What a day, it didn't end up anything like we wanted it to. But in the end we just stepped back and said, "we aren't in control." Let me tell you about the highs and lows we experienced today.
We headed out from the same location that we stopped at last night. We had some navigation issues and had to back track for about a mile right off the bat. We "recalculated" and got back on track. The morning air was cool and dry for a change. It was so dry it reminded of Phoenix for a few minutes. The wind was up early with us this morning. Because of the storm last night, the winds were not coming out of the south anymore. They were now coming out of the northwest.
Within the first 15 minutes of our ride we rode through downtown Lockhart. It was a very interesting place, lots of store and a real neat court house right in the middle of the square.
It was one of those places we wish we had more time to visit. That is the one bummer of our trip and our schedule. We have passed so many places that we would love to stop in and check out. I would have loved to stick around in Pensacola to here Pastor Brian speak at a service or hit up one of those road side dinner that looks kind of scary, but you know it has great food! But with our timetable that we have to hit it just isn't something we can do.
That is why it means so much to us to be able to sit and share with people from the communities that we are riding through.
We made our normal stop at the RV around 15 miles tonight. We had our regular snacks and goodies. I was pretty excited because we were stopped on the outskirts of Kyle, TX. How many times do you get to ride your bike through a city that is named the same as you are? Naturally we stopped and took a few pictures.
If you look closely at the second picture you can see my junior police badge that Shane got for us from the Kyle police department. We briefly spoke to an officer and he wished us luck on the rest of our trip!
That is were the fun stopped and the work started. The morning was long, and I am not speaking of just distance. Like I said early we were riding directly into the wind all morning and the like the sign says in the picture above...Gateway to Hill Country. We spent all 61 miles of the morning ride going up and down some descent hills with 20+ mph winds just beating us down. The view on the side of the road is starting to change. We are getting out of the trees and into more of a high desert terrain. We are still seeing a lot of road kill, but they are getting bigger and the smell is worse. I think I counted 6 deer today, a coyote, and many armadillos.
We arrived at the RV for lunch around 1:45pm, this is the latest we have stopped for lunch on this trip. We had been invited to a dinner at the Comfort Baptist tonight. So we had a decision to make. At the rate we were riding there was no way we would make it to dinner on time, and if we did there would be no time for us to shower before we headed over there. As a group we decided to press on another 15 miles and then pack it out and head to the hotel. With a 2 day rest in front of us it was decided that we would head back out in the morning when the temperature is lower and hopefully the winds are calmer and knock out those 30 miles we missed today. This will take us roughly 90 minutes to do with these hills. We are back to the hotel by 10am at the latest to enjoy the remainder of our rest day, with another full day of rest right behind it.
Those next 15 miles were filled with hills just like the morning. We made quick work of them and got out of there and on the RV and to the hotel. We were all a little bummed to have to stop short and go back tomorrow to make up the miles. But at the same time we feel it is important when someone reaches out to us to make sure we are available.
Let me tell you that we all enjoyed another fantastic home cooked meal from the church family here in Comfort, TX. We had the pleasure of talking to the Pastor who was very informational about the area. We talked about everything to ranches, George W, wildlife, oil, drug problem in Texas, the current drought they are in, Lance Armstrong and even a few other topic that I wasn't able to remember. It was great to get all this knowledge about the area we are in. One constant topic that kept coming up was all the hills to the west of town and how Lance used to come down here to train. It starting to make sense was Lance is so strong on the hills!
We have 30 miles in the morning and then it is out of the sun and off my legs for a while. We are in hill country now and my legs need some R&R!!!
I received more encouraging txt and facebook post today, and I can not express how much that encourages me out here on the bike. Thank you to all of you!!!
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