Cycling Ellen

50 miles today
1350 total

This morning it was a pleasure to leave US 90 and find some new roads.  Unfortunately, they were still all made of chip seal but it didn’t feel as bad today until the last few miles when we were hot and more tired.  The word for the morning as we rode on RD 334 out of town was wet.  It was so damp that the glasses needed windshield wipers and the moisture was dripping off our helmets.  “It was a very fine drizzle. I love to say drizzle”, said Pat.  We wound our way up and down some gentle rollers through ranch country.  We saw sheep, goats, horses, llamas and some signs for exotic animal hunting (but the animals were hiding). We had been warned that last year water was running over the road along this stretch.   The Nueces River actually crosses the road – no bridge! – but today, it was all dried out.

Several times on the road today, we could smell the stench of rotting carcasses.  We must have seen over a dozen deer in various degrees of deterioration on the side of the road.  I also saw my first dead armadillo, pretty well picked clean by the buzzards that we often see circling.

By the time we got to our turn onto SR 55 at the second sag stop, the sun had come out and we suddenly felt the 90 degree heat.  Fortunately, up the road a mere 19 miles was a place marked on our cue sheet – “If it is hot when you cross the Nueces River at mile 45, jump in!”  This time, the River was full of water with a dam on one side of the highway bridge and a great swimming spot on the other side. Ann, Micki, Jane, Judy and I headed into the water.  Like yesterday’s pool, this was so refreshing after a day of biking.  We were only a few miles from our night’s lodging so we could get a little wet.  We had also heard that the library (with internet access) and the only restaurant in town closed at 2, so a bit reluctantly we headed into town.

Here, I found out the motel was overbooked and I was actually staying at a house east of town with our leaders, Phyllis and Clark.  Jane and Cheryl are in the Sunshine Cottage next door.  Apparently, we are going to have dinner at “our place” tonight so I’ll be all set once I get back there.  I got a delicious burger at the restaurant and am camped out in Pat and Jane I.’s room to use the internet before I head home.  We can see the hills of the hill country around us.  Tomorrow we head up again.