Jake across America – Still in Texas

20 Mar 09 – Day Twenty-Three. On the road again after their rest day, they covered an uneventful 83 miles and ended in Uvalde. Where is Uvalde? Somewhere west of San Antonio. And what is it famous for? Being the birthplace of Matthew McConaughey and Dale Evans…and the Aviation Museum of Texas at Garner Field. Exciting stuff.

21 Mar 09 – Day Twenty-Four. And another 84 miles today to end the day in San Antonio, the most visited city in Texas. Also the second-largest city in Texas and the seventh-largest city in the US. I wonder at what point they wouldn’t list where they ranked in the nation. Fifteenth? Thirtieth? It is Texas, they’d probably list one hundred thirty-seventh. Other fun facts about San Antonio? They have a Six Flags and a Sea World and some old building called the Alamo or the Alamo Mission in San Antonio (and no, it’s not to rent more cars) or Mission San Antonio de Valero.

As for the bike ride, more wind in face. I guess it was a headwind. I wonder if they realize that as you pedal and move forward that the wind is in your face.

22 Mar 09 – Day Twenty-Five. Another 93 miles on through Texas to finish in Bastrop. Where’s Bastrop? East of Austin, somewhere in Texas hill country. Up, down, repeat. And they’re claiming 20-30 mph headwinds.

23 Mar 09 – Day Twenty-Six. Another 83 miles, more headwind. Same old same old. Well, OK maybe not exactly the same. The total mileage now is around 1656, more than half way, only 1444 to go.

24 Mar 09 – Day Twenty-Seven. They managed to cover 86 miles today and this despite our hero getting sick. He didn’t elaborate but it sounds like he might have been a little green (bad timing – should have been a week ago) – must have been one too many burritos or too many crunchies (see photo). Sometime today they passed through Navasota which is a little south of College Station. And why do I mention this? Because College Station is the home of Texas World Speedway where your editor, many eons ago, got his first taste of real speed on two wheels.

25 Mar 09 – Day Twenty-Eight. Rest day for our intrepid adventurers – hopefully our hero will recover quickly from his greenness. And, in a short burst of brilliance, the adventurers shipped home 33 lbs of gear and one trailer. They promise more speed. They are now four weeks into what Jake anticipated to be a six week journey. They’ve covered 1742 miles, more or less and are in Coldspring, Texas. That leaves 1358 to go or 1200 according to their calculations and only 912 according to Google Maps. Less than 100 miles a day. Piece of cake except perhaps for the wind. It’s a typical windy spring here in Florida, mostly out of the east or southeast or northeast (they’re used to headwinds by now, right?). We look forward to their arrival in St Augustine around the 8th – 10th of April. Maybe they’ll even stretch it out and actually get to Palm Coast (about 30 miles south of St. Augie).

Tags: cross country

epic ride, travel | RSS 2.0 | respond | trackback |