It was a taxing day in Texas! We were all up and eating breakfast (mine was two hard boiled eggs) at 6:30 a.m. for a 7:30 departure, but we couldn't leave because it was pitch dark.
We were delighted to finally see first light at 8:00, and depart for the 90-mile ride to Ft. Davis. It was 41 degrees and my hands were so cold!
We were counting on those favorable winds from the day before. As we began the ride, we watched the sun rise above the Davis Mountains. We rode 40 miles east on the shoulder of I-10 with strong head winds every mile of the way.
The SAG Wagon was at mile 20. Just as I was about to ride off, I discovered a flat on my front tire! There was a big hole by the valve stem. After we replaced it and inflated the new tube, we returned to the Interstate, dodging tire shards and coping with the deafening noise of the 18-wheelers for the next 20 miles.
Then, we turned on to State Road 118, where we all became intimately acquainted with Texas' chip seal road surfaces. I felt like all my fillings were getting loose! We passed several ranch entrances, and a couple of real cowboys by their pick-up truck. We also passed a javelina by the side of the road, who no doubt had done serious damage to the vehicle that hit and killed him. They are huge and fearsome beasts!
After 8.5 miles of vibrating on the chip seal, we stopped for a glorious picnic of extraordinary sandwiches and carrot salad made by our chef, Linda, as well as watermelon. As I sat down on the chair by the trailer, my bottom felt like it did after the episiotomy I had when our nearly-10-pound son, Stephen, was born!
I decided I'd had all the fun I needed in one day. I took over as the SAG after lunch. Marge had started out on the 40-mile climb to the Davis Mountains State Park and the McDonald Observatory. It was a relentless climb. Both of us were pooped at the end of the day, and so proud and awed by the10 who did all 90 miles since the conditions of the morning, although very different, were equally as daunting as those in the afternoon.
When I arrived in the SAG Wagon, I was greeted with the news that now my back tire was flat -- and fixing it would have to wait until tomorrow! Everyone finally arrived by 5:30, and we were tickled with our comfortable Southwestern-style room in the Indian Lodge at the Davis Mountains State Park, an Oasis in the High Country.We dragged ourselves over to the restaurant, where I ate a large salad and four onion rings. We were in bed shortly after dark, with gorgeous West Texas air coming in through the window.
1,148 miles behind us -- I had to recalculate. 1,952 to pedal. 38 days to go.
That doesn't sound like a day ---- it sounds like a day and a half! You all met the challenges, one way or another. And friends helping friends is certainly one of the many good things about this kind of tour. Rest Easy.
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