Day Twenty Four - Catching Up With Family

It was a beautiful day! Made it to Houston, TX in 77 miles, a little more than expected (seems to be the norm). We made our typical lunch outside the grocery store consisting of flat bread with peanut butter and honey rolled up. We met a number of curious onlookers who asked us a lot of questions. It was interesting to go through little towns on the way to the huge city of Houston.

When we got to Houston, we found an awesome bike shop. Rick's bike needed some repairs and we replenished our tubes and CO2 cartridges.

We made it to Rick's cousin Judy's house around 4pm. It was so nice to ride through a neighborhood, spend time catching up and being in an actual house, ahhh! Judy and the kids made us a delicious pasta dinner, complete with home made chocolate cake!

Today was a very good day!

Day Twenty Three - New Record Five Flats in a Day

In spite of our five flats, today was a great day! It didn't rain, it wasn't too hot or too cold, no headwinds and when we were actually riding, we made great time.

The real story today was all the incredibly nice people we met. While we were changing our fifth flat, a commercial van stopped. Russ popped out and asked us if we could use an air compressor. He was as excited to help us as he was to hear about our adventure (and as we were to see him!) Once we finally made it to Columbus, TX, our GPS guided us four miles north. We could not find the Columbus RV Park, so we stopped at a little store to ask for directions. Turns out we should have gone a mile south instead of four miles north!?! We now had ridden 72 miles and were a bit bummed out! As we were walking our bikes out to the road, a woman came out of the store and offered to drive us to the RV park. Whewhoo! While we waited for her to get her pickup truck, we met Brenna (pictured with Robin) who was very excited to hear about our trip and fund raising for Destiny Rescue. She volunteered to share this with her friends via FB. We got our ride to camp without an ounce of guilt as we had already ridden extra miles.

When we got to camp we met Robin and Sondra who showed us around and let us move into their camp Rec Room with full kitchen for free! Susan arranged for a reporter from the local paper, Cindy to come out and interview us for an article. If that were not enough, Sondra drove us to the grocery store and was our personal shopping assistant, as well as nonstop entertainment! The grocery store didn't have Salmon, she insisted on giving us some of her own. The kindness Susan, Sondra and Robin have shown us has been truly amazing, God is so good!

While the flats have been a bummer, this has indeed been a wonderful day!

Day Twenty Two - RAIN

After a wonderful breakfast (waffles in the shape of Texas) in our warm and dry hotel, we ventured out into the pouring rain! It rained ALL day! As long as we kept moving, we were just barely able to keep warm, but when we stopped, we would get chilled. We stayed off the highway but Robin got two flats anyway. We had planned to camp, but opted to stay in the only hotel in Luling, TX, which meant 4 more miles of misery for a total of 63 miles today.

Now showered, dried and warm we are ordering Chinese food and having it delivered (it is STILL raining!).

Rest Day in San Antonio/Week Three Stats

How did we forget to mention that we had ZERO flats and a TAILWIND yesterday? We slept in a little. After breakfast, we actually got on our bikes and rode to a laundromat where we unknowingly selected a dryer that came equipped with a blue crayon!?! Argh!

After lunch we saw the second half of the Buckeye's victory! We then explored the town on foot and devoured a superb Mexican dinner! Now it's time to get organized for tomorrows ride.

Stats for the first Three Weeks:

Miles- 1,386 (over half way!!)
Flats- 26
Additions to Road Kill Zoo- elk, vultures, raccoons, squirrels, skunks, turkey and red fox (still no armadillo)
Min. Temp- 48
Max. Temp- still 117
Most Exp. 32 oz. Gatorade- $2.69
Cheapest 32 oz. Gatorade- $.88
Destiny Rescue TTD- $8,094 (WOW!!)

We continue to enjoy the comments left on our posts, they are so encouraging! Thank you so much!

Day Twenty - Psyched in San Antonio

We left Comfort, TX at 7am today, stopping briefly at a truck stop for Gatorade and a quick bite. We met a group of retirees and asked about a place for breakfast in Boerne, 17 miles down the road. They recommended Mague's Cafe. We rode the 17 miles in a light rain. As we walked into the cafe, we were stunned to see one of the men from Comfort who'd told us to come here. After a great breakfast, we approached the counter where we were told our bill had been taken care of. The rain stopped and we rode on to San Antonio. As we entered downtown we were cheered on by some guys working at a local bike shop. We stopped to talk and they welcomed us to town. We went on to our hotel and got checked in. We mailed a few things home and returned to the bike shop to have Robin's bike checked over. She got a new chain. We went down to the Riverwalk for dinner tonight which was a real treat. Tomorrow we rest!

Day Nineteen - Chains, Rains and Self Contained

What a day! It never did rain last night and it never cooled down much either. We spent most of the night sweating in our little screen house tent. We left camp with four fully inflated tires. Somehow, by the time we got to the road Ricks back tire was flat! Changed the flat and raced on to Kerrville, TX where we had a date with the Bicycle Works Bike Shop (1st bike shop east of El Paso). We were down to our last CO2 cartridge and all of our tubes are patched, some three times. Nine miles from the bike shop, Ricks chain broke and was lying on the road, this is something we could NOT fix, so we flagged down the first pickup truck we saw. Ray stopped, helped load Rick's bike in his truck bed and drove them to the shop and Robin had to pedal there. Flush with new tubes, CO2 cartridges, patches and a new chain, we rode on to Comfort, TX. With ten miles to go the skies got dark and ominous. With three miles to go, the headwind gusts nearly stopped us in our tracks. We made it to camp just before the skies let lose. We met Paul at the office and he took us directly to the Community Room. We are staying indoors with our own kitchen and bathroom. This is such a blessing as it has been raining ever since we arrived (Comfort has been in a serious draught for five years). This evening we are going to stop by Paul's to see his artwork and just happens to be a DQ within walking distance!

As for self contained ( a term used to describe bike touring with no support vehicle or personnel), it's been interesting to see just how much we have depended on the kindness of complete strangers to keep us going.
We are so grateful! God is so good!

Day Eighteen - DQ makes it all Better!!

We made it to the hotel breakfast at 6am and dined with more oilmen. It was a pretty uneventful day. Apparently there are no level spots in hill country as we were either going up or down all day long. At least the grades were gentle and the scenery beautiful.

We made the 59 miles to Junction, TX. Robins eyes lit up when she saw a DQ! It was getting hot out and two hours after an early lunch, we were getting hungry. A large Blizzard hit the spot!

We checked into campground, made a grocery run, and then hit the pool. There is no better way to cool off! We enjoyed a great dinner at camp and are now sweltering in our little tent. They are calling for rain tonight and our kind hosts have made a cabin available to us if it does rain.