Blog 4/5/2010--Ups and Downs

From the Blanco, TX library:

 

Not too many motels have computers for guests--they figure WiFi should be all their customers need, but who wants to carry a computer in a pannier/saddle bag?  So now I go looking for libraries.

 

We spent the entire ride today riding the Texas Hill Country, where Lance Armstrong is famously supposed to have trained.  One thing for sure, the area is aptly named.  Upsies and downsies, unending, and STEEP!!   Maybe we should have looked at  the State map to see if there was a more major highway (which would have lesser gradients) than the empty side roads we rode, but we didn't.  No doubt the scenery was much better the way we rode, but the result was screaming 40 mph descents and tough 4-5 mph climbs, over and over.  Of our 60 miles today, about 40 was that kind of hilly.  I'll tell you what--it really works you over, especially when most of it is into a cross-head wind and you've ridden 1600 miles--with several mountain passes--in the last three weeks.  60 miles was plenty today, and no doubt will be plenty tomorrow, when we have another 60 miles to Kathy's brother's house in Austin. 

 

Once again, very beautiful terrain today, often with river or creek crossings at the bottom of the hills.  Also lots more big, fancy ranches (with longhorn cattle, llamas, sheep and goats) and yet again, different wildflowers...fields full of purple ones, and very delicate pink and yellow ones at the side of the road.  Like yesterday, it was overcast today.  When the skies look like they did here this morning in Kalamazoo, we know it will rain any minute.  But no rain at all here--just big gray clouds.  The weather channel shows that the southeast wind impeding our progress is blowing up clouds (and humidity) from the Gulf of Mexico.  It's also blowing in rain and thunderstorms east of us which should be long gone when we get there.

 

We rode through old downtown Kerrville on our way out this morning and the old town is really pretty, as is the old part of the next town we rode through, Comfort.  The edges of most of these towns aren't too attractive at all, but the old storefronts and courthouses and mansions are very pretty.  Still, I'd take one of these big ranches in a heartbeat!!   Git me some little doggies, a Stetson an' a good hoss and I'd be all set...git on out and mend me some fences in the back 400 acres!

 

Zolton writes wondering if we're really having fun since many of our days sound like dammed hard work and he wonders if the trip is harder than we expected.  No 'yes' or 'no' answers here.  No question it's hard, and yes, I'd have to say it's harder than I had it made out to be, particularly the wind.  We've had so little tailwind--really only two good days of it in three weeks.  Most days it's a cross/headwind.  As a result, our average speed is lower than I'd have predicted, which generally means about an hour or more extra in the saddle every day.  Does this mean we're not having fun?  No, it doesn't.  We have fun every single day.  Not all day--there's a lot of work too--but fun both on and off the bike every single day.  Besides, work and fun are hardly mutually exclusive.

 

Kathy & I agree the trip would be entirely different--and maybe not fun--if we were doing it alone--that is, just one person.  We see lots of these hardy souls  on the road, and we have nothing but admiration for them.  It certainly would be a good deal more transcendental and psychologically challenging doing it without my best friend and life partner.  There have been days when each of us (me, for sure) would have cut the ride short if not for the carefully crafted encouragement of my soulmate.  But the ride, and life, would also be a good deal different if I had no life partner too...

 

I have to pull out the hoary old cliche that life's a journey, not a destination.  This trip's a journey.  It's a tremendous undertaking we've got going here, physically the hardest thing I've ever done.  But judging by all the other people we see along the route, it's hardly impossible.  There are several variables and they make big differences--alone, in a group, camping or moteling, carrying your stuff or with a follow car, and most importantly--how long you take to do it. 

 

Regardles of how you sort out these options, it's still like training for an event or going to school.  You have to break the whole thing down into individual steps and take them one at a time--even when they are innumerable Texas hills!!  I've only seen one guy so far who is clearly faster than we are when it comes to racing (though looks can be deceiving!!), but every one of the people we've seen riding the course are tough hombres and I've yet to see anyhone who seemed dour or unhappy to be out here.

 

The fact remains that we are our own bosses out here and we don't have to go any further than we want to--subject to having to stop where there are motels.  West of the Rio Grande, this fact imposed real limitations, but now that we are out of the desert we'll have more choices.  If we decide we need to rest more or do fewer days, that's what we'll do.

 

Without a doubt, my legs would appreciate several days off.  They feel tired even though we both do every thing we know to take good care of them off the bike--massage, going for walks, stretching, etc.  And while we have enough time built into our schedule to take days off from time to time, taking several days off isn't likely to get us back to Kalamazoo by May 1 or 2.