Y'all I'm still in Texas! WIll it ever end?

A good riding day and a rescue by a gallant Texan!

Today we left Kerrville after a day of rest in an elegant hotel to ride 62 miles on to Blanco, which is about 40 miles south of Austin TX, a big city. I thought this was a distance I could do so I set out and passed the first Sag stop at 20 miles, and stopped for lunch in Waring TX at 30 miles sitting at picnic tables outside a refurbished old gas station where the meter recorded the price in pennies, not dollars. Makes you think huh. 
   The two guys running it made hamburgers and French fries and had Cocacola in bottles. Every Wednesday night they have live music and dancing which was playing from a tape while we were there, and there's a big garden out back for more celebrating. "We've been doing this for 15 years" one of them told me, "and it's always a blast." This is Saturday so we didn't see it.
     Riding on I passed the 40 mile Sag stop and felt fine, thinking we'd have some more rolling hills as we'd had before. BUT suddenly the hills got bigger, the rolls got longer, and the whole ride became far more challenging as the wind picked up - it is NEVER behind us- and the temperature soared from the comfortable 50s to the 70s as the sun swept the clouds from the sky. I womanfully struggled up the next few hills, feeling very tired. I stopped for water and a snack thinking that would help. I went up a couple more and other riders passed me.  I was 7 miles from Kendalia, the next town and about 20 miles from the hotel in Blanco. I realized that I didn't have that many pedaling miles in me.
    I called the Sag, Julie, but she was busy picking up people who had got lost, or who were tired way back behind me, and she told me it would be at least an hour before she could get to me. I was about to plan how to find a shady spot to wait when a man in a big wagon with a bike on the back saw me on the phone and called: "Do you need some help?" What a great question! He turned his van round and came over to where I was and I told him I was not able to ride into Blanco and our Sag was tied up. He knew all about Sags and had ridden mountain bike rides and was on his way to one in Comfort where we'd passed, but when he heard my sad story, he offered me a ride to Blanco where he lives. I thanked him profusely and he expertly loaded my bike on the back next to his, and I got in the front seat of his beautifully air-conditioned van. 
     Turns out he loves Colorado and has been to Steamboat Springs and skied and would love to live there but his wife likes Texas so they're in Blanco. He has twins, a boy and a girl, who are 12, and they play soccer and bike and ski, and are as outdoorsy as you can be here in Texas where there's no snow, and go to Colorado to ski and to a summer camp. I told him about my family, and how Boulder is so sports conscious that when you ask someone what they do, you don't care about their job, you just want to know if they hike, bike, ski, run, race, climb or do anything interesting athletically.  I do yoga but I've learned that does not qualify as a fulltime sport in Boulder.
      He took me all the way to the hotel - and then because I dropped my phone in the car, brought that to the hotel too. What a great guy! Texas is wonderful.
      I then went with Carla to lunch at the Redbud Café, where the guy who took my order had lived in Boulder for 11 years, come to Austin TX and moved to Blanco to escape the big city. We had a great reminisce about how Boulder has changed in the past 20 something years. I had an excellent quiche and salad and a perfect iced coffee.
     Outside on Blanco's town square they had booths and stalls for a fair. Carla and I walked around looking at booths, and I found some clip-on earrings, rare as can be in the world, from a woman who refurbishes antique jewelry. They are blue and sparkly and look terrific - so that was great. We looked at antlers and wooden barbecue holders, and hippy clothing and not much else. Then came back to the hotel where people were biking in.
      Marilyn and I cleaned our bikes on the grass, chatting, and she said that she admired the fact that I knew how much I could ride and did what I could. I appreciated her saying that because I keep feeling I Should Do More....but I can only do what I can do - and enjoy that. She, on the other hand, zooms along like lightning and hardly seems to get out of breath. It must be that New Zealand vegemite again. She is on a year's grand adventure tour is going to Spain next to teach English conversation to Spaniards in a program there. 
        Then I had a shower, found out the wifi worked - always a surprise - and caught up on email and Facebook and all the other Internet connections. Dinner is outside in half an hour.
        My room in this hotel is decorated with a variety of crosses. There's an ornamental iron one on the wall, a big one standing up on the mantelpiece above the bed, and a sign saying "Every day holds the possibility of a miracle." Which is a good thought to have when you're riding a bicycle, panting up a hill and out of breath, though the possibility of suddenly being able to do it seems a little unlikely. But I shall hope on.

Dog Notes

Sammy the Limping Beagle

For those of you who know Sammy, he is an amazingly quiet and friendly beagle, now 11 years old, and he is taking his vacation Chez Myriam and Scott, my cousins, together with Scooter, the smaller beagle, and Stanley, who probably thinks he's a beagle since everyone else is. They are The Gang when they get together and crowd the sofa by the front door, so that should anyone anyone ever try to get to the front door without being noticed, they all bark in unison and then run to the door in case someone tries to come in. You can't sneak into the house no matter how you try. In between the intense guard duty, they nap in different places on the sofa. Scooter likes the cushion along the top, Stanley sits below behind him - he knows his place - and Sammy sits on the cushion on the other side. The Boys are At Work.
    However, Sammy while playing in the back yard pulled something in his back leg and started limping. Myriam took him to the vet and the verdict was that he either had to have an operation OR he could get a brace and see if it healed up by itself. Hop-along Sammy was not the least deterred by only having three legs to run around on .... However, I had to make a decision. I did some research and there is a place called Orthopets which makes braces for dogs. Myriam, who deserves a dog-shaped halo, took him to the vet there, who said he was an excellent candidate for it. I talked to her on the phone, I read the voluminous material about braces and what it meant and what it didn't and yesterday, Myriam took Sammy who was fitted with his brace on his back left leg. She sent me a photo and it looks terrifying - but apparently he is getting used to it, and needs therapy sessions to help him realize he can now walk on the leg that was hurting.  He goes back in two weeks to make sure everything is OK and he now wears it for an hour or so at a time getting use to it, has exercises to do, and seems to be eating, sleeping, farting and pooping like he usually does. He has also lost weight and the vet recommended giving him canned pumpkin to make him feel he's getting enough food because he's been on a strict diet.
      I shall try and post the photo on Facebook - technology willing.

Sunny Day Bicycling Two Big Hills

Not Utopia but Medina and apples

Thursday April 4, 2013 49 miles and two big hills

After my van day to rest, I set out from Vanderpool Foxfire Cabins to ride to Kerrville, a town of 20,000 people which is gigantic compared to the places we’ve been staying. After a cloudy cool start, the sun came out, the clouds wandered away, and it was a blue sky day in the 60s which was perfect. The West Texas hills are a miniature mountain environment with the green trees opening leaves, the rounded hilltops in the distance, and enough dramatic views from the tops to make it exciting. I’d been warned at the map meeting that there were two extremely steep hills, and sure enough after some rolling ups and downs I found the steep steep climb ahead. I generally pedal until I’m doing about 3 miles an hour which is as fast as I can walk wheeling my bike, and then I get off and walk and wheel. For me it’s a lot easier than struggling to pedal as I’ve learned.

 Of course the great benefit of a truly challenging hill is that afterwards you have a superbly wonderful ride down the hill which is the other side and feels like flying through the air. Beautiful and makes the up totally worthwhile.   

The lunch break stop today was at Medina, a cute small town that was not Utopia because that was 11 miles further on as the signpost promised. However, Medina had a wonderful Apple Center where they grow organic apples and use bats to kill insects and make home-made apple pie and turnovers and tarts and anything else you can think of putting an apple into or on as well as selling apple jam and apple honey and apple cards and apple photos and apple trees. I was really hungry and decided to go for a BLT sandwich to give me enough energy for the next 24 miles. And coffee. Our two guides, who know the place well, stocked up on jam and preserves and other apple-y delight for the van, and asked about gluten free crusts in the future.

The woman behind the counter had lived in Denver before moving to Medina and said you could always find good health foods there and gluten free things to eat, and she hoped to move back there some time. She loved Boulder – yay – but really enjoyed working the Apple Center. She also loved bicycling so I wrote down the web address for Womantours.com and waved goodbye.

The afternoon was warmer, in the 70s, so I stripped off two layers and pedaled on till the next giant hill, which was a serpentine snaking up a steep hillside, with hairpin bends up and not much room on the side. I did about five minutes and then walked, as did a couple of others, till finally we got to a flat place to breathe. I biked on another half mile and there at the very top was Pat Rush with the sag wagon- what a welcome sight. We all stopped for water and were relieved to hear there were no more giant hills to exhaust us on the way up. Of course those Super Duper Riders find them exciting and challenging. Me, I’m waiting for the flatlands where there will only be the gentle ups and downs along the waterfronts….

I rode in to Kerrville with Carla – we seem to end up together at the same time and the same energy level – and rode to the elegant YO Ranch Hotel, built to be a truly modern elegant place and not part of a chain. I have a lovely big room, king size bed, two basins in the bathroom, and it’s quiet. For dinner we were treated to a four-star dining room in the hotel, The Branding Iron, where I had a salmon steak with roasted potatoes, and home-made cherry cobbler with whipped cream for dessert. Four of us shared a bottle of wine and clinked and congratulated ourselves on another riding day completed and achieved. We are more than halfway to Florida – amazing. Friday is our day off – and we are all ready for it.

A day in the van in Texas

Wednesday April 3^rd, 2013. In Vanderpool Texas

 

I’m sitting in front of a glowing fire of logs and kindling (which I collected earlier) burning red and warm in an imposing stone fireplace in a beautiful old western lodge with two horned deer heads up on the wall looking down at me, and big old sofas around the fireplace.  This is Vanderpool TX also a blip on the map in Foxfire Cabins, where they have a dozen or so lovely individual cabins with big old fashioned rooms and heavy wooden furniture. Nancy and I are in the Main House with the two leaders, Linda and Carol, and we each have a bedroom and I have the bathroom but she’s sharing the other one.

Today was my Day Off day. After yesterday, when I rode 30 miles but did not have the energy to do the last 18 miles, I thought I would ride in the van for today’s big hills of West Texas and the long downhill on a day which was cold and rainy and windy. The van was almost full because several of us had the same feeling but the Super Speedy Cyclists set out in fine fettle – and they all finished in good time. It was a lot more restful getting up in the morning for breakfast at 8:30 a.m. without the pressure to go out and bicycle Big Hills, which these were. There were lovely views over the rolling hills and cliffs unlike the stark bareness of Colorado mountains, and the trees were turning a bright fresh new spring green. The sky was gray and it was about 50 degrees – not hot at all. I could never have climbed those hills, though Jo, Pat and Donna – all in their 70s! – did the whole thing. Carla was more my level – she stopped at the van after 21 miles cold shivering and hardly able to move her hands in her gloves or feel her feet. Barbara and I made her take her gloves off and the inner gloves were sweaty and cold and couldn’t dry out so we held her hands to warm her up when she got in the van. She slowly warmed up.

When we got to Laekly, which is pronounce Lay-kely in Texan, we had a lunch stop and I went for a walk up the road and went into one place which said icecream and food. The woman said they’d stopping making sandwiches but recommended Ella…..which had looked like a secondhand store when I walked past. I went in and found a delightful young woman called Bonnie wearing a 19^th century style dress and apron who said she’d come from San Antonio three years ago and bought this place a year ago because she needed to get out of the city “and I feel God called me to come here.” She made me a delicious Panini of cheese, egg, tomato and spinach, and a fabulous cappuccino to take out, and I thanked her profusely and paid $10 including tip. By then the others from the van AND the hardly cyclists had discovered the place too so we van people got take out because we had to get back in the van, and the others took their time as their lunch break.

Not much in the town. The Hog Pit was preparing a cookout in a big metal round cooker outside smoking meat for a big motorcycle rally the next day so wasn’t offering any food. There was a hot dog store, an everything food store which had some interesting hats and camping gear for hunters which is what people do around here. I don’t think I could survive in a place as closed as these places feel because everything looks so depressed though there was a small public library in the last place, and I found one bookstore in Marathon.

Judy joined us in the van – she said she’d had enough – but everyone else went on. I think it’s partly the mind set and partly knowing what I can do in climbing. But I shall start tomorrow and sees what happens. I will have nothing else do but ride….

Tonight, sitting in this delightful lodge room, I’m on one sofa writing and Julie is on the other doing her blog, and Nancy is reading.  When I got back I helped unload the luggage and bicycles from the van with some of the others. I checked in with the nice woman in the office, to find my room in the main lodge, which is delightful and so big with a huge bed and windows looking out at the river and the garden. I went for a walk up the road for half an hour, to go past the Lone Star Motorcycle Museum,  which is open March to December, Friday Saturday and Sunday.

Mel was helping Carol start a fire so I collected small kindling pieces of wood to help start the fire, and looked at tomorrow’s rides and decided I’d start out and try it. That will be my challenge. And I actually sat on my bed for an hour resting and read the excellent book by Tony Hurwitz on his travels around Arab countries and the chapters on the insanity of life in Dubai – awash in unbelievable wealth – like the Emirates – and the poverty and hopelessness of Cairo and Egypt and how the Pyramids are slowly falling apart because no-one is looking after them. And how the work is done by immigrants from India, Pakistan and a dozen other poor countries. Interesting.

There is a radio playing or CD so there’s music filling the room with someone singing popular music that I don’t know, but it’s lovely to have some music to listen to. Linda is in the kitchen area with Ann preparing the snacks for 6 p.m. and dinner at 6;15 p.m. We can make coffee in the morning here too. The riding is fun for me when it’s warm and sunny, as in Colorado, and not too hilly. But I am here and there is riding in the cool grayness and there are hills. I shall accept it and go with the flow.

This place is remarkably restful, like my own private country place – and Julie and Nancy joked that this is our family estate and we’ve all come to visit. There’s no wifi – so I don’t need to look at anything. There’s a big TV but no-one is turning it on. I shall be here for this moment and take tomorrow’s ride as it comes. As one of my pairs of bicycling socks said: “GO BIG or GO HOME.”

SO after a fabulous pot roast and vegetables around the fireplace with chocolate and smores as dessert the wifi came on and so three of us are sitting round a table trying to catch up before bedtime at 9 p.m. Tomorrow we have breakfast at 8:30 a.m. and then we have another challenging day with some hills but maybe not so cold..... 

 

1000 miles and more covered today!

Tuesday, April 2^nd 2013.

Social life, I hit 1000 miles and a ride to Camp Wood TX

 

Last night, Monday, we were all invited to an Icecream Social by the Bubba’s Biking Crosscountry group, who we’ve passed and been passed by along the roads to Florida, where they are going. They have men and couples in their group, so they were delighted to have women coming to visit. Bubba is an Extremely Large Man who used to be a police officer in St. Louis, and has retired and created cross-country biking trips where they have lots of Sag support, sleep in tents which are erected and taken down for them, and even have their laundry done. BUT they do sleep in tents and I have to say I love having a bed every night and a hot shower in the room. He also does a week-long trip to Florida which is apparently great fun and there is an exuberance about him which is infectious. Also one man is riding a recumbent three-wheeler trike on the road, which I don’t think we’d allow.

Anyway, after dinner Bubba’s two big trucks and a van came over to get us and drove us to the other side of Fort Clark, which is an enormous old Army training base dating back to the 1850s, according to the lists of officers on a big memorial. We were in the motel and they were in the campsite with picnic tables under a wooden shelter. They had loads of icecream in cups with toppings and sauces and whipping cream, and then we all sat and talked to each other. I talked to a couple from Wisconsin who are riding a tandem and who have passed me several times and we call hello along the way. They are always faster than I am and the husband said that this is the first trip like this they’ve tried together.

Today, Tuesday, April 2^nd we left Fort Clark TX and rode along country highways between ranches and open lands and a flock of white and black goats, and a few cattle, and not much else, to vary the ups and downs of the highway.  I did 30 miles and then felt the wind and the climbs were enough – and I had achieved today’s goal: I have now ridden 1,022 miles – over a thousand miles on my way to Florida. YAY!

The Sag drove us here to this tiny one-street town of Camp Wood TX. The only newspaper available is called “The Leakey Star” because the next big town is Leakey. I don’t know why it’s called Leakey but maybe I will find out. The big front page news is that that there was a discussion about installing air-conditioning in the school gym, and this weekend is the Wild Hog Festival and Craft Fair in Sabinal Park, and there’s a photo of  one man with a towel chasing a somewhat small hog around an arena while another man seems to be running after him. I don’t think it’s quite the same as bullfighting but who knows?

Tomorrow I am going to take a rest day – mainly because it is a climb of the West Texas Hills which is not what I enjoy doing – and I’ll ride the next day when it’s a mixture of climbs and descents. This hotel was right next to a Laundromat so I did all my washing to keep my bike clothes clean. There’s a light drizzle which so rare in Colorado from low gray clouds over the sky that it feels refreshing and cooling. They’ve been threatening thunder storms but so far, it’s all talk. I wandered down the One Street which has a hay store, a garage, a tire store, a mohair store (in Texas?), a convenience store which we all visited, and a restaurant where I had an excellent quesadilla and which we had to get to for lunch before 2 p.m. when they closed. There is a post office, and a hardware store, and a real estate office (closed) and a local grocery store which already had pots of summer plants on display at the front.

We are half-way to Florida – we arrive May 2^nd. I can’t believe it’s going by so fast.

Marathon 111 mile day of riding....

The Century Ride for the Strong of Legs

March 31^st, 2013 . Today was the 111 miles day to Del Rio, and I decided to ride and see how far I could get. We started out in the dark in a line with our front lights on and our rear lights flashing and rode down the cool morning highway in the dark. Few cars so it was fine. It slowly began to get light and then in front of us, because we were riding east, the morning sun rose slowly and magnificently from the horizon and melted into the clouds above. It was stunning to see the light suddenly appear over the long bare stretches of scrub land in front of us, and to see the world transformed by light. Some of the group had gone to the Easter Day service in a church, and were to join us at lunch, but the rest of us were just awed by the beauty of the rising sun so peacefully and calmly.

I pedaled along, and finally stopped to turn off my two lights and to aim for 20 miles up and down hills on chipseal roads to the first Sag stop. The Speedies were soon far ahead, but I pedaled with Jo most of the time on her first 20 mile ride since she hurt her shoulder. There were several steep hills and long descents and the hills, for me, are always a challenge for breathing and pedaling. At the Sag stop, Jo wanted to stay, but I thought I wanted to go on, so I did, and we reached the second Sag stop at 40, which was tempting. But Carla and Judy Rozelle, who seems very dour right now, and someone else wanted to go on to the lunch stop at 60 miles. Carla and I ended up riding together, and she went up some steep hills, and I walked up a couple, and we pedaled on and finally reached the lunch stop just as they were going to send out the van for us because we were so late.

It was really too late for us to do the whole thing because it had taken us six hours to do 60 miles so it would take us 10 hours to do 100 miles – if not longer. I was happy to stop. All the church people had ridden from the lunch stop to the end, and the 100 milers were all out there too, so I had a tuna salad sandwich and some coleslaw and bought an icecream in the general store where we were picnicking outside and relaxed. Carol put my bike on the front of the van, and I climbed in and sat at the back next to Judy Rozelle who had been picked up by a Bubba’s group truck because the hills were too much for her, and Moira who had slept all day in the van, and Jo, and Barbara who had not ridden at all, and Julie, who had bike problems, and Helen who had a stomach upset so hadn’t ridden, and Carol and Linda.

We arrived at the Lakeview Inn about 3 p.m and passed the other riders on the way. The hills were just as challenging on the second half as we’d had them on the first half so I’m sure I’d never have finished. However several people did complete the 100 miles including Flo, Cher and Pat C who arrived around 6 p.m. exhausted and exhilarated that they’d done their first century. Others had done centuries before so were more blasé. And Donna who finished said it was her first and last and she never wanted to do it again.

When I arrived, I helped unload all the luggage from the van, so it was out. I was exhausted so I had a bath and a shower and a nap. And felt better.

A storm was brewing – big clouds, wind, and lightning – so Carol and Pat in the sag went out to get the last riders who demanded to finish. We had a catered cook-out dinner in the diningroom of the Lakeview Inn where we’re staying. It’s an old-style B&B and the food was brisket, turkey, potatoes, a small piece of corn on the cob, and slaw, and peach cobbler for dessert. Everyone was exhilarated and tired by the long ride and hard day – and others said this was a much more difficult century than others they had done.  Lots of laughter and conversation and I sat with Jo and Leilani and Pat C who had been determined to finish, and did. She is such a character. Tomorrow is a 44 mile day – should be fine. We can have breakfast at 7:30 and a map meeting after that. Jo and I went to the store opposite and found that they start serving coffee at 6 a.m. so I may go over there if I wake up early.

Julie pointed out that there are several 90 miles days coming up which could be centuries if we ride around the parking lot to do the extra miles – and maybe if it’s not so hilly, I could do that. As Ann pointed out to me, I did 64 miles one day and 56 the next so I can do 100 in sections. It’s just the challenge of the thing!

 

A ghost in Marahton TX?

Saturday March 30, 2012
    We're in Sanderson TX, a one street absolutely quie town because it's Easter weekend and just about everything is shut. Today I rode 54 miles from Marathon, on US 90, a lovely rolling road - except for the chipseal - with rolling scrub covered hills, and gray mountains and blue sky and reallynot much else. When I stopped for water, there was an amazing breathtaking silence    everywhere - no birds, no planes, very few cars or trucks. Just an immense silence. It is so rare to find this  total peace of sound anywhere in the world.
   Last night at the Gage Hotel, in the old part of the house asleep in the big iron four poster bed, I woke up around 2 a.m. and heard the sound of someone perhaps drunk in a bar playing four notes on a piano again and again - plink, plink, plink, plink - in a repetitive order, slowly. It went on and on and I was just thinking that no-one should be allowed to play the piano this late - after I looked at the clock - when people were sleeping.  I was thinking about going downstairs to tell them to stop, but I was so tired  that I went back to sleep and woke up with my alarm at 6;45 a.m.
      When I went down to the lobby for coffee, I asked the woman behind the desk who was playing the piano in the middle of the night when people were sleeping. She gave me a strange look and said:  "We have no piano." Someone else said "Ghosts" and she said my room was right by the haunted room which I had noticed was locked next to mine. I was amazed - and surprised - and remembered I had woken up and thought I heard a woman breathing loudly but thought it was my snoring that had woken me up.....but who knows?
     After that surprise, I took my luggage down, had breakfast with everyone else by the van, got my snack and set off to ride  the 54 miles to Sanderson TX. It was a chipseal ride with ups and downs that were slow and doable, and I got to 20 miles and the first Sag and felt fine, so I went on. But one of my water bottles leaked, and I suddenly realized I only had half a bottle left. I stopped to clear it up and two guys with Bubba's Trips, a camping trip covering much the same route, stopped to ask what was wrong. They had extra water so they filled my bottles - which was so wonderful of them - and when I met them at the 45 mile mark, they did it again. So I came in well watered at 1:30 p.m. and di the whole 54 miles.
      I have Room 7 in a basic motel with a/c and a big bed and thin towels, and porches and old wooden chairs and benches to sit on. Linda made delicious chicken pot pie and salad for dinner, and someone's husband had sent chocolate covered strawberries as a gift to us all, which were sooooo delicious.. There were no leftovers, and we had some cookies too.
      Tomorrow is the big 111 mile day ride. Linda asked who had ridden a century and several of the women had done them before. I shall ride as much as I can - maybe to the lunch stop at 60 miles and if we have a tail wind, it should be fine. I am sitting outside at a table by the rooms and we are all winding down. Carla is texting her blog, Susan is reading a book, Jan is looking at her Ipad for confirmation of Scalia's decision to leave the supreme court, and May keeps urging us to eat the slightly soft yogurt iced pretzels, and Dolly is doing her blog, as I am.  Susan just told us that this is the least climbing we've ever done, and Dolly met a woman with a fabulous cactus garden, since this town is the Cactus Capital of Texas.