off the highway, we hoped on FM20 and that took us all the way to Lockhart.
The temperatures increased and the hills are getting longing. We pushed ahead and stopped often for water. The temperature reached 96 degrees this afternoon with a descent about of humidity in the air. We reached maximum sweat levels during the afternoon ride.
When we were about 6 miles out of Lockhart, we passed a ranch with a POPsRide sign on the fence! You see Karen is from Lockhart and her mother has Parkinson's Disease. She heard about us when she picked up a flyer that we had sent here to Lockhart at one of the BBQ joints in town. Karen is a regular and picked up the flyer and looked us online. The more she dug the more she found out about us. She discovered that we were riding down the road that is right at the end of her driveway. Last night she stayed up and made us a sign and mounted it to her fence. It was unbelievable to see someone so excited to see us and encouraging to us to know it meant so much to someone you is dealing with the affects of her mother disease.
This gave us the energy to ride the last 6 miles into town. We made quick work of it and rode into town and found our hotel.
Tonight we had plans to attended a local BBQ joint (the one we sent flyer's to). Karen and her Mom and Dad meant us there and we had a fantastic meal. This was a neat place, it was cafeteria style and you loaded our plate up and just go for it. It was so good to talk to Karen and her parents. We had a great time just sharing stories. She picked up the tab, we tried to argue with her but she wasn't having any of that.
She help transport us back to our hotel, we gave her some BMX magazines that we had for her students (she's a teacher). We thanked her for all she did for us! It was a perfect ending to our day.
There is a storm blowing in tonight and it is supposed to hit between 8pm - 2pm. It should bring cooler weather, but it also looks like it will bring winds out of the west. Oh well, we will just have to pedal harder. The good news is we get a 2 day rest break after tomorrows ride. I look forward to having some serious down time. Lots of stretching, maybe watch some movies and read my book.
Tomorrow is hump day for the work week, I hope everyones week is going good so far. Our ride week is going good, we have some pains here and there and our legs are a little sore. But we will make it through this. Like one of my new favorite songs I have been listening to, it says...
when my faith is getting weak
and I feel like giving in
you breathe into me.
I'm awake I'm alive!
-Skillet, Awake and Alive
You can find those last efforts down deep inside when you are driven to succeed. That is what we are - driven!
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