47.2 miles 2489ft climb This was a short day with three big climbs.
Last night we met Jamie Lee, a woman (40-ish?) from Australia who is doing the Southern Tier Route by herself and self-contained. In bicyclist slang, she is a "bagger." There are a lot of people out there doing the same thing we are and it is interesting to run into them. The day started cloudy and misty. It was a shorter day, but we had three big climbs. I was chased by a dog, but managed to outrun it and didn't need to use my air horn. We have left West Texas and the desert climate and are now are in the central Texas hill country where President LBJ was from. After about 20 miles was the one and only town on our route, Leakey, TX. Poplulation of 333 according to the 2021 census. This was the only place to eat or refill water. It was early, so we stopped at the Frio Canyon Motorcycle Stop for 2nd breakfast. (Good fried okra). 2nd breakfast is a phrase used by a character in the 2001 film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
The hilly, twisty roads are popular with motorcyclists and today we saw lots of them. About a couple of miles out of Leakey, just as we were starting to climb our second big climb, I had my third flat in two days. James helped me change it by the side of the road. A car actually stopped to see if they could help. (We were fine.) Both of us checked the tire for any problems like a piece of wire or a goat head, but there was nothing. Put in a new inner tube and I was fine. The problem turned out to be a loose valve stem.
The roads were not like the mountains we had been through this last month. They were shorter and steeper. It was misty and going downhill at high speed on a wet road was not very safe. I stayed under 40mph. Up was tough, but down was fun.
Tomorrow we face the "Wall of Death," as the locals call it. A five mile stretch of road with a very steep grade. Tomorrow in Hunt, TX, we'll be at the mid-point of our ride!!
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