Week 3: The Ride Across Texas Continues

(Kate’s note:  Sandy did not have many photos to provide this week.  With her approval I downloaded a few fitting photos from the internet for days 17, 18, and 19.)

Day 17:  Ft Davis TX to Marathon, plan:   54 miles 

I woke up to cooler conditions and the smell of rain in the air, a nice way to greet the day.  After the climb out of Ft. Davis and with my legs finally warmed up it, was a great day of riding.  Following  a few rolling hills, which are not my favourites, it was pretty much down hill.  I met up with a few drops of rain but nothing more than that.  Lucky for us, we came across a Target store but they didn’t carry much.  From there, it was a fun ride into Marathon.  I had been have some lousy sleeps so I crashed as soon as I got to my hotel room and got in a quick 1 ½ hr snooze  before supper.   We had a nice meal at the Gage Hotel featuring a big rib eye steak. It was good but it wasn’t steak from you know who’s province.   1134 feet up, 1967 feet down.

I Love Alberta Beef!
photo from internet

Day 18:  Marathon TX to Sanderson TX, plan:   54 miles 

This morning, I woke up to overcast skies.  By the profile and the distance, this should have been the day I’ve been dreaming about, but noooo.  Fog began to roll in. As the fog continued to build, it got to the point that the organizers called off the day’s ride and started picking up the riders.  Visibility was zero.  One rider argued that it was not unsafe and wanted to ride to the end but was told no, it was definitely unsafe for a cyclist to be out on the road.  This rider then blew up and was ranting and raving, demonstrating very poor judgement as he carried on.  It was not a pretty scene.  When we stopped to pick him up, we could not see him until we were almost beside him, it was that dangerous.  

The wind was horrific and once safely in our hotels, we received a tornado warning about 10:45 pm.  The wind, rain, thunder, and lightning were wild.  Then at 11:45 pm everything went silent.  That was eerie.  Shortly afterwards, the winds started up again.  Now, who can sleep? Then the rooster next door woke up and started to do his thing at 4 am.  Well, that was another not so restful sleep. Jim, however, said he slept pretty good thinking that if a tornado came upon us he would hear the girls scream and that would wake him up.    

818 feet up, 2068 feet down.

Tornado warning
photo from internet

Day 19:   Sanderson TX to Del Rio, plan: 119 miles 

After the tornado warning and all the weather carryings on of the night before, we woke up to a clear sky.  The first 100 km of today’s ride was fun and went by somewhat quickly.  Then, of course, things just had to change.  The terrain went up and down, up and down ... repeat as necessary, and the winds changed as well so even the downhills were tough. We passed many dead trees through the course of the day.  Apparently, they were oak trees killed by a root fungus.  Their “skeletons” show how gnarly the oaks were when alive. 

My aim for today was 160km.   After I got that accomplished, I jumped into the van and enjoyed the last 30 km as a passenger.  With the ongoing undulating hills, I would have gotten in long after supper and I don’t like to miss my food!!  3994 feet up, 5730 feet down.

Gnarly oak tree

Day 20

Del Rio TX to Camp Wood TX, plan:  80 miles

(Kate’s notes:  Sandy did not provide any notes for this day’s ride, even when I reminder her. She said nothing interesting happened on the day.  However, she did send me an interesting photo from just outside Camp Wood.  Apparently, she rode through an area with a history of farming, if the equipment displayed is any indication.)  

1791 feet up, 1405 feet down.

Outside Camp Wood, "Rust in Peace"

Day 21:  Camp Wood TX to Ingram TX, plan:   80 miles 

Well where to begin?  We knew it was going to be quite the riding day, today.  I called it my “Rocky IV” day as every time I got to the top of each of the climbs I raised my arms up in victory just like in the movie “Rocky”.  To be honest I was glad there wasn’t a Rocky V!

Since I had forgotten my Garmin charging cable at home in California, I had no idea what the grade of each climb was but knew they were steep as I was only doing 4.5 km/h.  The only saving grace was the first three climbs had a lot of switch backs which allowed me, on occasion, to look back down into the valley from whence I came and think, “Holy shit, that’s a long way down!”  I was thinking of enjoying the downhill between hills 3 and 4, hitching a ride in the van up the last hill, then riding my bike the rest of the way in, but nooooo.  I felt good so up hill 4 my bike and I went.  It didn’t seem as long but it was straight up with no turns which meant we could see the top of the climb and at only 4.5km/h I never thought I’d reach it.  That was all in the first 40 of the day’s 80 miles.  The last half was humpy bumpy, mostly downhill.  4785 feet up, 4536 feet down.

Profile of tough day

Day 22

Ingram TX to Fredricksburg TX, plan:  37 miles

This day’s ride might have only been 37 miles (60 km) but after yesterday’s big climbing efforts, it was rough.  The countryside was nice, well, at least it wasn’t desert.  

There seems to be an interesting mentality in Texas.  There are big ranches with huge fences to keep animals in where people pay to go big game hunting.  Wow, some accomplishment in that kind of hunting.  The fences in some areas are along both sides of the road which makes for a death sentence for the natural wild animals as they get caught on the road between the fences with no place to go.

Anyway back to the ride.  At mile 10 we came across a wall, well that’s what it looked like to me.  The road was so steep that I had to do switch back turns, back and forth across the road, to finish the climb.  I asked another rider what his Garmin showed for the gradient.  He just laughed and said he was too busy looking down and pedaling to be able to see his computer, but the last reading he saw was 13%.  Okay that’s steep enough at that!  The rest of the ride was interesting.  We were on back country rural roads that literally went through peoples front yards, around their cattle, and over Texas gates. (Kate's  note:  for those of  you who may not be familiar, cattle will not cross a Texas Gate. Vehicles can drive over them so the rancher doesn't have to build a gate across the road ... unless he wants to keep the vehicles from crossing as well.) 1586 feet up, 1622 feet down

Texas Gatephoto from internet

Day 23

Fredricksburg TX, plan:   Rest Day

Again, this was a much needed rest day, with the obligatory trip to check out the local bike shop. The only thing I forgot on this trip was the charging cable for my Garmin (bike computer that provides all sorts of useful information during a ride). It is an older model and it is very difficult to find the style of charging cable it requires. On a whim, I asked the lady behind the counter if they happened to have that type of cable kicking around the shop somewhere. She said she had the same model of Garmin as mine, so knew exactly what I was looking for.  After a quick trip to the back, she came out asking, “Is this what you are looking for?” Sure enough, that was the cable I needed. I asked her how much I owed her for it, but she just handed it to me and told me to enjoy the rest of my trip. Many thanks!!

Next up was a nice, relaxing massage.  With a big smile on my face, I returned to my hotel room to charge up my Garmin, which I haven’t been able to use since Day 1, and took the rest of the day off.   I was one happy cyclist!

End of Week 3