Day 32...Sizzlin' Hot

Start of Day 32

I figured it was supposed to be a hot day. We are, after all, in Texas. Rummaging through my bike drawer I realized I was down to my last pairs of bike shorts and jersey. A pair of Garneau bib shorts (bike shorts held up by integral suspenders) and my black spokespeople jersey top was all I had left.  I have a few sleeveless white jerseys but they don't have pockets and I carry a LOT of things with me. Also, the spokespeople jersey is a full zip. This is a very important detail when wearing bib shorts. You see, when the time comes to use the rest room, it is IMPERATIVE that you can quickly UNZIP the top, rip it off and yank down the bib shorts. If you have a "half-zip" jersey you have to pull it over your head and, with that, valuable time is lost.

15 minutes into the ride I started to feel the heat. I unzipped my jersey. And that's the way I rode ALL day, 92 miles.

Texas Ranch

We passed some beautiful Texas countryside in the first part of our ride including a few magnificent Texas LongHorns.

Texas LongHorns 

En route to Austin we road through Bastrop County and were dumbfounded by the destruction of the recent wildfires. The wildfires that affected Bastrop County were the largest and most destructive of The 2011 Texas wildfires. The fires here started on September 4th and burned for 5 weeks burning down 1,645 homes and 34,356. For miles we saw burned down forest, chimneys where entire houses once stood and roads lined with disaster relief crews working on clearing trees, replacing power lines and road guard rails.  It was a saddening sight and a reminder of how powerful mother nature can be.

Bastrop, TX
A chimney stands alone

Bastrop, TX

The temperature rose to near 100 degrees. The sun bounced off the pavement, soaked into my black jersey and sent my internal temperature rising.  By mile 75 I resorted to pouring water on my head and down the back of my jersey. This definitely helped. The sun finally cast herself lower in the sky and gave us a small reprieve from the heat making the last 17 miles bearable.

We arrived at our campground in McKinney State Park around 6pm. Long day. Tomorrow is our first (and probably only) DAY OFF. I am meeting up with my girlfriends Mollie and Ali tomorrow. What a treat that will be!

Day 31...Where Did These Hills Come From?

Hanging Out in Texas
Day 31

The morning greeted us with a downpour and ominous skies. This was, however, a wonderful and welcomed surprise for the locals. As you know, Texas is in a longstanding drought and, as a result,  wildfires have been rampant. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Texas_wildfires  It was another wet start but we shifted our mindsets and we too welcomed the rain.

I was warned by a Team Odwalla teammate of mine, Bobby, that the roads in Texas could be rough. Today we had a fair share of bumpy, poorly paved and rutted roads. This reeks havoc on my joints and, as Kevin puts it, earns you a trip to the dentist (to put your teeth back in). And it doesn't much help appease the pain in the "nether regions" (as my friend Sinead calls the groin). The bumpy roads do make you really appreciate the smooth patches, as far and few between as they are.

The Whipping Winds
(in our face ;-)

The first 25 miles were indeed wet and also a bit hilly. Hmmm, that's strange. I though East Texas was flat? But at least it was calm. Spoke too soon. Within minutes after getting back on our bikes, the winds began whipping and the hills became more frequent and steeper. Oh, and the sun shined her powerful face on us (for the rest of the day).

Shift, shift, shift. Grunt, grunt, grunt.

Wild West Texas Town

It was a massive relief to get to Navasota, the town where we stopped for lunch. We didn't speak much at lunch, trying to focus and get ready for the next 40 miles of hills and wind.

The second half of our ride today wasn't that bad. We passed some small towns which felt like we were in the wild west. After a minor detour (oops, made a wrong turn) at mile 60 we stopped for a drink refill and then cruised home on some rollers. It was like being at Six Flags Great Adventure. Well, sort of. The farm land was quite beautiful and it kind of felt like we were back in Virginia. Ah, but we're not!! We're in Texas and getting closer to San Diego every day.

78 miles in the saddle today. Tomorrow we will be in (or near) Austin! I have a great treat waiting for me there. My dear friends Mollie and Ali will be there and we have a nice day planned !

Day 30...A Sore Start

Eastern Texas Road
 Flat+ Endless with a blanket of clouds.

Today I woke up with a sore throat. Oh no!! It felt a bit sore yesterday morning so I made sure to have some throat losengers and chlorasceptic spray at my bedside last night. And boy did I use them. This morning it was definitely worse, raw and painful. Ugh.

I was weary about how the ride would go today as we had hoped to get in another 80+ miles. I gargled with warm salty water, popped a 500 mg Cephalexin (antibiotic) for good measure, had my normal vitamins which includes a 1,000 mg Vitamin C and loaded up one of my water bottles with a few "emergen-C" mixes.

I decided to go easy and reassess how I felt at each 25 mile increment. Our first stop was a local grocery store for some drink refills. My throat felt better although my knee was nagging me. I stretched a bit, applied some anti-inflammatory gel to my knee and walked into the store. I was greeted by 3 smiling Texan women and a plum of smoke ...they were all chain smoking!! Not a great thing for an asthmatic (me) and one with a sore throat! Wow, I guess you can smoke in the grocery store on Saturday? And in Texas? I held my breath and launched myself to the back of the store, grabbed a drink, and quickly zipped to the front again to pay and get out!

We met Jim and Jeff 25 miles later (at mile 50) in Shepherd, TX for lunch in the RV. The temperature rose and by the time we hit the pavement again, 30 minutes later, it was near 90 degrees. The roads were flat as a pancake and seemed to stretch endlessly this morning. But this afternoon there were some rollers and the wind picked up. We grunted up the hills and spun in the easy gears as much as we could.

My new friends

70 miles in we stopped for another drink refill. Kevin went into the store while I made some friends with a mule and a horse in the paddock next door. They were suspicious of me at first but after I hand-picked some fresh grass for each of them (they nickered for more), we were friends.

Today we road 84 miles to New Waverly, Texas. We are parked at the town's fire house and ate at a restaurant called Fish Pond Restaurant.  A nice home cooked meal. Tomorrow looks clear and dry.

Our "campground" tonight

Day 29...TEXAS

Just entered Texas, kissing the ground
 (picture requested by my dear friend John L)

Today we said goodbye to Louisiana and hello to the grand 'ol state of TEXAS via Sabine River! Not only did we finally get to Texas, but we reached 2,000 miles...AND we are over the halfway mark to San Diego! What a day! Yee Haw!

Approaching Sabine River

The winds were slight this morning but picked up a bit after lunch. The sun was out and once we hit Texas the roads seemed to go on endlessly. No turns, no (real) hills, just pavement. This might be a theme for the rest of eastern Texas as I've heard that it gets a bit "bumpy" in western Texas. Eek.

My knee felt a bit better today (thank you very much for your help, John) although it was still nagging me at the beginning and very end of the ride.  I don't suppose riding 29 days in a row might have anything to do with it?

We are parked in the parking lot of of a Super 8 Hotel...and the manager of the Hotel said we could use the (10') pool which, lucky for me, was a COLD pool (60 degrees) that I could soak my legs in.  It reminded me of when I used to soak in the ice bath after volleyball practice in college....ha ha!! But I know it will help!

We road 84 miles today from DeRidder, LA to Kountze, TX. Entered Texas. Broke 2,000 miles. Over halfway to our goal!

Day 28...Cold but Calm

Start of Day 28!

Day 28, 4 weeks since we started this journey! I can't believe it (by my legs can). Another brisk start this morning but the winds had died down considerably. We layered up and hit the road at 8:30 am. What a treat to ride on fairly flat roads with only slight winds (out of the west, of course).

We made our usual 25 miles into-the-ride stop for refueling at a local gas station- had some pb&js and coffee (Kev had a coke..at 10 am!). A woman stopped me as I was leaving the gas station and asked where I was going on my bike. I laughed and said, "Do you really want to know?" She said, "Yes, of course." I said, "San Diego, California....but today, only to DeRidder." She threw her arms up and insisted on giving me a hug and said "God bless you. Please be safe."

There is one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life - reciprocity.  ~Confucius


Countless numbers of people have stopped to ask us how we are doing, where we are going, what kind of bikes we have, what are we raising money for...and so on.  And when they ask questions, they REALLY want to know the answer.  It just goes to show that not every where in the world is it about hurrying up, multitasking, asking questions without thinking what you're asking or asking questions and not really caring what the answer is! In a way, this experience has kind of restored my faith in humanity.

How does it make you feel when someone asks you a question and genuinely wants to know the answer? Pretty darn good. We should all try it at least once every day.

Kevin + Jim

It was a short day today, but intentionally so. Kevin wanted to meet up with a man named Jim who is a good friend of his brother, Danny. They served in the air force together some 40 years ago and both men served in Vietnam. Amazing!

And plus, I've been having some knee pain (for 3 days now) so keeping it short today, plenty of ice, a texting consultation with my friend and orthopedic surgeon, John, and possibly another consultation with my friend and PT, Sinead, will all certainly help me through this (minor) hurdle.

Tell me where it hurts, John wrote.
Right here.

We biked 61 miles from Mamou, LA to DeRidder, LA. Tonight I went to the arena (AKA The Beauregard Parish Civic Center) which the RV is parked next to for the night. I watched some barrel racing. Very cool. Tomorrow we cross the boarder into Texas ....where we will be for quite some time I imagine. ;-)

Hanging out at the arena....

The Beauregard Parish Civic Center

Day 27...The Southern Tier

Leaving our camp site
Day 27,  Simmesport, LA

The wind was whipping this morning and the temperature was about 48 degrees. On the brighter side, the sun was out and we were on the Southern Tier trail! The first half of the ride was brutal. Winds were out of the west/northwest blowing at 35-40 mph! And, as it turns out, we were headed southwest ALL day.

Fields of Louisiana
ominous skies today

In order to keep my balance I had to keep my head tucked, just barely glancing forward at the road in front of me, and a tight grip on the handlebars.  Any big movement, including shifting my weight out of the saddle or turning my head side-to-side to see the landscape around me, could, if a wind gust decided to blow, result in me losing my balance or getting blown across the road.  Not fun.

The first half of today's ride was definitely in the top 5 toughest on this journey thus far. As we sat eating lunch we tried to figure out how we far we should/could go today. The wind was really taking a toll. We spoke with Jeff and Jim and decided to keep the day short (60 miles). Fair enough.

BUT, after lunch, we started heading south for a while and the winds shifted a bit to our advantage. We set sail (Kevin, with his flags, literally set sail) and cruised down the road at 22 mph for about 10 miles. Woooo hoooo!!!!! At last, a nice reprieve.  We decided to pull over and call the boys to announce we would be going further today, after all.  We cruised for about 20 miles until we turned west again. As we suspected, the last 15 miles of the ride were with winds in our face or blowing us across the road.

Approaching the burning sugarcane fields

Around mile 50 we saw a surprising sight. The fields to our right were on fire! At first I just thought that the sun, wind and dry air must have caused a local combustion of some sort. But he local farmers nearby seemed not to notice or care. Strange. Then I realized that they were purposefully burning the harvested sugarcane fields!

It was a tough 76 miles today. We traveled from Simmesport, LA to Mamou, LA (The Cajun Music Capital of the World!). But, as I see it, each mile we push through puts us closer to our goal. Hey, we are not far from the Texas boarder! Resting up tonight and hoping the wind dies down for tomorrow's jaunt!

Day 26...Goodbye Mississippi, Hello Louisiana!

I didn’t sleep well last night and I knew today was going to be a grind. We rode 250 miles in the past 3 days and my body was screaming for a rest day…please! Jim agreed. We should keep the mileage low. 50 miles or less. BUT, after looking at the maps again this morning, we realized that we would be biking about 70 miles before we hit civilization/a campground. Argh. The sky was ominous and, although it felt warm this morning, the forecast called for rain, wind and cool temperatures. We packed the rain coats and agreed a cooler day might be nice.

Leaving Natchez Trace Parkway

About 15 miles into the ride we left The Natchez Trace, crossed the grand ‘ol Mississippi River and entered Louisiana. Jim and Jeff met us over the bridge and we agreed on a route to take us about 50 miles through Louisiana and, ultimately to the start of The Southern Tier trail (which is the Adventure Cycling bike route that takes us due west until we reach San Diego!).

Crossing the Mississippi River

Entering Louisiana

After lunch the rain came and, oh did the winds pick up! We were heading south mostly and the winds were whipping wildly from the west at 30-35 mph. The cross winds sent me flying across the road. I gripped the handle bars tight and purposefully listed to the right into the wind in order to keep my balance for the next 30 miles.

The wind pushing over Kevin's flags

It was windy and cool day. It felt like fall and a perfect Halloween night! The wind definitely took a toll on me. I was ready to call it quits when, like an oasis, we saw Jim standing on the side of the road waving us down and pointing us to our campsite for the night. Old River Lock Recreational area adjacent to a bridge that is, indeed just a spit away from The Southern Tier trail! A deep exhale for finally reaching this point in the trip!

68 miles in the saddle today. I need a good nights sleep tonight as tomorrow the winds are supposed to be wild!

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Tonight my mom, her best friend Patricia and my Aunty Sylvia head to Italy for a 2 week vacation. Safe flight and have fun! Lots of love to you all!