{"id":20005,"date":"2019-03-15T23:02:24","date_gmt":"2019-03-16T03:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/?p=20005"},"modified":"2019-03-17T09:48:49","modified_gmt":"2019-03-17T13:48:49","slug":"uvaldeeee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/archives\/20005","title":{"rendered":"Uvaldeeee"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Checking in from Uvalde, Texas. A great few days of riding &#8211; I&#8217;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&#8217;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&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The wildflowers are getting underway!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"Texas stork's bill\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/doncoyote\/47337341402\/in\/datetaken\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4831\/47337341402_c4fd2d6442_z.jpg\" alt=\"Texas stork's bill\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"paintbrushes\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/doncoyote\/47337338802\/in\/datetaken\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm5.staticflickr.com\/4805\/47337338802_146bb80e92_z.jpg\" alt=\"paintbrushes\" width=\"360\" height=\"640\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"diamond flowers\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/doncoyote\/47390154821\/in\/datetaken\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7899\/47390154821_e1d7a5aba4_z.jpg\" alt=\"diamond flowers\" width=\"360\" height=\"640\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"Morris Ranch\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/doncoyote\/32448474937\/in\/datetaken\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7812\/32448474937_1f1deb81c8_z.jpg\" alt=\"Morris Ranch\" width=\"640\" height=\"328\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The rest of the day was more of what you see on the right &#8211; a rising country road with not a lot of traffic and a ton of blue sky. My favorite moment was mid afternoon &#8211; 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, &#8220;Oh, yeah, the men&#8217;s showers are out of order.&#8221; Thanks pal.<\/p>\n<p>A decent night&#8217;s sleep, an early pack up and I rode off to to compensate for the previous night&#8217;s mistake. Coming in to town the previous afternoon, I&#8217;d thought that I&#8217;d double back and get my re-supply done, but, y&#8217;know tired &amp;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.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Photo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/doncoyote\/46656835854\/in\/datetaken\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7821\/46656835854_b31d41b92e_z.jpg\" alt=\"Photo\" width=\"640\" height=\"404\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>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&#8217;d be my campsite for the night. Nice spot!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"Lost Maple\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/doncoyote\/47337755692\/in\/datetaken\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7812\/47337755692_af158c0ac3_z.jpg\" alt=\"Lost Maple\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Lost Maple\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/doncoyote\/46475512845\/in\/datetaken\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7892\/46475512845_e720016f1c_z.jpg\" alt=\"Lost Maple\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>After getting in to <a href=\"https:\/\/tpwd.texas.gov\/state-parks\/lost-maples\">Lost Maples<\/a>, I looked at the next day&#8217;s route. I&#8217;m mostly following the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.adventurecycling.org\/\">ACA<\/a>&#8216;s Southern Tier map, but holy carp! The next 18 miles out of camp looked, um, brutal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"ermagerd\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/doncoyote\/33514584748\/in\/datetaken\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7824\/33514584748_093a825fdb_z.jpg\" alt=\"ermagerd\" width=\"431\" height=\"640\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>I talked to one of the rangers, who confirmed that yes, it was a LOT of up and down. Given that I&#8217;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 &#8211; I had &#8217;em for 5 seconds or so. Sixty miles and less effort than the hill country segments &#8211; my confidence is much restored. Tomorrow, it&#8217;s on towards Del Rio.<\/p>\n<p>Pronunciation guide: when you see a place name that&#8217;s obv Spanish and ends in an &#8216;e&#8217;, assume it&#8217;s pronounced ee, not ay, Thus, Uvaldee, not Uvalday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Checking in from Uvalde, Texas. A great few days of riding &#8211; I&#8217;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 &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/archives\/20005\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[342],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-bike-ride"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqxx-5cF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20005"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20014,"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20005\/revisions\/20014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hawkdog.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}