Days 25 and 26: to Kerrville, Texas. Halfway!

Boot Fence - Near Hunt Texas

Two days of much better riding!  We left Fort Clark Spring in threatening windy weather but random small storms missed us entirely.  Rather than a sea of brown on either side of the road, we were seeing a sea of mesquite.  The cross winds didn't really trouble us and we wheeled along nicely to a largish town called Uvalde.  There we finally left Texas Route 90-- thanks be!  It was a horrible road...two lanes, 75 mph speed limit, heavy truck traffic and chip seal surface.  Have I bitched about all this before?  Perhaps so.  In any case, after four days of it we were delighted to turn north on Route 83.  Sadly the wind was from the north but while annoying it was not crippling and soon we found ourselves in the renowned "Texas Hill Country" and very nice it was!  We are in luck with the wild flowers-- there are several different kinds and they fill whole fields like a carpet.

We stayed last night at a place called "River Bend" where we had actual cabins with actual beds, a private bath and a nice porch to look out on a pond and trees.  Sadly no wifi and no phone reception (no matter who your provider) so for once the "Pamper Zone" was not full of riders on smart phones and iPads.  We even had a decent dinner and breakfast.

Today was the real treat, however.  We had a splendid ride through a landscape that could have been in New England (except for lots of prickly pear cactus).  Quite hilly but in a good way-- reasonably short climbs (nearly 3000 feet total, however) and nice downhill runs.  For the first 25 miles we were still going north on Route 83, then turned east again on Route 39...a really lovely ride.  The land on either side of the road was taken up with huge fenced ranches-- at least one of them a place to hunt for "trophy" animals.  Eventually we began to follow the Guadalupe River, crossing and recrossing it, a few times on bridges but mostly just on paved fords or "dips".  It was lovely to see a river with water in it-- everything but the Pecos has been dry as a bone.

My bitch today is with the route sheets which have consistently been wrong and were very much wrong today-- since they have been wrong so often I should be used to it but I guess with such a beautiful ride, the route sheets are the only way left to exercise my complaining nature.   I hadn't paid much attention to the sheet but when I arrived at the 37.3 SAG, other riders were complaining.  Fool that I am, I asked how far it was to lunch.  "Downhill Bob" the staff person at the SAG said it was 7 miles.  So off I rode, still without looking at the sheet, and in 7 miles began to look for the lunch stop.  Eventually I checked and saw that the lunch was supposed to be 50.8.  In other words 13.5 miles from the SAG.  At 50.8, however, there was nada.  I rode and rode thinking I had somehow missed it-- but eventually John texted me and said it wasn't until 55.2!  Very annoying when you are hot and tired!  Needless to say, I am not the only one fussing about this but I will try to accept it with a more laid back attitude.

One of many intricate ranch gates

Bluebonnets (which are actually like little lupines)