The Ride - May 5

Hello All.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  Mona just made us an incredible meal - Spanish Rice and burritos with either chicken or beef.  yummy.  And, Shannon is buying DQ in about 15 minutes.  We score twice tonight.  To bad Bill is off desserts for the year. 

Today we were scheduled to ride from Fort Davis, TX to Kent, TX.  Kent isn't really a town but more of what used to be a gas station.  The distance is about 50 miles but included about 2000 feet of climbing.  Given we have been riding in a lot of wind, this sounded like a full day.  Well, we got through the climbing and about 10 miles from Kent by 11:30.

While riding out of Fort Davis, we saw some more fire damage and the McDonald Observatory.

Kyle spotted this rugged, rocky mountain jutting up from the hills.  It seems a little out of place.

We had lunch in the RV and agreed we would ride 18 miles towards Van Horn and see how we felt. Well, once we turned west on I-10 (yes we were riding on the shoulder of I-10 for 36 miles today) we had a beautiful tailwind.  We were cruising along at about 25mph and barely pedaling.  It was AWESOME.

Here is Kent, TX

We met the RV at the 18 mile point and all agreed we would ride into Van Horn, another 18 miles.  We got to the hotel by 3:30 and had covered a total of 90 miles.  This means we only have to ride about 60ish miles tomorrow.  SWEEEEET!

Kyle rode strong today.  His extra day off appears to have been exactly what his body needed.   Thanks to everyone who is praying for our safety and strength.  We will be in AZ in less than a week.  that is hard to believe!  As we were riding on I-10, I realized about a month ago, Jerry Hogg and I were in the Mother Ship heading east when I saw the sign for Kent.  Crazy how fast, yet sometimes slow, we are moving across the U.S.A.

If you live in AZ, don't forget we will be riding into the Bicycle Vibe on Friday, May 13.  I received an email last night and it sounds like one of the local stations will be there as we ride in.

Bonus Picture.  This truck driver waved us through the stop sign at Kent.  He had a cool load so I took a picture.



The Ride - May 4

Today was a rest day.  HOORAY for Rest Days!

Mona cooked breakfast at about 9am and most of us slept in.  I got caught up on my Blogs.  Most were written I just didn't have a good connection in order to upload them. 

We are staying at the Prude Ranch just outside of Fort Davis, TX.  Prude Ranch has been operated by the Prude family for over 100 years.

We have seen deer and wild turkey run free through the ranch today.

Bill drove about 400 miles round trip to El Paso today to pick up Ed.  Ed will take over as SAG driver when Bill heads home in a couple of days.  Thanks Bill for gettin up "early" and driving to get Ed.  Also, thanks for the three weeks you have spent providing us SAG - filling our water bottles, making our PB sandwiches, offering encouragement and direction.  We could not have gotten this far without your help.  I'm sure you were bored at times waiting on us but thanks for not falling asleep and forgetting about us. :)

Once Bill and Ed got back to town we had pizza at Murphy's  They had a tree growing throw the dining room roof.

After lunch we came back and just vegged all day.  Niiiice.  Here is some of the Team vegging

Tomorrow we head to Kent, TX.  We are only scheduled to ride about 50 miles as there are about 20ish miles of challenging terrain.  We hope to be strong and be able to ride an additional 20ish miles or if we are feeling really well, ride an extra 36 miles into  VanHorn where we will spend the night.

Take care all.  We will be in Arizona in less than 7 days! 

The Ride - May 3

wahooo, once this blog is done I will be current!  Four blogs in one day is a bit much for this tired brain.

Today, Team POP's was down a man.  Kyle's body needed a day of rest and so he spent the day in the RV with Les and Mona.  We missed him being out there with us but I totally understand the body not cooperating with the mind.

This morning, Bill shared over breakfast we should have a wind from the East.  Since we are heading W/NW this is a good thing.  Bill also shared we will have a 2000 foot climb about 25 miles from the end of the day.  Good News - the weather forecast was correct!  Shannon and I were pushed up a slight hill at 18+ mph.  Other times we were going along at 20+ mph - boy did that make the miles go by fast!!!!!!

Today was Mona's birthday so we headed into Fort Davis for dinner.  We found a place called The Drugstore and Hotel which also had a restaurant.  The place wasn't busy and our waiters name was Darryl (of if you are Mona, his name was Derek).  He was great.  He is playing for a minor league baseball team here in town.  We told him it was Mona's birthday and he asked if she wanted a shot of tequila but then said they didn't sell alcohol.  So, since they had a soda fountain also someone suggested they do shots of vanilla syrup.  A few minutes later, Darryl came over with two shots of vanilla syrup and he and Mona did the shots.  Then he brought over shots of Coke as a chaser.  It was funny to watch their reactions.  I guess it was pretty gross.  Then he had some local kids come over and sing happy birthday to her.  She was embarrassed but such is life.

We are staying at the Prude Ranch which is a campground and RV park with cabins and bunkhouses.  It is pretty neat but everything is really dry here.

Here are a couple of pictures from today.

The Ride - May 2

Comstock to Sanderson – 88.1 miles of chip sealed road and hills. It rained a little last night and was very cool this morning. We all wore long pants, jackets and our Pearl Izumi Lobster Gloves. They are Lobster because they have wind covers that each cover two fingers, making your hand look like a lobster claw. Get it….?

Not much else to write about other than after lunch about 15 miles from Sanderson I needed to take care of a biologic issue and there were no modern facilities in sight. I had Bill park the Flex carefully and then went down the ditch into a culvert. The culverts here in Texas are pretty nice. They have bars on them which make great hand holds. I proceeded to make a deposit and then finished the day. Ahhhhh. This activity has now been called a Covert Culvert Operation.

We crossed the Pecos River which was flowing through a deep canyon and Shannon and I both thought it would be cool to canoe down the Pecos.

We stopped to see the Judge Bean tavern. The man had no education in law and was a murder and crook yet was still the law in town. His brother was the first Mayor of San Diego. Here are a couple of pictures.

The Ride - May 1

We left Camp Wood this morning under cloudy skies and temperatures in the 70’s.  It was pretty humid from the beginning with a slight breeze.  The clouds hung around until about Noon when we were 64 miles into our day.  After lunch it had cleared off and warmed up.  We were all good to Del Rio,TX where we turned NW and hit the wind.  A cold front was moving in and the temperatures dropped from 93 at about 2pm to 68 by 6pm.  The high tomorrow is supposed to be only 63ish.

Here is a picture of the deer fences we have see through all of Texas.  You can see they are about 9 feet tall.  Some of the ranchers raise the deer for paid hunts.

Here is what it is like to be on the bike riding across the Texas.  First, to fully appreciate this description you need to jump in your car and do not turn your A/C on.  Then find a road that has the rumble bumps along the right edge of the road and drive on them for a mile – that is what it feels like to ride on chip sealed roads on a road bicycle. 

Now, you are on a road bicycle riding on the shoulder of a highway in Texas, say US 90, and you are three weeks into a six week ride.  Your bum is a little tender, your legs ache and the palms of your hands are sore from the road vibrations.  Thousand Foot Crutch is playing on the IPOD and you have just filled your water bottles and had a couple of cookies for energy.  You start pedaling.  Shannon is in front and Kyle is behind you.  You think this is rare as they are usually both about 50 yards in front of you.  The road vibrations cause to you change your grip on the handlebars.  You have now ridden about 5 minutes - time to eat a few pretzels.  You reach in your food pocket to grab a couple when oh crap (filtered) a gust of wind hits you from the side.  You drop the pretzels and grab the bars to keep from getting blown off the road.  A few minutes later, it is time to drink something.  You have water or Gatorade.  You grab the bottle as you start to roll downhill (as you shouldn't need to pedal, its downhill after all) and then wham (filtered) you get hit by a wind gust head on and are almost stopped in your tracks. 

Now its time for some more snacks.  You grab a few more pretzels and put them in your mouth just as you smell roadkill.  30 seconds later you roll up on it and this one is bad and you almost lose your pretzels.

You also find interesting things to take pictures of, people honking and waving at you and deer jumping across the road in front of you.  About every 3 miles the SAG vehicle is there with more water, snacks and words of encouragement.  You share what you have seen...or hear what you missed and then start pedaling again. 

Repeat the above steps for about 8-10 hours each day. 

Today, we figure we saw a road kill every mile for the first 40-50 miles and one every 1.5 miles the rest of the day.  Yep, we are in Texas.

By the end of the day – your bum is sore from the road, your wrists ache from the bumps, you are sunburned (even with sunscreen applied regularly), you are sweaty, hungry and exhausted and then you realize you have to go up one more hill to get  to the RV. 

Is it worth it?  Yes, without a doubt.  If living with PD is half this bad, then living with PD sucks and we need to find a cure or better treatments. 

Thanks for following us on our adventure and for your support.  Now go out and get 10 friends to donate $5 to help us raise our goal of $1 million.  Trust me, those with PD and their caregivers will be forever grateful.  How do I know, I have met some of them during the last three weeks and they are so appreciative of what we are doing and I know they would love to tell you thanks personally.

April 29 - Rest Day

Today was happy and sad. 

Sad, because this morning at 5:30AM I said goodbye to Dad for about a week.  Dad headed home to spend some time with Mom and check in at work.  Mom told me the other day Dad will probably spend most of his time wondering how we are doing, where we are at and what we have seen.  No worries Pop's, we will be safe, having fun and riding hard.  For all of you in Phoenix, check in with him and ask him if he has been having fun.

Happy, because I slept in until almost 8AM!  Then took a shower, had breakfast and we headed to Fredericksburg for a few hours.  This town has a lot of tourist shops so we thought we may find something as a momento for the trip.  Les bought some Jalapeno Peanut Butter and Shannon and I found some tastey dip mix.  I also found a Frontier Times from June 1942 with James Stephen Hogg on the cover - this one is for Jerry.  Sorry Jer, I didn't find any of the other stuff you asked about but I will keep looking.

One of the shops we stopped at had a boat load of different jellies, peanut butters, olive oil and dips.  I tasted about 30 of them and Bill said he tasted them all....and still had room for lunch!  lol

Admiral Nimitz is from Fredericksburg so they have a WWII Pacific Museum here in his honor.  Here is a picture of the museum.

The Bikes also had a rest day

Today, I must thank my Parents - Jerry and Mary.  They have taught all of us a strong belief in Christ, a strong work ethic and how to appreciate people of all types.  When I hear about what others are going through and they have to go through it without a supportive family, I wonder why was I so blessed.  I have not only good parents, but an incredible extended family that I know are praying for us and have supported us in Our adventure in incredible ways. 

Tomorrow will be odd as Dad won't be here.  I remember the first time Shannon and I rode in different events on the same day.  One of us called the other and said, "Its wierd you're not here.  We always ride in events together."  That is how I will feel tomorrow....starting a POP's Ride day without Pops.

The Ride - April 30

Today we left Comfort under cloud cover and a little humidity.  The clouds lasted until almost noon which was wonderful. 

I saw a sign that said, “Cute Prom Dresses for sale.”  Surely they don’t sell ugly prom dresses.  Or, slutty prom dresses.  Or….I better stop there.

The afternoon got pretty warm.  Bill said the Flex showed 102 at one point.  Probably about the time we had to climb the big hill of the day. 

We are staying at the Petticoat Junction tonight.  The owner, Don Howell is super nice.  He even took the time to contact the local paper about us and they ran an article about Our Ride.  It listed our route today and tomorrow.  Who knows who Mona may meet tomorrow…I mean who we may meet tomorrow.

Kyle finally got tired of his water bottle cage dropping the water bottle that he showed it who was boss.

We rode along the Guadalupe River for quite awhile and crossed it at least six times.  The water is greenish and the scenery was beautiful.  We definitely did not expect to see that today!

We saw a fence covered in boots and a lot of motorcycles and a Porche club.