(January 12)

Day 18 - Kerrville to Vanderpool TX

Road Mysteries

 

Lunch at The Hunt Store in Hunt TX. Once again, a little out of the way place had excellent food. The cafe was run by a man and his daughter near the back of the general store and it was not only delicious, they do a "white table cloth" effort in the evenings with what looked like an excellent dinner menu.

Mystery #1: why is the top of every fence post festooned with one old boot?

 

Mystery #2: I came across this...arrangement?...of dead wild pigs on the side of the road. 10 wild pigs, all freshly killed and neatly laid out in two rows. There wasn't a human habitation within sight and probably not within a mile in either direction. (cue Twilight Zone music)

Mystery #3: For about half a mile I was riding by this REALLY high metal mesh fence. I mean, Jurassic Park-style high. Then, off to the side I see this bird (Emu I believe?). Apparently they can't fly but they must be world-class jumpers because that fence could keep out anything but T Rex.

 

Road Mystery #4: Zoom in and take a close look at the sign. It says they are monitoring "activities." I just rode about a dozen miles on that road and can state with certainty there are no "activities" anywhere near their video camera. It was a desolate, empty wasteland. But, hey, security is important darnit!

No mystery here. I rode uphill...and rode uphill some more!... to get this view. I earned this beauty! The rays of the sun pouring out from behind the cloud over the forested valleys and folds of the hills...worth it :)

 I was greeted by this nice little note when I arrived. I've got to figure out how to pay them since I'm going to be gone in the morning long before 9am (

My lodgings for the evening. Cabin 2 is named "Brave Eagle." I think they'll now have to rename it after the infamous "Rides Like Possum" stayed the night.  

There were no restaurants within miles. So, I got to cook up one of the three dinner packs I'd kept (the mindful reader may remember I threw several others away on my third night in the Great Weight Purge of 2016) and had been dragging all over creation for nearly three weeks. This warms my heart greatly knowing that all that effort did not go to waste :)

 

For those wondering: Chicken Couscous w/ Mixed Vegetables

 

Today began with one of my now typical strategic decisions. I knew it was roughly 44 miles to my planned stop for the night: Foxfire Cabins outside the town of Vanderpool. I also knew it would be relatively hilly and might rain. So I had to decide: go ahead and get a massage at 8:45am so that my body could make it the next couple of days riding, but risk rolling into Foxfire Cabins after dark if the ride was tougher than I thought it would be? Or roll at dawn like usual and just let my legs continue to get worse (last night I think I had a knot in my right calf the size of a baseball), but definitely make it to my lodging on time?

 

Well, being the risk-taker I am, I tried to do it all. I was up before dawn to grab some breakfast, rode through town for my massage, came back to load up and then departed around 10:15 or so. Now, 10:15 may not sound too late, but that is 3 hours later than I normally leave, which means 3 hours less daylight.

 

I did try to "speed it up" of course, in an effort to ensure I wasn't trying to find some tiny little sign for Foxfire Cabins in the backwoods in the middle of the night, but let's face it. I'm so far beyond trying to go "fast" (by which I now define "rocket speed" as 11mph+. "Fast" would be over 10mph) its ridiculous. I'm in full blown "I just hope I make it" mode. Whatever speed I'm going, well, it's speed of some kind and I'll take it. I had hills today of 10, 11 even TWELVE % GRADE! Let me remind you of my local hill example: Cavalier Hill. It's considered one of the toughest around, and it only momentarily gets near 7% grade. I know for a fact that if I run into any hills steeper than a 12% Grade, I'll have to walk as that is the absolute, stone-cold-certain grade I can make with my rig.

 

Even with a bit of lingering over my excellent lunch at the Hunt Store and beaucoup picture taking along the way today I made it with an hour to spare AND got in a much needed, and most excellent massage.

 

Now ,stuffed with my wonderful dinner concoction (for which all I had to do was boil 2 cups of water!) I can recover and remember the beauty of riding beside the picaresque Guadalupe River most of the morning.