If The Sun Had Come Out To Play

Riding Day 19

We all climbed out of bed this morning around 6am. The Bob made eggs and toast for breakfast, which we devoured with gusto, and then we went about all the last-minute packing, checking and rechecking to make sure we weren’t leaving anything behind. After four nights of “camping” at Deborah’s house (Thanks a million Deborah!) we had reached the point of no return and would be camping somewhere new at day’s end.

The drive to the starting point for the day’s ride only took about 15 minutes, but the weather was pretty sketchy with low clouds, limited visibility and light rain. The flashing taillight I had installed on Hank and fallen off, and I was hesitant to ride in these conditions without it. So, I started digging through the box I had packed with bike repair stuff and miscellaneous items, and I eventually found some Velcro strips and was able to sort of “MacGyver” the light to Odie’s seat post. It worked and held fast all day.

For the first 3 hours we rode in a fine mist that moistened everything, including our moods. We were still on good old Highway 90, and there were a ton of big rigs constantly screaming by, spraying us with additional water and a lot of noise. But then we reached Bracketville, Tx and turned onto a new road, a much quieter road, a road that wasn’t Highway 90. The town itself was tiny, but it was thick with Border Patrol and State Trooper vehicles, and when I say thick, I mean weirdly so. We saw them on the left, on the right, and they passed us in both directions multiple times.

The day was still damp and gray, and it felt like something was amiss, like something was going down despite the damp quiet surrounding us. And the Bob got strangely caught up in whatever was going on right from the start. After we had pedaled away to start the day’s ride, another Border Patrol agent drove up and asked if he was okay. Then, just north of Bracketville, while he was parked alongside the road waiting for us, and within the span of 4-5 minutes, two separate State Trooper vehicles turned on their lights, pulled up by the OREM, and asked him if he was okay. Maybe all three of these incidents were simply State and Federal employees being kind and sincere, or maybe they were suspicious of a white van and the guy inside making a peanut butter & jelly sandwich for me, which The Bob was doing because I like them and he’s the best SWAG driver ever. It felt ominous, maybe more so because of the dreary weather, but in such a sparsely populated area, why the need for so much law enforcement???

The light rain/mist finally ceased in the early afternoon, and we set our sights on making it to Camp Wood, Tx. The scenery had finally changed from scrub brush to a lusher landscape with actual trees and green pastures, purple and yellow wildflowers, and the occasional solitary cow that would ignore us as we passed. We came across a herd of maybe 200 goats, all of them the same exact shade of dark brown. Several species of very large birds circled in the currents above us, and I saw maybe a dozen carcasses of some large animal rotting by the side of the road. It was pretty and would have possibly been stunning if the sun had come out to play, but it declined the invitation.

We arrived in Camp Wood around 4pm after 68.83 miles of riding, and found a nice campground on a lake, with hot showers and indoor plumbing. And around 6pm, our friends Dustin and Ana showed up and are camping next to us for the night. They brought their dinner over to our campsite and we all shared our stories from the last several days out on the road. They’ve had a few things to overcome, but like most who set out to ride the Southern Tier, they’re resilient and have figured it out. We discussed tomorrow’s segment, which is perhaps the most challenging portion of the entire route, and it felt good to know we won’t be enduring and toiling alone.

It appears that we may be done with cold nights in a tent, and as I’m writing this, frogs are croaking non-stop in the lake and bugs are crawling all over my computer screen. There’s a spillway about 200’ away with water cascading over the edge, and the mishmash of all these sounds should make for a good night’s slumber, which I need to be ready for tomorrow’s challenges. Cheers, and thanks for following our journey…