Daily Miles: 78.1
Total Miles: 1647
Max: 34.6
Avg: 11.7
Time on the Bike: 06:36:50
The nice lady at the campground last night put me directly under a spot light, so I had the priveledge of sleeping in the daylight during the night time. It was okay and I was able to sleep plenty good. But still…
It was pretty cold this morning as I set off. I had on most of my clothes and that seemed to do the trick. I soon got sweaty and hot during an extended uphill climb and had to pull over to take some layers off. Comming down the other side I froze because I was wet and the wind slammed into me on the decent. Hot and cold. Such is the reality of cycling hills during cold weather.
The ride today was very enjoyable. Most of it was spent far out on obscure country roads with hardly any vehicles. It was just me and the road and the hills; the cows and deer and goats and sheep; and my thoughts and day dreams to keep me company during my pedaling. I didn’t have to worry about cars or trucks and this was good. The world had seemed to right itself, and for the first time I really felt like I was cycle touring. This was how I had always envisioned it in my mind.
I passed through a cool little town called Fredericksburg, but didn’t really do anything there. I sat on a bench at the visitors center and ate a Clif Bar. A few people passed me and they all said the same thing. “Cold day for a ride, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, I guess.” I said. You didn’t really have to tell me what I already knew. I should have said, ‘Nah, it’s fucking great!’
The next part of the day had me on even more obscure roads and I passed a lot of out of the way ranches. Some of these ranches are like mansions, and they look pretty awsome. There were some way on the tops of hills with splendid views of the overarching Hill Country. Big money. I wonder what kind of people lived in them.
I passed a sheep farm which was separated by the road. On one side there were about 50 sheep with short hair, and on the other side there were sheep that had the longest hair I’ve ever seen. Seems like they were due for a trimming soon. Some couldn’t even see as they ran away from me tripping in rocks and running into each other.
I’m camped by the Guadalupe River in Ingram, Texas tonight. It’s pretty chilly. For the first time on the trip I built my own fire. There was a bunch of kindling and wood near the fire pit so I said what the heck. The fire is warm and toasty and it will be hard to leave it later and go into the tent. I should just cowboy camp by it and keep it going all night.
I’m going to spend the next two days here to catch the Super Bowl on Sunday. My plan to reach this other town fell through on account of some other campground in the middle that is closed now. There’s a Motel 6 nearby for dirt cheap so I’m going to treat myself to two nights in the hotel. I guess there are some cool museums and sculpture parks here so that will be neat to check out tommorrow.
When you don’t have anyplace to be you can pretty much be wherever you want. That’s just a nice way of saying that I’m homeless.
