A great day of riding but one where I was constantly chasing the dragon. There was a powerful wind blowing in the morning and I thought it would be right at my back. It was initially but then my route veered right and the wind was blowing across me. Normally I'm fine with a cross breeze, better than a headwind right? But this wind was so powerful and if I could only get it completely at my back I'd just blast through the day. It was another late start (11am) so I kind of needed some wind assist. My route eventually would bend to the point where I thought the wind would power me forward, just needed to go a few more miles forward.
It never happened.
I had maybe 3 miles where I can remember the wind actually giving me a solid boost. For the entire day it was probably giving me a very small boost and definitely not a hindrance. It wasn't bad but man, it sure would have been sweet to have that wind pushing me, gusts up the 15 mph!
My other gripe with the day is that hills here are so long and slow that it is hard to maintain momentum up and over the hill. The hills are usually about a half a mile where three quarters of it is a shallow gradient up and then the final quarter is much steeper. All my momentum is gone by the time I hit the steep part so there is no way I can just coast over a hill. Basically the hills are lame and I prefer one big climb instead of a hundred little climbs.
I've complained a lot in this post but really it was a good day. Powerful wind that carried some cold with it but still sunny and warm enough. Beautiful country down here, real Texas ranch country. Plenty of cattle and fields and just nice looking Texas.
A weird thing was four very curious horses that kept checking out what I was doing. They just kept eyeing me down, so I stared back. We looked at each other, the four horses just in a line for some time. Then I would start moving down the fence and the horses would run ahead of me. Then I would stop and we would look at each other some more. Strange beasts. Majestic beasts.
I also went through antique alley today. There were like five towns in a row that were just loaded with antique stores. Between the towns were barns loaded with antiques. One place was loaded with old gas station signs. So many signs for gas stations but no gas in sight.
I also saw many giant fake cows on people's yards, more than I'd expect. There was also a giant gorilla which made zero sense.
Trip stats
Hours riding: 5:22.45
Day miles: 71.11
Total miles west: 1442.78
Average speed: 13.2 mph
Max speed: 32.1 mph
No comments:
Post a Comment