Checking in from Uvalde, Texas. A great few days of riding – I’m starting to get my rhythm going. A morning routine of making coffee, eating and breaking camp, riding for a good long time, and pulling in to the night’s camp site, getting set up, eating, showering, replenishing water bottles and having a bit of a nap. Again narrative to follow, but before that…

The wildflowers are getting underway!

Tuesday, after an excellent rest day and after watching a thunderstorm-y front roll through before dawn, I headed west. A lovely roll out of Fredricksburg, a couple turns, and I was at the Morris Ranch.

The rest of the day was more of what you see on the right – a rising country road with not a lot of traffic and a ton of blue sky. My favorite moment was mid afternoon – I came up on a section where the terrain to the south and west dropped away, so the horizon was right there and the feeling that I was about to drop into something was quite present. It happened, eventually, I dropped into Kerrville. Strategic error committed, I pedaled on to the campground. Checked in, only to be told, “Oh, yeah, the men’s showers are out of order.” Thanks pal.

A decent night’s sleep, an early pack up and I rode off to to compensate for the previous night’s mistake. Coming in to town the previous afternoon, I’d thought that I’d double back and get my re-supply done, but, y’know tired &c. So 5 miles back to the HEB and some grocery shopping was the first order of business, NBD. Except I started back into the kind of headwind that tilted the traffic lights 45 degrees plus, just like in the movies. Passing my point of origin at something like 6 mph,down on the drops and struggling along, I was not optimistic. But the road turned out of the wind and into the valley of the Guadalupe River. Hallelujah, lots of /gentle/ climbing and finally up on what felt like a high plateau.

Then, the end of the plateau. A couple miles along the spine of a ridge and then a fast descent into the State Park that’d be my campsite for the night. Nice spot!

After getting in to Lost Maples, I looked at the next day’s route. I’m mostly following the ACA‘s Southern Tier map, but holy carp! The next 18 miles out of camp looked, um, brutal.

I talked to one of the rangers, who confirmed that yes, it was a LOT of up and down. Given that I’d already done 4,312 feet of climbing over the past 2 days, i was looking for an escape route. We chatted and a straight blast south out of the hill country and into west Texas scrub was the answer. So today, down along the Sabinal River with a tailwind to Rte 90 was the track. Highlights included getting a waggle from a cropduster after they banked up sideways to get a good look at me and racing a Union Pacific MoW truck up on the right-of-way – I had ’em for 5 seconds or so. Sixty miles and less effort than the hill country segments – my confidence is much restored. Tomorrow, it’s on towards Del Rio.

Pronunciation guide: when you see a place name that’s obv Spanish and ends in an ‘e’, assume it’s pronounced ee, not ay, Thus, Uvaldee, not Uvalday.