Wet Rest Day is Damp Break

Wednesday April 10th- I think:

We are all having trouble remembering what day and date it is, especially when we get a day off in Navasota Texas which does not have a great deal to be memorable about and it is pouring with rain after a warm morning. Definitely pouring and cold, about 58 degrees, and raining all day. I know it's not snow - you Colorado Late Christmas Revelers - but it is cold and wet. But the day passed and we all had a good time and met in the Wranglers Steak House for dinner at 5 p.m; because:
1. it's opposite the hotel and only five minutes to walk
2. it has a lot of room so when 20 of us arrive talking loudly and assertively, they don't faint away
3. it is not expensive
4. it serves liquor - yes, I'm afraid we bad-ass bikers drink too. But No Smoking.
AND Keith, the solo bicyclist from England whom we met earlier on the trip suddenly reappeared after a day riding in the rain and is still pedaling on towards Florida on his own chosen routes.

In the morning I went to the haircut place but they didn't even know about walk-ins so I made an appointment for later but couldn't face another rainy walk. I then went to the Great Entertainment Center which is Walmart where you can wander round and feel intrigued. I bought some vitamin C tablets to keep up my energy, and an excellent Mary Higgins Clark thriller called "The Lost Years" which is perfect rainy afternoon reading.  I went again to Pizza Hut this time with Jo and a few others to have pizza and a good salad, and then came back and put the heating on the room, found the radio stations on my computer to listen to Mozart piano concertos and some jazz, and sat on the bed and read my book.

At 3:45 p.m. Ricky arrived with her folding table and her hand-made creams and her calm assurance to give me a massage in my room. I told her my legs were tight and that's what I pedaled with and she said she'd concentrate on those as well as everything else. What can I say about a good massage except that it makes me relax and be right here in the moment and that my body remembers how it's supposed to feel and move and fit together? She has been doing therapeutic massage for 20 years and also teaches and she and her husband just bought a farm where she keeps more horses than she knows she can manage so she is always busy. We talked horses - I still remember Legacy and the wonderful riding we used to do together in Colorado - and that was lovely to talk and think about again.

Afterwards, I took a little while to just sit and focus and feel truly in one piece and one place, as if I had been fitted together again correctly and my body was purring. Then I went to dinner with The Group. Some of us are already looking ahead to May 2nd when we ride into St. Augustine Florida and others can hardly believe there's only three more weeks. I'm taking it a day at a time - and am planning to stay an extra couple of days in St. Augustine to see the town and fly back on Sunday.

However, tomorrow may be a cold wet windy ride - depending on the weather, and I have to bike to Cleveland Texas (Cleveland in Texas?) and see how far I can get. We leave about 7:45 a.m. so it's an early morning start and I shall set my alarm again.