Day 30: Sunday, 4/5/15, Lockhart, TX (61º at 6:30 am) to La Grange, TX (66º at 1:00 pm) 60 miles, elevation changes: +1824/-2044.

HAPPY EASTER! I got off as early as I have ever left, 7:25 am because the weather forecast is for possible heavier rain this afternoon (although it hasn’t started as of 2:15 pm and luckily doesn’t look like it will). It was again overcast and humid with a light drizzle falling when I left. I just pushed along pacing myself as usual. It rained lightly, off and on, as I rode. We are in TX farm country with many herds of goats, sheep, and cattle. I didn’t see many crops growing except some corn. It was an uneventful day.

Bike stats: 60.9 miles ridden in four hours and 20 minutes of actual biking, averaging 14.0 mph with a top speed of 27.5 mph.

Highlights:

• The beautiful flowers in the fields! I think the blue flowers are blue bonnets. I don’t know name of the orange flowers.
• Riding true back country roads. There was very little traffic on Easter Sunday. It was a great riding day except for the weather. 

A field of blue bonnets.

 A field of blue bonnets mixed with orange flowers.

My first sighting of TX big horned steers.

Make it a great day!

John

Day 29: Saturday, 4/4/15, Blanco, TX (54º at 7:00 am) to Lockhart, TX (66º at 2:30 pm) 62 miles, elevation changes: +1603/-2418.

We officially left the TX Hill Country this morning, as our last 20 miles this afternoon was a steady downhill to about 420 ft above sea level. We started the day at 1280 ft above sea level. It was a cloudy, cool day after a cold front came through last night. The wind was blowing out of the northeast at 10 – 16 mph with gusts up to 23 mph that made it a challenging as we rode basically east-southeast today, thus mostly a cross wind. The morning was a lot of up and down; the afternoon was flat downhill.

Bike Stats: 64.4 miles (I took a few side sightseeing trips with no great results.) ridden in 4 hours and 38 minutes of actual biking, averaging 13.9 mph, with a top speed of 33.5 mph.

Highlights:

• Leaving the TX Hill Country.
• Eating a personal sized blueberry pie for desert at lunch at the TX Pie Company in Kyle, TX.
• Riding with less humidity in cooler, refreshing air.

Leaving the TX Hill Country into the more fertile east TX flatland. The grass is green and trees are now the natural vegetation. Some of the roads we rode on today had no view as they were tree-lined on both sides. This was a first!

My personal sized blueberry pie at the TX Pie Company. It was delicious!

Hitting the east TX fertile, flatland after lunch. The corn is just coming up.

Looking east at about mile 50 today. No more TX hills.

The Lockhart, TX courthouse.

Make it a great day!

John

Day 28: Friday, 4/3/15, Kerrville, TX (65º at 6:30 am) to Blanco, TX (79º at 3:00 pm) 59 miles, elevation changes: +2429/-2712.

The entire Coast-2-Coast group was alive with excitement to start biking this morning because of the forecast: possible thunderstorms in the Blanco area after 2 pm. I was off like a shot at 7:30 am. Today’s weather was a photocopy of yesterday’s weather: cloudy, hazy, and humid with light drizzle when I started riding. We are still in the TX Hill Country. It was a day of up and down. Below is today’s route sheet so that you can see what each rider is provided with each day of the trip. Luckily, no thunderstorms materialized. The sun is out as I write this at 3:45 pm.

Today’s bike stats: 60.5 miles (A bit extra because I biked to the DQ in Blanco for a vanilla milk shake when I arrived.) ridden in 4 hours and 28 minutes of actual biking time, averaging 13.5 mph with a top speed of 37.2 mph. (The downhills are often very steep, but then so are the uphills.)

Highlights:

• The TX Hill Country is beautiful. We rode on the lesser TX state routes today. The terrain is very much like biking near our cottage in Porter, ME.

We crossed the Guadalupe River again several times today. It is great to see water along with the dam and ducks.

Trees are now everywhere. Here are some big ones along the Guadalupe River.

A view of the TX Hill Country taken in the early afternoon, just before it cleared.

Our daily route sheets are two sided. One side lists all the turns we have to make. The reverse side shows the route, the elevation changes for the day’s ride at the bottom, and the total +/- elevation gain at the top right.

I apologize that the side of the route sheet is sideways. I am still a rookie blogger. I rotate the picture in iPhoto and it still kept coming up like this. Oh well!

Make it a great day!

John

Day 27: Thursday, 4/2/15, Concan, TX (65º at 6:30 am) to Kerrville, TX (82º at 3:30 pm) 72 miles, elevation changes: +2896/-2741.

WE REACHED THE HALFWAY POINT ACROSS THE COUNTRY! Today, just before lunch at the today’s mile mark 52, I reached the halfway point for the trip. I left the River Bend Resort at 7:40 am. It was misty, overcast, and very humid. We definitely are in the TX Hill Country as we went up and down all day; note the elevation gain and loss. It cleared up by the trip halfway mark and its been a beautiful, warm breezy afternoon.

Bike Stats: 72.6 miles riding for 4 hours and 57 minutes averaging 14.7 mph with a top speed of 36 mph.

Highlights:

• Reaching the trip’s halfway mark!
• Riding along the Guadalupe River for about 30 miles this morning.
• Having a rest day yesterday!
• Going to lunch yesterday with Carol and JD Williams. Carol Williams changed Joan’s and my life -- the entire Holden's family life. Carol was on the St. Agnes School's Board of Governor’s Head of School Search Committee back in the fall of 1983 and travelled to Groton School with David Burke, a second search committee member, to interview Joan for the first time. Because of this interview at Groton, Joan was invited to interview at St. Agnes in Alexandria. Carol was a driving force supporting Joan being named Head of School at St. Agnes and thus moving the Holden's to Alexandria, VA for 30 years. It was such a wonderful lunch with Carol and JD reflecting on this memory and many others. 

The TX Hill Country at our morning SAG stop at mile 19 of today's ride. The sun's rays are beginning to burn through the overcast.

Crossing the Guadalupe River. We must have crossed it 10 times as we followed it on today's ride. It was the most beautiful countryside we have yet passed through. The landscape has changed to trees and grass. There are still cacti around, but we are definitely out of the desert.

Big Blue and me at the half-way point of the trip.

The Boot Fence that happens to exist where our half-way point is located. Why someone has adorned these fence posts with boots? I don’t have a clue.

Carol & JD Williams and me holding the TX flag. Carol and JD live about 95 miles south of Concan in Pearsall, TX on their ranch. They drove up and took me out to lunch to a restaurant in Leakey, TX (pronounced "lay-key") about 7 miles from the River Bend Resort.

 Carol and JD beside Big Blue at our campsite on the Frio River at River Bend Resort.

 Make it a great day!

John

Day 25: Tuesday, 3/31/15, Brackettville, TX (66º at 6:30 am) to Concan (75º at 3:30 pm) 74 miles, elevation changes: +2285/-1880.

It was an uneventful day! I was off at 7:40. It was cloudy with a slight headwind of 4 - 8 mph until we arrived at the River Bend Resort where we are staying in Concan. It was humid today, the first real humidity that I’ve experienced since last September. The clouds kept the temperature down in the low 70’s, very comfortable for riding. Tomorrow we have a well deserved day off.

Bike Stats: 74.8 miles ridden in 5 hours and 28 minutes traveling on average at 13.7 mph hitting 34.3 as my maximum speed.

Highlights:

• Finishing our 4-day ride on TX state route 90 at noon after 40 miles today. We then turned on to TX state route 83 that was just as bumpy to ride on as it too is made of chip seal.
• Going through the last US border checkpoint. After lunch, TX 83 took us north away from the border.
• We have entered the TX hill country. We are camping on the Frio River, a real river with water running in it, unlike the dry canyons we’ve travelled over the last three and half weeks of the trip.

See how green the landscape is. I took this picture in the morning still on TX 90. It was the first sighting of sheep grazing on grass. Note the donkey taking care of the sheep.

The TX hill country.

The pond at the River Bend Resort.

Rabbit for April 1st tomorrow. Make it a great April and a great day!

John