Day 9 of 17 Days of Texas. Hot – Damn Hot!
This morning while lifting my bag into the truck, I must have twisted and severely crunched my back again. I cursed my stupidity, because I knew there would be days of pain to come. The morning was cool and breakfast consisted of a cold bagel and some cream cheese.
After riding some miles I stopped at Pierre’s van to stretch out my back, which really hurt. I shed a few tears, and I’m told uttered several colorful words as I laid on the side of the road. Later after pedaling a few ok miles, Art rides by and said “Is that rain?” “I don’t feel anything,” “Must just be my tears,”…
At checkpoint (a crummy gas mart) we are met by many of our cheery ride mates, they did not ride most of yesterday, they are not riding today (some of them even stayed in a quiet, windless hotel 10 miles down the road) – I cannot stand to hear their voices. I’m incredibly tired and my back is killing me – it totally sucks. Bob and I head for the Subway down the road for some decent food and peace. It was still very hot, but after checkpoint the road turned and the wind was more favorable. At the end of the day I got to a quick mart type place and I noticed a number of bikes outside. Knowing there was probably nothing at out camp to eat I stopped too. I’m sitting with Sig and Jeff, we’re slumped over icy, sugary concoctions with our elbows on the table. I finally say “what’s that smell?” I have my hands up by my nose and realize to my horror – its my bike gloves, sweat soaked, stinky gloves – yuk!
Our surprise for the day is that we got to indoor camp in a big house – there’s some air conditioning and ceiling fans. I also get a bed! A huge, king-size bed all to myself! I hop out of the shower, but I’m sweating so much I can’t even towel dry in the stuffy bathroom – at least I’m clean.
A bunch of us wander over to the bar before dinner for happy hour and then it’s on to a very disappointing dinner. Fettuccine with five little shrimp on top – f i v e . After what we’ve gone through these last days, we need way more than five shrimp.
75.3 miles - 10.7 avg mph