The first half of today’s ride was once again through fields and fields of wild flowers. Like a picture by Monet – serene. The hills were rolling and I was doing so much better getting up those hills using my momentum from the down hill to get up the next one. Our first SAG stop of the day was my favorite of the tour so far because we had coffee and donuts provided by the tour. We’ve had a few other stops like this, but we were on our own at those stops. We cycled by some other interesting points along today’s ride. Lunch was at the former site of Baylor’s Women’s College. We rode through a town, Navasota, with a statue of Frank Hamer – the lawman who took down Bonnie & Clyde. We also pedaled by Chuck Norris’ ranch. We didn’t stop to take a tourist picture as we were on a pretty busy road. And speaking of busy roads, we crossed a few bridges that had zero shoulder. That meant we had to ride in the road and hope for the best. Just as we crossed one bridge a semi blew his horn in anger at us – as if we had a choice of where to ride. At the next bridge, a truck slowed down and let Janet and I pull onto the bridge and stayed behind us until we crossed. That was an anonymous biking angel. We are staying at Mexican Hill Ranch tonight and it is very friendly and welcoming! We have three self-contained riders staying with us tonight - two are from England. Earlier today we also saw a self-contained couple from Australia. Lastly, if 88 miles wasn't enough today, four riders added twelve miles to make it a century ride; they are: Semone (his first), Mike, Balt (his first) and Janet (our local Iron Woman). Tomorrow is a well deserved rest day.
Coffee and donuts at our first SAG stop today!
Park at the first SAG stop.
Janet and Queenie just cresting a hill.
We went through this one lane tunnel and luckily had no other traffic at the time.
This ranch had blue bonnets as far a we could see.
The couple from Australia's self-contained bikes.
Frank Hamer and I.
