Cycling Ellen

40 miles today
1390 total

Last night at dinner, we were surprised by a margarita party.  “We are half way across Texas!”.  “April Fool!”  We weren’t quite halfway but to celebrate Genie’s birthday (and April Fool’s Day) we had a little celebration complete with the Beaver Song for Genie.  Everyone’s getting really good at it!

At map meeting, we heard about today’s climbs and there were several people who were quite psyched out by the hill country.  Michelle said there were three major climbs at miles 12, 28 and 33.  They averaged about 10 percent grade and were a mile or so long.  This morning we were all surprised when we started heading up and up and up and it was only mile 8!  Did this mean this one didn’t count or was it the mile 12 climb coming early?  The road curved and curved and around each curve we could see it going up and up.  Fortunately, most people surprised themselves by how much stronger we are now and that it wasn’t as challenging as they expected.  The sag was at the top where we all determined that must have been a real climb!  The view was gorgeous of hills covered with trees rolling off into the distance.  There were also some great rollers, down and up – such fun.

We continued on RD 337 into Leakey.  There we found out there was road construction ahead for the next several miles.  The chip seal was just practice for riding through construction!  We bounced over the rough road until we finally arrived at mile 28 where the construction ended and the next big climb began.  I think we were all so glad to be off the road, it didn’t matter that we were climbing again.  We had a nice downhill and then up again we went at mile 33.  This climb was a bit longer but still doable.  The sky was still gray and at the top, Clark and I noticed that there seemed to be a few drops of rain starting to spit.  It was time to get off the mountain.  It was pretty much straight down at a steeper grade than we had been climbing (or at least that was my perception).  We stopped at the bottom at a little store where Jane and I shared an ice cream sandwich and watched a huge number of  hummingbirds at a feeder.  I could hear a couple of people speaking German on the phone who, it turns out, are visitors from England.

Now, I’m hunkered down in the main house of the Foxfire Cabins, here in Vanderpool, TX, population 20.  I have the futon in the living room while Dawn, Barbara M. and our leaders have the bedrooms.  It started raining not long after I arrived but it doesn’t matter.  There is a free washing machine off the kitchen, Linda’s cooking dinner, there are a bunch of people playing a dice game and Jane and I are catching up on our blogs.  Life is good.  There’s a swimming hole right outside but right now, I can’t imagine jumping in.  Ray Charles is on the CD player (You Don’t Know Me) and people keep stopping by to check out the house and hang out for awhile.  This morning as I left Camp Wood I could see the teachers in the elementary school getting ready in their classrooms.  How far away from that life I feel today.