79.4 miles & 1494’ elevation gain and actually lost more elevation than we gained today since we are now at the Rio Grande (!) and out of the Texas Hill Country as of this morning. We cycled through 4 of 9 regions of the Texas Hill Country, each region defined by its rivers. Now we are into a much drier SW Texas.

We were on three roads today with a lot of chipseal, still! Bones usually don’t get a workout cycling, but I think my bones are much stronger and denser after cycling on Texas roads! We did find a few smooth spots today, and thankfully the last 5 miles into Del Rio were nice….. as we watched so many jets overhead from Laughlin Air Force Base. And most thankfully, we enjoyed dry cloud cover all day and a super helpful SE tailwind. The first 18.5 miles were into the wind since we traveled due south out of Camp Wood, but it was first thing in the morning, so the wind wasn’t too bad yet. Then we turned west all day.

For most of Texas, we’ve seen very high 8’ fences for keeping in animals for private hunting. Only 5% of Texas is public lands. We’ve seen miles and miles and miles of high fences. A big part of the Texas economy is private game hunts for exotic animals like the ones we saw today – emu, scimitar oryx (a large antelope from North Africa!) and 4-6 small Axis deer (originally from India & Sri Lanka). The Axis deer we saw were startled by us and a vehicle so started chasing back and forth across the road as we approached, trying to get away, and attempting to jump over the 8’ high fences on each side. It was traumatic watching them jump – not high enough, hit the fence, collapse and run across the road to the other side and do it again. 😢

Huge long lightning and thunderstorms last night. Camp Wood received 4” of rain! Thankfully our route, all on one road, was not waterlogged or flooded. 31.9 miles & 2428’ (in the first 26 miles!) Two big climbs today that were gorgeous, albeit foggy and constantly misty wet and mostly (not all 😊) bumpy roads again. The expansive Texas hill views might have been even more spectacular without the clouds but pretty amazing. At times reminded me of the Gorges de la Nesque cycle in southeastern France, except this was a lot more hilly. Given how tired I was after yesterday, amazed at how good I felt today. Nice to finish early, enjoy some bbq lunch, do laundry and relax. We’ll cook in tonight in our nice Airbnb.

First a shout out to our daughter Clara and her hubby Alex on their 8th wedding anniversary today. We love them so much and are proud of the amazing life they have created and continue to create together.

The 81 miles 3989’ were hard today! First 30 miles to Kerrville were mostly on ranch roads which were beautiful with no traffic, but chipseal and wind and constant mist made the morning harder than it should have been. Stopped at Starbucks and on again with more of the same. The scenery through west hill ranches and up the Guadalupe River, then the South Fork of the Guadalupe River was beautiful and idyllic if you didn’t notice the still apparent devastation and destruction from the 30’ floods just last July that killed many people and destroyed a lot of property. We cycled by many riverside camps including Camp Mystic. Google the sad tragedy when 13” of rain dumped in 4 hours in the middle of the night in the mountains above the river.

Thankfully Jody surmised our exhaustion after several check-ins along the route. My body felt beat up from the road surfaces today and the headwinds when we were headed south several times today. Jody, after having scouted the additional distance and location of our very rustic cabin in the woods, waited for us at the Lost Maples store and offered us a ride late in the afternoon (to save an additional 4 miles up and over a big pass!)! We all gladly loaded our bikes and called it a day!

Two short mileage days in a row for sightseeing LBJ’s home territory. Visited LBJ’s boyhood homesite last evening and the Visitor’s Center with a lot of information about his upbringing and career.

37.5 miles 2368’ beautiful short hilly ride through the Texas hill country to the cute German town of Fredericksburg. A bit of head and cross winds but great cloud cover with no rain. And just like that (!), we are half way done with our journey at over 1500 miles!! 👏 💥 Staying in a lovely Airbnb tonight in downtown.

Dinner tonight with friends Shelley & Chris Pieper who drove in from Kerrville. We raised our 3 kids together during Montessori school days. We enjoyed authentic German food in this haven of German immigrants. As early as the mid-1800s, the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas set up a safe community for the influx of Prussian immigrants. This town also hosts one of the largest Oktoberfest celebrations in the U.S.

Nighttime and morning severe thunderstorms necessitated a TST meeting at 7am and resulted in a 2 hour delayed start this Sunday morning out of Austin. I didn’t mind too much as very wet stormy cycling isn’t my idea of fun, and it provided the chance to catch up on bookkeeping. However, Sunday mornings are typically a gorgeous cycling day, and the route was to take us on 20 miles of a gorgeous, but now notoriously busy, two lane road with no shoulders. The later the start, the more traffic.

In addition to the storms, the Cap10, the largest running event in Texas, was happening in downtown Austin with 25,000 runners! We spent quite a bit of time yesterday evaluating our planned route cycling out of town due to the event’s conflicting running route. But in the end Louise Joy, my college mate, assured us that taking the riverfront path west out of town would be no problem. And that’s how it went! Fun to see the miles and miles of runners/walkers but always slow navigating into and out of big cities.

The 50.0 miles, 3878’ was a very full, humid West Hills of Texas country kind of ride. We missed any serious rain; winds from south and east were mostly favorable; I did have to slow down quite a bit on downhills due to xwind; roads were mostly dry; drivers on the narrow, no shoulder roads abided by their TX motto of “friendly” except for one angry young man in a red pickup traveling the opposite direction who felt the need to slow down and yell at us to “get off the … road!” I just gave him my usual happy wave. Wildflowers are still beautiful and abundant, and many cacti are blooming. Going to try and dash out and visit LBJ’s home here in Johnson City.

Wow when you’ve been in small town America cycling, the big cities seem even bigger!! We switched up our rest days to stay an extra day here (rather than previously scheduled Fredericksburg). We got our bikes serviced and saw Kathy’s Georgetown classmate, Louise Joy, and her family on a tour boat on Lady Bird Lake to watch the bats come out from under the South Congress Bridge to feed for the night. Among many events, it’s pretty much “the” event in downtown Austin between March and October when the bats are visiting from Mexico. Louise brought yummy tacos from Torchy Tacos for our dinner! Thank you Louise, Gary, Clare & Susie for the Texas hospitality.

We’ve spent quite a bit of time today figuring out how to navigate around the 49th anniversary of the Cap10 running event tomorrow morning which brings in 25,000 participants and basically shuts down downtown. And rain is forecast. Stay tuned!!

This morning Jody drove us 6 miles north from LaGrange back to the route up the large highway with construction that we cycled yesterday. As we were unloading shortly after 7am, I noticed I had a fourth flat tire! 😩 This time on the front, and the culprit was another very tiny metal wire from a road sweeper or a steel belted radial remnant! Quick fix again with Steven’s help and on the road again. The first 38 miles were generally lovely country roads and 13 miles were in Buescher & Bastrop State Parks with some steep rollers, great road surfaces, no dogs and no traffic. But then the roads changed to no shoulder and lots of traffic with huge distribution/data center construction, and I called it quits! Jody had been graciously checking on us several times during the day, so I called it a day and hopped in! The boys of course kept going into downtown Austin. 53.4 miles 2326’ (boys 72.1 & 2800’)

Checked into our Airbnb apartment, and the boys took our bikes in for a previously scheduled tune up at an Austin bike shop. Now a day off!! 😊 Rest, buy some new bike shorts, and sightsee a little (I’ve visited Austin multiple times before so feel a little less pressure to see the sights in the capital).

Navasota last night – the Blues Capital of TX with some great public art and near to both Presidential Libraries for George H.W. & George W. Bush.

Moved on to a new Souther Tier map section today, and it has elevation profiles! …. guess we’ll be doing some climbing unlike the very flat ride we’ve had so far! Yesterday was a warm up with nearly 3000’.

Southeasterly mostly favorable winds and cloud cover kept the temps reasonable. 77.8 miles & 3350’ with a stellar TransAm kind of day, in stark contrast to yesterday! Only two sections of busy highways with decent enough shoulders and then country roads, some without even line markings. Lots of ranches with amazing entry gates. Tom took photos of many. Lots of American flags and Texas flags flying at the same height. Wildflowers are prime!! Incredible live oak trees and some gorgeous juniper-like trees. And a few cute, small historic towns like Independence, Burton (with the oldest still operating cotton gin) and Round Top. Made it into LaGrange, TX before a downpour! 😊

Thought I should start out with some granddaughter love – Miya is growing well at just over one month old and parents are settling in to their new roles.

Today’s ride was not one to introduce your friends to the magnificence of a TransAm cycle! Other than a few nice miles on some country TX roads, the majority of routes had a lot of speedy traffic with some to no shoulder. At least the winds were mostly favorable (S/SE) and the temps comfortable. The good thing was the left wrist brace I added to my kit today; wrist didn’t hurt all day even with a lot of chip seal surfaces, and I’m “marked safe” and in a 3 star 😊 motel. 71.5 miles 2572’ (getting some rollers today).

Nourishment is important when you are cycling 4-7 hours a day! Peanut butter, honey and banana sandwiches daily, caffeine in some form, egg frittata, super hero muffin, nut/raisin mix, small orange or apple and/or whatever we buy at rest stops. Preferred cycling bottle beverage is 1/3 cranberry juice 2/3 water. I have yet to find an electrolyte supplement I like.

Today’s cycling included short lovely bike path, then short country road, then 70mph hwy with rumble-strip-loaded narrow shoulder. Thank goodness very little traffic on that hwy we were on for 30+miles. Then various mixed highways. Thousands of acres of pine plantations. And sheez another rear flat tire for me a few miles from the end! Thanks again Steven. I did change out my tire tonight. 67.2 miles and 1620’ elevation, and I’m tired.

Our great luck with little 2 star motels caught up with us here in Coldspring… motel owner’s personal and personnel problems made for a several hour wait for Jody’s room! But then out to a lovely Sam Houston National Forest (which Jody had scouted earlier in the day) for a lakeside dinner of taco salad.