Day 5 of 17 Days of Texas. Hideous, energy sucking, chip seal road all day – had to work for every inch. Checkpoint was a rundown gas station/store with no decent food, I had a half a peanut butter sandwich and a coke. I also had a flat leaving checkpoint – a wire from a steel belted radial – at least I was still near the van so I had access a good floor pump.
The road was a grind, none of the hills would have been so bad if the rough road hadn’t sucked all the energy out of the legs first. It was a mentally and physically tiring day. I “bonked” – didn’t get enough food to eat – which made every hill a challenge. When I got to camp I needed food badly, but there was nothing but cheery smiles from those who had rode in the sag wagon. So I signed in and immediately biked the extra 4 miles into town – lucky for me, down hill. In town nothing was open, Ft. Davis was so small most of the restaurants shut down in the afternoon until dinner time. Ended up at Bob’s Grill for something called “steak fingers” – strips of ground steak, breaded and fried, with gravy for dippin’ – french fries and texas toast too! (Not a meal I would normally eat.) The place had 5 clocks on the wall, but I was so out of it I still didn’t know what time it was, so I asked “is it 4:15?” The staff person pointed to the clocks “well that one’s Paris, that one’s London, that one’s New Zealand and that one’s New York, but we use the one in the middle, that’s Fort Davis time.” I said “but there are no hands on that one,” “yep, that’s Fort Davis time”. The five old guys sitting around the table burst out laughing having great fun at my expense. By then I had gotten some food in me, was feeling better and could tell them a little about our trip so far – they thought I was a little nuts. Finally, I felt like riding again and easily rode back to camp. I got my tent set up, had a massage and then walked over to where our real dinner was served – roasted chicken and real vegetables – yum!
The story of Day 18 was the marauding wild pigs that went through camp during the night. I heard them about 1:00 a.m. rustling about outside my tent. I could tell they were pigs by the sound when they walked – the pig farm background – so I just rolled over and went back to sleep. In the morning we found they had gone through all the trash, got a cooler open and gulped the water and everything in it, and generally made a big mess. It was fun breakfast conversation, but some people were genuinely frightened by the whole event.
98.0 miles