On our ride today from Blanco to Lockhart, TX, I considered what I want to bequeath to my survivors should I pass away. The sailboat to Jaron, loan forgiveness on the Yaris to Barrett.....
Let me explain WHY I was having these thoughts. Today's route took us on highway 165 from Blanco, the FM 2325 to Wimberly, then the dreaded FM 3237/highway 150 from Wimberly to Kyle. "Dreaded" because we had already been warned by Adventure Cycling on one of their updates that it was a high traffic, no-shoulder road with crazy drivers (they said "ride defensively"). It lived up to it's description! No shoulders, lots of traffic (going really fast for such a small two lane country road). The "highlight" of our day was climbing up a short rise when a mid-sized commercial truck (like a bread truck) came up behind us. The truck driver slowed down for us (thank you) as did the two other cars behind him, but apparently the THIRD car behind him wasn't paying much attention (on the cell phone perhaps?) and had to make an ABRUPT DETOUR INTO THE DITCH JUST TO THE RIGHT OF US (60-70 mph). It stopped just a bike's length away from us to our right (in the ditch). I looked over my should and said, "What is that SUV doing THERE????" Rick had heard all the noise, and saw the SUV coming, so he had moved over in front of the truck. The truck driver went around us and stopped up the hill a bit; parked, and came back to see if the SUV driver was okay (I think they were, just probably high centered in the ditch).
After that we booked as fast as we could to get finished with this FM 3237 business. Oh, and I learned what "FM" means out here in Texas before the road number -- "F'king Mad"!!!!!!!.
We stopped in Kyle at the local bike shop, Arrowhead Bicycles. We had heard we're getting into "dog country" so we picked up some HALT spray (like pepper spray to shoot at the dogs; can't wait to try it out!). Also a new chain; the old one was getting pretty rough so Rick had changed it out yesterday with a spare. Nice shop, friendly owners.
Well, we survived and are ALIVE and well here in Lockhart, Texas tonight. The hill country has subsided and we actually made better time today.
Total miles: 62.04
Time: 4:26
Avg: 14 mph
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