Little Fish, Big River, Bigger City

So, a quick note to say thanks to everyone who has sent me email and I apologize if I've not gotten back to you. I'm so tired that when I get hooked up to the internet, it's all I can do to update the blog and then fall asleep or...if I update in the morning, I'm racing to keep getting on with the ride. Additionally, if this is your first time here, everything gets "posted" in "reverse" order. Which means that you need to go down or click on the "archives" to read about the earlier part of the rides. Sorry that it's a tad confusing. Aaaaaaannnnyyywwaaaaay....

I stopped at Mc'D's for bfast in Del Rio before riding out of town. As I was riding along, Sam's Saddlery or Boot Barn or something like that just called me in. I went. I saw cowboy hats. They were $77, $85, $115. Ouch...for a hat I would most likely destroy in the process. I decided to leave. On the way out, I see a dusty leather one that I like even better than the "straw ones" as it had more of an Indiana Jones/Crocodile Dundee look to it than the white straw things. $38 later it was on my head complete with a chin string. Yeeha.

I rode toward Comstock next and made a brief stop off across the Mexican Border since Winnie the Pooh, my travel sidekick had never been. We continued on and as I looked for fossils in along the road way on my way to Seminole Canyon, a small plastic "Tigger" was lying in the grass. What are the odds. He's now riding along with us. Go figure. I'm starting to feel like Christopher Robin.

I made my way to Comstock and ate some sort of lunch at some sort of store there. There was not much else. I rode on and on and on over a perfect day and then got a flat after dark. I'm amazed that I'm able to change it out in under 10 minutes even though it's the cantankerous rear wheel. I've grown a ton on this trip, but am still making some wonderful mistakes. After riding on until I just couldn't any longer, I stopped and camped under an amazing moon with 88 miles of riding under my seat for the day.

I woke up to an incredible sunrise as I looked out of my tent. I had to "bungee" my tent to my bike on one end and my trailer on the other since it's not a free standing tent and the stakes wouldn't go into the hard rocky desert ground. Pretty creative, I thought. I packed up and raced on to Dryden. Like St. Francisville, I made it to the post office as it was closing, however, the Dryden Post Office, (Dryden has a population of 13...yes...that's a one and a three, people..it was 15 but a couple moved away) to get the Dry Bag I had ordered from www.drybags.com and I have to say, I can't say enough good things about this bag. I wish I had started the ride with it. I feel like the trip is ending all too soon now that I'm getting it all down. I consider turning around at the Pacific and heading back the other way. Hhmm.

After Dryden, I rolled along under perfect skies and perfect weather. Butterflies are everywhere out here and I actually clocked one at 9.6 mph which is pretty amazing if you think about it. I also set my new speed record. Originally, I didn't think I could go over 18 mph without jackknifing the trailer. But, heading into Houston, I had clocked in at 26.4 in a rainstorm wtih a tailwind on a downhill just after I had tried riding with no hands which was unsuccessful. So, I raced down a hill at top speed and pedaled like mad over some loose gravel on the shoulder until the road flattened out and I looked at my max speed: 27.7 HOT DOG!!! Now I wonder if I can break 30?

I rode all day, it was yet another perfect Texas day until I got yet another flat. Then I replaced it and got another flat. Now I had three flats, no tubes and couldn't figure out where all the tubes were leaking. I had 8 miles to get to Sanderson, the nearest town. I walked it. I listened to Michelle Branch then Britney Spears on my iPod to make the time go by faster. The sunset in brilliant colors over the biggest sky I've ever seen. Then the moon shot up to light my way as I spent about two and a half hours walking at 3.7 mph. It's almost as fast as riding up the steep hills I had been on so I'm not really losing any time. I tried running with the bike. You haven't lived until you've tried running your bike through Texas on Highway 90, miles from nowhere with a 70 pound trailer. I got up to 6.7 mph, but couldn't maintain it for long since I'm wearing Tevas, my only shoes besides my bike shoes. It's warm enough that I'm able to wear shorts all the way to Sanderson.

I reach town around 8:30 and have to race to catch an open restaurant. I had only had 5 granola bars and had been out of water for about three hours since one of the stores along the route I took that day had been closed and was now up for rent. I had been counting on at least water.

I ate guiso (steak tips) refried, breans, tostada, rice and a double order of fries for carbs. I check into the Sunset Siesta Motel and attempt to fix the flats by using the garbage can full of water to look for air bubbles escaping. I find that my patches had blown and now the stem was sliced from the rim since I had ridden on the wheel too long after it went flat. I took the best tube and tried to fix it. It seemed to hold.

I set out, had breakfast at "El Nopal" again, chorizo/eggs and then met Jeff and Meg on my way out of town. They had just biked for five months all over Eastern Europe. Again...I'm outdone...what is with people. I try and do something fantastic and people just keep blowing my doors off. However, they reassure me that they took it easy and were "touring" vs. my crazy all weather schedule with long days. Part of me would love to do this as a tour but I miss my dog and am still really enjoying pushing my body as I seem to picking up even more stamina and strength as the days roll on.

I ride off after Jeff and Meg and I chat for what could've been an hour. It was so nice to hang out with "kindred spirits" who had experienced so much of what I had. The one consolation they leave me with besides on orange and some photos they took of me riding was that in five months they had done about 3,000 miles vs. the 2200 I had done in 34 days so far. Plus, they didn't ride in the horrific cold/rain that I've had. I feel better. As they ride off, I miss them instantly but will try to catch up with them in Phoenix.

Eleven miles later, I pull into a picnic area. "Wooly and Lois" are there, a pleasant couple who travels around nomadically building baptist churches. We chat for a bit and Wooly points out my rear flat. Darn. Again...all tubes are shot. It's 44 miles to the next town which may/may not have a bike shop. They give me a lift and I consider that I've got to backtrack 44 miles then backtrack again. I decide to throw that rule out the window as there are 20 mph headwinds the whole way. I've already added 650 miles from Key West to Daytona I wasn't originally going to do and heading up to St. Francisville for my computer and camera at the post office took me off my route considerably too after I decided not to do the "backwoods" post "mississippi incident."

They drop me off in Marathon, TX and I grab a meal at Mud Works Gallery and Cafe before figuring out what I'm going to do. This town doesn't have a tube for me so I call the next town, Alpine, TX, just 31 miles away. I consider walking it. I consider hitching. The lady at "Coast to Coast Hardware" said that an employee who lives in Marathon would drive the tubes back to me. I'm all set. I get some coffee and a donut at the Burnt Biscuit Bakery and then chill at the Gage Hotel which is totally quaint and cool. It's what an old west hotel should be. The tubes arrive and I set about fixing my flat. An odd fellow named "Joe" decides that he's going to tell me he's a massage therapist and he starts rubbing my back and shoulder right there on the sidewalk after he had asked me about any aches or pains from riding. I'm kind of weirded out but believe it or not, the left thumb/arm/hand that has been dreadfully painful feels better. I still mention my GIRLFRIEND and that I had to get rolling right away he seemed to disappear after that back to his van across the street. I'm still tyring to figure out that episode but heck...27 hours later and my hand is 80% better. I'll chalk it up to him being an angel, I guess rather than an oddball.

I set out at 6:15 p.m. despite the weather channel warning of high winds...37 mph with gusts to 45mph in Alpine.

The next six hours proved to be one of the top five hardest physical events of my life, if not THE hardest. Picture this, put a Lifecycle into the back of a friend's pickup, then have him drive down the road in the dark at about 60 mph while someone else throws tumble weeds at you. Make sure it's really dark...oh and cold...somewhere between 31 and 38 should do. Set the lifecycle on the hardest setting so you can barely turn the pedals. You want it to feel like you're pushing a brick wall. Okay, start pedaling. Keep it up for six hours and make at least 31 miles on the lifecycle.

Never, ever, ever have I been so close to turning around and heading back so many times...never have I been so discouraged, so beaten, yet so determined to keep going. I was torn between going on and going back to a warm motel and no wind to try again the next day. Even with 18 miles behind me, I didn't think I could make it. Somehow, somehow, somehow I just kept rolling. I was blown off the road. My cowboy hat continually flew off and threatened to strangle me. I was blown across the road into the traffic lane which was luckily barren most of the night. I was blasted by trucks coming the other direction. At times when I looked up to see where I was, my eyelids were peeled back from the wind. I don't know how hard it was blowing out on the plains as the weather channel gave the "city" readings but it was roaring. I thought I might be on the edge of a tornado but they supposedly don't get them there. At least there was no rain and for some reason, I was working so hard, I was just warm enough to not stop. I couldn't camp anywhere, all of my things would have blown away. Tumbleweeds constantly raced by me and here and there I had to dodge them. Dust filled my eyes, mouth and nose at times unexpectedly. I didn't know how long I could last and right up to the last, the wind battered me and battered me and battered me...head on, side on, head on. My ears are still ringing from the sound. Despite it all, there was something about it that I loved. I was screaming at times "IS THIS ALL YOU'VE GOT? C'MON! BRING IT ON!!! YOU CAN'T STOP ME! C'MON!" sure...I felt silly but you do what you've got to mentally to make it. The funny thing is, I probably could've turned around even at 29 miles and made it back faster to Marathon than the next 2 miles to Alpine took, the winds were that strong. I turned around once to go back and check out some roadkill, (a small fox) and I was pushed along without pedaling at 13 mph. As I reached Alpine, Pennie's Diner was open and shining like a diner should shine. I couldn't believe I had made it. Even just a hundred yards before the diner I was blinded by dust and blown from the shoulder clear across the yellow line of the main road. That's hard to do...that's about 20 feet or more that I was blown. During the haul, if my front wheel got too far sideways, the wind would take me out and push me right into the shoulder and I've had to turn and walk it back onto the pavement. I can't describe the brutality of this enough other than to say, drive out here and give it a shot sometime and only then can you see what I mean.

I ordered the Big Scramble, I was tired yet more fulfilled than I've felt in a long time and it was the best meal I've tasted in months. I deserved to eat. I chatted with the employees a tad who warned me about the mountains ahead. I decided to come through them anyway today. Piece of cake after yesterday. I was actually a bit disappointed. I'm now 2395 miles into the ride and 228 miles from El Paso and the New Mexico border...a new state lingers on the horizon. I crossed over a 5,000 foot pass today without panting or breaking a sweat versus last night's 6 hours of grunting, panting, straining and screaming muscles. It turns out that I actually climbed about 2,500+feet last night along the way which is part of the reason it was so tough. Time to roll again....the library in Fort Davis needs to close and I need to pedal several more miles in an attempt to reach Kent, Tx. One last road note. I stopped by a bike shop to look for a new pump since it feels like mine wasn't putting enough pressure in. Yep...I couldn't find a good high pressure pump, but the guy let me borrow his...turns out I've been riding on my tires at about 50 psi instead of 125. I fly now. Even up the steeps and with 30 mph headwinds today, I averaged 8.4 mph instead of the 5.2 mph I averaged last night. What a difference THAT makes! Who the heck does 2370 miles on semi-flat tires to slow him down? Me, that's who...at least I was building muscle. Now I'm armed with Co2 cartridges to fill my tires to the right pressure since my pump doesn't make the grade. Watch out New Mexco, Here I come!

Before I set out into the morning to ride, I thought I'd put up a few quick notes about what I've learned so far. First, I thought I would escape the parts of me that I didn't really like...procrastination, mistakes, etc. but I find that you follow yourself along no matter where you go. However, I've also found that providence finds me despite late starts and wrong turns. It seems that everytime I've blundered, I've ended up with the most incredible view or whenever I am in the middle of lecturing myself mentally about not getting an earlier start, I bump into the most incredible people. Timing just works itself out. The one thing that has changed about me is sleep. I used to not sleep much, nor did I feel like I needed much sleep. I could now sleep through an earthquake and despite how hard I try, I sleep through two alarms plus wake up calls until my body decides it's time to get up. I guess that's from being tired.

I've learned that nothing is that bad in retrospect and good stuff is always even better in retrospect. That's kind of cool to me for some reason. The bad isn't so bad and the good is even better after you pass through experiences. I've learned that there are a lot of different types of people out here. They all stay the same, no matter where you go...you have people just "putzing" along and people who dream. People who are too busy to notice anything but their cell phone and people are infinitely interested in everything. You have people who are out there living bigger than I could ever dream of being and people who just sit on their butts letting time go by.

Then you've got jerks and you've got angels and a pile of drones in between. It seems for every 1,000 people you pass, you meet two to three jerks and two to three insanely wonderful folks. It all balances out...kind of like the grading curve I had in the Geometry class I took as a sophomore in High School. I've learned that at a certain age, very few kids have dreams. The little ones do, the high schoolers are generally too caught up in themselves, their image, being cool, etc. But there are a few exceptions to that rule. I met a few of them in Sabinal. Great kids. One of them wants me to tell him when my book about this trip is out. I like the people who "get" what I'm doing. It makes me feel like the world will always have astronauts and explorers and adventurers right along with all the "accountants" that are plodding through each day of drudgery.

I've learned that pain is not really pain. Oddly, just when you think that I can't take anymore, when I'm actually riding along with a cramp and I'm literally yelling at the top of my lungs, I take a deep breath, shift a bit, stretch and before I know it, I've added another 30 miles past the point I thought I had to stop for good. Pain is just a short term road block that tests what you're made of. I think it's there to keep the top from being too crowded. I've learned that nothing is unsolvable. You can figure out anything by asking a few questions, giving stuff a try, changing what doesn't really work. The key is to just keep things moving along and not let anything frustrate you to the point of stopping. Just when you think something is impossible, you learn that someone has already done it or someone passes by you who is on their way to doing it.

I've learned that I really, really miss my dog. I've also learned that I could be taken out by some car in a moment's notice but I'm always spared because it's simply not my time yet. I think when it's your time to go, you go and in the meantime, you've just got to chase after everything you ever dreamed of because at some point it WILL be your time to go. Life is brutally short. I can't believe that I'm 37 and I've waited 14 long years to do this when it's all just so easy. I don't know what kept my butt on the couch but I'm glad I stood up and walked out the door. As I look back, I wonder what I've been doing all this time, where did those years go? What do I have to show for them? Not much, I guess...but I'm here now. Do I know what I'm doing? No, not really, but that's not going to stop me from trying and learning and getting through. So what that I'm not home in 30 days, I've still done more in the past 30 days than I have in the past 14 years and there's something to be said for that. I can't fix the weather, I can only ride through it when it allows me to. Ponder that a bit and I'll be back with you all in about a week. Deal?

As I set out from Sabinal, it was a gorgeous sunny day and I was determined to finally reach Del Rio no matter what. I had some headwinds, some rolling hills and some narrower rough shoulder in the beginning but those opted out for rolling hills, perfect shoulder conditions for the most part and a light tail wind as the day progressed. I love riding through Texas. People are really kind and they give me tons of room even though I'm on a 16 foot shoulder at times. The temperature is 76 degrees. I'm in heaven and riding on air. The new gears take me lightly up hills without burning out my legs. I ride past cactus, over small rivers and through the town of Uvalde, home of the semi-famous actor, Matthew McConneghy, or however you spell it. He's the guy from "Contact" and "EDtv."

Amazing that he went from a quaint Texas town to Hollywood and I'm reminded that it's not your past that counts, it's what you make of your future and the world is always laid out before each one of us for the taking. I've now passed 2000 miles and feeling good. I pass a lone calico cat just sitting in the grass miles from nowhere. I ride through a couple of little towns and across dry river beds that can become 50 feet deep during heavy rains. The trees, scrub and wide open space is wonderful although I feel like the ocean is just to my left as it was all through the Gulf of Mexico even though I'm miles from a significant body of water. After lambasting myself for continual late starts, stupid bike repair mistakes and short mile-days, I have a simply incredible ride and one of the most memorable days. I saw a LIVE bunny, not one of the smashed ones, I saw hawks all day long, I ate at Sonic burger drive in twice as I've become addicted to Tater Tots, Grilled Chicken Wraps and Banana Cream Pie shakes. Plus it's one of the few fast food chains that take credit cards so I'm racking up airmiles on United (please stay in business) as I eat.

Which reminds me that one of the people who sat next to me at County Line back in San Antonio was a pilot for United and we had the best discussion on everything from gliders to bikes. If you've never done, try going to some restaurant and just sit alone at the bar to eat. People waiting for tables rotate in and out next to you and you end up with three or four great conversations over dinner instead of just one. It's kind of like channel surfing.

Back to the perfect day...the miles simply rack up and I continue to push. My load is lighter, my gears are heavenly and the weather is picture perfect. I take photo after photo of stuff that will mean nothing to anyone but me because they are so bland but I'm caught up in the moment, you know? It's like how do you capture an incredible blue sky and mile upon mile of highway stretching straight out in front of you and behind you. How do you capture the feeling you get at the crest of a hill when you look back and look forward and see nothing but cactus, asphalt and the occaisional cypress tree as a hawk circles over you? I try and take shots that sum it up but I know they'll fall short. The sun begins to set and I'm treated to an emblazoned sky that stretches along an endless horizon from left to right. I see an owl on top of a telephone pole. As I get out my camera, the velcro enclosure on the case rips and his head snaps around to look at me. It reminds me of the cows that are astonished as I pass. They stand and stare, utterly (no pun intended) perplexed. I moo and they are even more perplexed..."IS THAT A COW ON A BIKE???" they must be thinking. I also saw goats and sheep all day long. If you ride real fast past sheep and scream "YEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAWWW!!!!!!!" they bolt like mad in a flurry of dust. It's sort of like chasing flocks of birds on the beach but more fun somehow because it's TEXAS and I'm riding my friggin' bike across the country!!! It just really hit me today. I passed 2100 miles and it hits me hard that I'm actually living out a dream that I've had for far too long. I'm doing it...I'm living my life and chasing one of my dreams. The others run through my mind and I spend time thinking about what I'll tackle next and how. I'm hooked now. I have to keep doing things like this. I ponder getting into a jet somehow and seeing what it's like to take off and land from an aircraft carrier but my guess is there's no way the Navy would let me ride along...but man...how cool would THAT be? I dream about building my own sailboat and setting off into the Pacific for Hawaii, Australia, etc. I think about how long that would be and how amazing it would be. I think about all the mistakes I made on this trip and wonder if I've got what it takes to pull off a circumnavigation. Sure I do...I just have to plan better.

I reach Del Rio just after dark around 9 p.m. I eat at Sonic yet again. I check my laptop and find that I've got connectivity. I check into a motel despite DYING to camp again. I'll camp a lot from here on out. Every chance I get. I'm now back onto the Adventure Cycling maps and they list tons of campgrounds whereas the regular road maps I've been using really don't tell me much about camping so I've ended up in motel after motel after motel after motel. I need to be out under the stars.

Speaking of stars, I'm not sure what's going on right now but the last three nights have been offering up the greatest falling star shows. One night I saw six. Last night, around 8, I saw an enormous streak across the sky like a falling roman candle flare. A piece of the falling star even seemed to break off and cause it's own streak outside of the main streak. I've never seen anything like it. I LOVE TEXAS! I ponder buying a hard hat cowboy hat to wear while riding but then what? What will I do with a cowboy hat from here on out? Hmm. I bypass the chance after drooling over a big white one. I check into the Western Motel and play with "Tom" the gregarious white cat who manages the place along with the owner. I'm asleep early, possibly 10:30 and I wake up at 4:30. It's now 6:15 and I'm going to pack up and roll through what are supposed to be fantastic surroundings.

beside myself that I finally had a 100 mile day despite some bad shoulder, some headwinds and some large rolling hills. I'm going to ride through the Amistad National Forest/Recreation Area and past a huge lake. I'm also going to bypass the spot where "Hang 'em high" Judge Roy Bean presided back in the day. I've got 450.5 miles to cover to El Paso, then 546.5 miles to cover to Tempe, AZ then 425.5 miles to cover to San Diego. I don't care that I'm missing Christmas, the road will bring me something I'll get at no other time in my life, I'm sure. It's odd, I've not really ridden a bike nor considered touring aside from this trip, etc. but I almost feel like turning around and heading back the other way once I reach the Pacific because I feel like I've just started to get this down. I feel in shape finally, I've got the bike running right, I've got my gear trimmed to just the right stuff give or take one, maybe two items and it's feeling like it's coming to an end. I know I've been out here 30 days now and have averaged about 70 miles per day which is way below the 125 I had hoped for, but heck, the weather, wind, bike repairs and Mississippi madness all took days I didn't expect. I've only got 1,523.5 miles to go. In about two or three hours, I'll have less than 1,500 miles left.

I'm finally far enough along that I feel like I've done something substantial. For so long, from about 900 miles into the trip until now, it felt like I was going nowhere and I was doing it slowly. I'm guessing that I'll do about 50 miles per day average from here on out with enormous mountains. I guess there's a steep 7 mile climb somewhere in the next few days that should torque my quads out. After 2,000 miles of flatness, I'm looking forward to the experience of grueling climbs. Yea, yea, yea...I hear ya. Bob at the bike shop said it already..."Geez...Hard core, man." But I gotta say, I'm glad I opted for the climbing route now. I wouldn't have had yesterday if I had just ridden along the I-10 freeway all the way through Texas. Sure, I'm losing a few days of speed, but I'm gaining something I'll look back on and smile about for the rest of my life. Oh, and did I mention that I LOVE TEXAS?

I tried changing out my chain ring in my motel in Seguin, just 33 miles from San Antonio and found I couldn't get my pedals off. I decided after losing hours and breaking a wrench in the process to head to a bike shop. Along the way, despite headwinds, I made okay time. I saw a snorkel-lift mechanic along the way and stopped in to see if they had a puller of some sort to help me get the pedals off. A couple of guys helped me after I unpacked my tools for what seemed like two hours. Even with hammers, pry tools, etc. I couldn't get them off so I at least felt better about that. The yard of the shop was filled with the same gray cat, over and over. They asked me if I wanted one but I didn't want to carry the extra weight despite the affection the cats showed me. We called some bike shops and it turns out there is a special tool needed to get them off.

I raced with all I had to reach the bike shop before they closed. I just made it to downtown and the bike shop before they closed and got the pedal puller tool. Then I tooled around San Antonio for a bit. It is a really cool little town and exactly what a small Texas city should look like. Funny thing is, passersby I chatted with all hated it there...or at least seemed to. I stopped at the Alamo which I really knew nothing about until now. 115 people held off Santa Anna and his troops from Mexico who were trying to take back Texas. Eventually they succumbed to the 2500+ troops but they held out for a long time. I was told by a security guard to get my bike off the sidewalk in front of the Alamo but I talked him into a self-timed picture with me first. Ha. I also took a shot of the stuffed Winnie the Pooh bear that is riding along with me since Axl the dog opted to stay home. After the Alamo, I bumped into the "Riverwalk" area and simply had to stop and get some BBQ at County Line, a small restaurant. Riverwalk is this network of small rivers all through the center of town. The town is built above it so you take stairs down to it and it's lined with quaintly lit shops and restaurants that were filled with Holiday shoppers on this Friday the 13th. I discovered I'd lost a small "toe cover" from one of my shoes sometime and backtracked but couldn't find it. I also ate dinner next to some interesting folks...a doctor who was there for the ironically, the largest breast cancer symposium in the world that was taking place. I also met a girl whose brother works for Amazon.com but I didn't know him, although his name sounded familiar. What are the odds?

I set out and made my way through the city and along a busy freeway despite honking and a large piece of wire that entangled itself into my rear sprocket and dislodged my chain. I found a small hotel once the drivers appeared mostly drunk as I didn't feel like pushing my luck on Friday the 13th. I'd only made 48 miles for the day but it was 1 mile further than my worst day of 47 miles.

I set about fixing my bike only to find that I now had TWO pedal pulling tools since I had somehow picked one up in Miami at a bike shop. I thought I had picked up the bracket tool. Man am I clueless at times. So now I've had the tool I needed to get the pedals off the whole time but not the right bracket tool. Stuck again. I slept, woke up and set about finding a bike shop closer to me in the phone book. Good thing. It took two hours, an enormous wrench handle and a bike rack that clamped my bike in place to get the pedals off. I never would've made it on my own. Same thing for the bracket. It was almost frozen inside the frame. Unbelievable. Bob, the manager of Ride Away Cycles helped me incessantly and taught me a ton about bike mechanics. I changed out my shifter cables, put in new front and rear derailleurs and added the triple chain ring, new pedal cranks and a new bracket. It turns out the bracket I had purchased in Houston was also the wrong size. Unbelievable. Days and hours wasted on all these parts I should've had fixed simply in Seattle before setting out...but, I'm getting a heck of an education in terms of problem solving, should come in handy for when I attempt to sail around the world in a few years.

I then had lunch with friends of a friend who kindly are shipping a ton, well, 15 pounds at least of unneeded items I sent home. I also ordered a dry bag that should make packing, unpacking and changing clothes much easier going forward. It's being shipped to Dryden, Texas. I set out at 2:30 p.m. after wasting about two days just trying to get the right chain rings on. But man oh man. What a difference. I simply can't believe I'd ridden that whole way without a small chain ring in the front. Hills and headwinds are phenomenally easier.

The thing I'm discovering is that about 90% of the people don't know what they're talking about 90% of the time. From directions to distances to bike parts, I constantly get wrong information. "Oh, it's just 3 miles"...no, it's 30 miles..."Oh, you need a 113 mm bracket"...no, I need a 118 mm bracket..."Oh, it's just up there and then you take a left"...no, you take a right. I've gotten to the point where I take a lot of answers with a grain of salt. Then here and there you hit someone who is spot on. "It's 1.3 miles to the turn, then you go left and it's 2.8 blocks on your right." Yep...exactly right.

My favorite so far is the person who told me that it's entirely flat from San Antonio to Del Rio. Nope, tons of rolling hills including one I would've had to walk up were it not for the new chain ring. I think what it comes down to is cars vs. bikes. Unless you pile a really heavy trailer behind a bike and ride the route, it often seems shorter and easier since everyone drives everywhere.

I rode 66 miles to the town of Sabinal after meeting some really interesting people along the way. Someone handed me a donation from their car window while driving. Some other folks I met in a McDonald's gave me a donation despite the fact that they have 8 jack russell terriers to feed...not to mention the six alligators the husband keeps for fun. One of them is 12 feet. I'm bummed that I don't get to see them as I've yet to see an alligator or a snake on this trip.

As I reached Sabinal, I started to get cautious as it's a Saturday and the drivers are starting to act drunk again at 11 p.m. I see a local Police officer chatting with some kids and I ask about the shoulder conditions, distances, etc. I could camp six miles down the road (actually it was 8) but I opted for the motel since the shoulder would get narrow after town. I wanted to make Uvalde, 22 miles away but didn't want to risk it in the dark. I fall asleep immediately and wake up a bit late before setting out at 10:45 a.m.