Day 32: Bastrop to La Grange, Texas

Day 32: Bastrop to La Grange, Texas
Miles: 42.04 ------------ Total Mileage 1,765.42
Theme: Lean to the Left, Lean to the Right...

Today is suppose to be a shorter day, in theory a recovery day from our long ride yesterday. Because we only have around 40 miles to go --- and the hotel won't be ready until early afternoon, Carol held us back until about 8:30 this morning. Outside it looked fairly ominous with dark clouds and a bit of a wind. We were all antsy to get moving though. 8:30 seems like such a late start!

The first three miles were through town and there was a fair amount of traffic ---Monday morning rush hour! Within no time we came to the Bastrop State Park entrance. There was very little traffic - but plenty of ups and downs. It was a bit like a roller coaster ride. You would come to the top of a hill huffing and puffing, get a second or two recovery, and then you would be screaming down the next hill. The hills were relatively short, but they were steep! Three of them that had a 17% grade. If you had a great running start that would be one thing, but with twists and turns, one often didn't get the type of speed necessary to make summiting easier. The first hill was a challenge, but I made it, though just barely.

My rule of thumb is that if I go under 3 mph, I should get off Ms. B (my bike), as it is too easy to fall over and not get unclipped in time. On the first hill I managed to stay upright but got down to 2.7 mph. Hill number two, I also barely managed to keep the bike moving in a forward direction - but again got up it--- but as I mentioned, just barely. When we came to hill number 3, I knew I was in trouble. I had to make a decision, unclip quickly and walk up, or try to make it clipped in. I ultimately decided to play it safe and unclip and walk up. Once I unclipped and walked, Linda and Greta followed suit. I figured I had lucked out twice - and I better not tempt fate. It was probably the better choice. Had I been on a regular bike, I would have done all three, but it is very difficult to do zigzags up a hill on a recumbent because of where the wheels are located.

Other than the hills, it was a nice park to ride through. I did see a Pileated Woodpecker as well as Cattle Egret. The best part about riding through the park was that you could ride side by side due to the limited amount of traffic. Part way through the park the weather changed. Within minutes it dropped between 10 to 15 degrees and the wind started to pick up. A couple riders were behind me and saw (as well as heard) a tree crash down because due to the wind gusts. There was some thunder - but the clouds didn't open up on us. We have been extremely lucky with the weather so far on this trip.

Young Pup (our Sag driver today) was just outside the park at mile 16. Almost everyone put on their rain jackets if they didn't already have them on. Still no rain but the wind had really picked up. When we started down the road we quickly hit a very stiff cross wind. For the next 2 miles I was riding with a definite lean to the right (hence lean to the left - lean to the right, stand up, sit down, fight, fight, fight) in order to counter the wind. We definitely had to fight through the wind today! Fortunately it was a short day. Occasionally the wind was actually in our favor. When that happened we really sailed along at a good clip!

I actually liked the scenery outside the park better than in the park. We passed horses, cows... Around one corner we came across some Brahma Bulls. As usually I had to stop and take a photo. We also passed a water tower with a big happy face painted on it. Ah the little things that entertain me! We ended up getting into La Grange around 12:15 or 12:30. Since we knew the hotel wouldn't be ready for us until around 2:00 we decided to eat something in town before checking in. As we started toward the town we passed a place with lots of cars outside. That is usually a good sign. We went past it however as we were told there were cute stores in the town center. We came up to a fairly big hill but couldn't see the town at the bottom. Everyone was hungry and tired after riding in the wind, so we decided to go back to the restaurant we had already passed. We immediately went directly into the headwind. We were pleased we decided not to go further as it would have meant more time riding into that head wind after we ate.

We had great Mexican food for lunch and then head to the hotel. We checked in, got our suitcases and luggage - and then yes we did our normal task --- do laundry! Because the wind hasn't died down at all Linda won't be able to cook out of the trailer tonight. We are bummed as we love her cooking! Oh well, maybe we will now see the town center that we missed earlier! That's all the news that is fit to be printed today! Just another day on the bike!

PS: You may have noticed, I posted a photo. I can't get it down to the correct size, but at least you can now see who Kathie and Tex are!