Sweater Project

Well, I’m back at work, so I must not be dead yet. The ride up to Kerrville was an Oddyssey, except that I don’t think I visited the underworld during the ride. Also, I did not spend ten years as the love-slave to a hot nymph. Okay, maybe ‘Oddyssey’ is not quite the right word. But it was a much grander journey than anything I’ve undertaken in a long time.

I strapped my panniers onto my hastily-assembled bike rack and filled them with the following items:
toolkit
drugs (ibuprofen, prescription meds, extra insulin)
two shirts
cotton slacks
tennis shoes
candleflame shawl
toothbrush
bike lock
Chamois Butt’r
sunscreen (spf 48, baby)

Then I got suited up, hopped on and started pedalling north by west. Now, as anyone who has ever gone on a trip knows, you’re going to forget something. When fate is kind, you forget something that can either be replaced during the trip, or you can learn to live without. About five miles from my house, I realized what I’d forgotten: the key to my bike lock. Shazzbot. That meant that the five pound bike lock that I was lugging was dead weight. I pulled into a strip mall and stowed the bike lock behind a FedEx ™ postal box. Hopefully it’s still there. But I was not about to lug anything I didn’t need on the trip.

Texas is exceedingly green right now, which is a rare thing. Usually by the end of Spring, we are in full drought mode and everything is burning to a crispy brown color. But we had a nice mild Winter the last two years and lots of rain. The rivers are full. Grass is high, there are flowers everywhere - it’s just incredible.

But judging by this weekend’s heat, it’s going to go back to burnination pretty soon. It got up over 100° on Saturday and Sunday, probably Monday too. Thankfully I started the ride early enough to miss the worst of the heat. I still drank about five liters of water on the way.

On the way up, I saw several dogs, some of whom made it very clear that if I so much as entered their yards I was dead; many horses; many cows, including longhorns; two dead armadillos; a few deer; one fat caterpillar who was trucking down the side of the road; two buffalo; and no elephants.

I don’t know exactly how far the ride was, but it was at least sixty miles. I stopped for an early lunch in Boerne and ate a sandwich with a cup of Earl Grey while a couple of people in the back argued about atheism vs. fundamental Christianity.

The second half of the ride had a lot of hills, but luckily I had a tailwind the whole way up. That made them a little more bearable. I arrived at the fairgrounds in Kerrville just in time to hook up with my mom and stepdad and my brother’s family. It was good to see Lisa and baby Austin again. Austin, who is about three and a half, took my hand and asked what my bike’s name was. I told him it was Cartophilus, and he seemed satisfied with that. I’m not sure if I’ll keep that or not.

I was pretty useless for the rest of the day, moving only to eat and drink. I spent most of Sunday recovering, but my mom offered to give me a ride back to San Antonio on Monday and I took her up on it. I promised myself that I’d do a proper round-trip jaunt later in the Summer when I’ve gotten a little more acclimated to the saddle.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 1st, 2004 at 11:28 am and is filed under Cycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.