4 realz

assurances

I didn't give up, I didn't quit, I am not in New Orleans.

I took a break, hung out with people I love.

I'm still in Austin, and James, against all odds, has arrived to shepherd me home.

The circus, my friends, is back in town!

Dec 5

46 miles. Kerrville to stonerville
Closing in.
Cold cold cold and colder tomorrow

Reasons to not always love central texas

Rode 35 miles today, in rain, wind, 40 degrees.  This is after swimming in a river and taking off my shirt yesterday. The hills won today, and my cold feet were the sore losers. Made it to kerrville, not all by myself. Weather forecast looking wet. Good for droughty texas, but couldn't it have waited till Wednesday? Met a friendly sheriff, and the nicest woman ever, my bag-lunch fairy god texan, ginger.

Reasons to love central texas

BBQ. Christmas. Trees. 60 degree mornings. Limestone. Old folks.
I rode 78 miles in 70 degree weather yesterday, went swimming in a river, got sunburned, slept outside.

Getting on with it

I realized I've been complaining a lot. Sorry about that. It's kind of an emotional roller coaster these days. And by it, I mean me.

Today it was supposed to be rainy and windy but it was wonderful ; overcast, in the 50's, light tailwind, and the road flattened out a lot. So I rode for a while. Made it 100 miles to bracketville, although if you looked at a map of langtry to bracketville, it's more like 92. What is that about? Is my odometer off? Do I really weave that much on the road? At any time, I'm about 3 miles ahead of road mileage. This, people, is one of the reasons I'm going crazy.

In other news, I'm not in the desert! I'm not in the desert! I'm not in the desert! Woot! Big ups to trees!  What I am in is fort springs, a private homeowners assoc. aka central texas disney land, with limestone activities center, theater, museum, and rv park tucked way in back where it doesn't lower property value. I had to pay inflated rates cause I'm not a member... but what hoa member would pay to camp in a tent? Anyway... I'm happy about central texas. It's kinda cool to be back! Even if the $2 hot shower was cold. The park attendant was so gracious, and careful!

67 miles : sanderson to langtry

Boring ride today. I had to listen to a lot of power ballads to remember I was still breathing. One nice thing about riding alone on remote west texas highways is there's no one around to hear how bad you sound singing celine dion at the top of your lungs.
I saw 5 dead deer in the first 20 miles of riding. Some were pretty badly mangled, and definitely picture worthy, but I felt bad doing that. They were lives, after all.
Once upon a time, a transcontinental railroad was built through west texas, and towns sprang up every 30 miles or so to bring needed water for steam powered engines. Most of these towns are more like fossils these days ; langtry, where I'm staying has a population of 19.
At the end of the day, I went to the judge roy bean museum in langtry, named (if u believe bean) for the british actress lilly langtry. You gotta hand it to a guy who can run a bar, and uphold law, even if he made up the laws as he went along.  Seems like it'd be easy to lose customers. Or get shot, trying to pull that off in the west. Judge Bean even called a fight to settle a dispute, then held it in mexico (and had a footbridge built so evryone could go) when the texas government told him it was illegal.
Tonight I'm staying in another miracle of warm showers - a trailer owned by the lovely manns that was open and waiting for me to arrive, what with fresh towels, box wine, and hdtv. I have learned to watch tv again on this trip.
Del rio tomorrow (almost a big city!) And then on, in the rain I think, towards austin.