Bicycling Naked (I Wish) Across the USA: Days 31, 32, 33, 34

For days 31 & 32, we've been working our way through the Texas hill country and have been NORDO (no radio contact). Even though Verizon covers 95% of the people in the country, we can understand why it doesn't cover the 5% down here from (Del Rio to Vanderpool, highways 90, 334, 55, andd 337). In Camp Wood, we heard from one survivalist about another survivalist who killed one of their neighbors. Even though both survivalists came out to this part of the country to get away from it all, apparently some of them have much less tolerance for barking dogs and teenagers who drive too fast. Maybe that's what happens in the world when there's no communication (thanks, Verizon).

I must say, however, that in Camp Wood (actually about 5 miles west of it), we stayed at one the nicest campground I've ever experienced -- the Big River Oak Campground on the Nueces River. Beautiful grounds - grass with HUGE old oaks and pecan trees; nicest manager, and HOT showers. We camped under a massive old oak; at night I fully expected fairies to start sprinkling fairy dust out of this tree. No fairies, but Rick saw a red squirrel run up the tree earlier in the day.

Day 32 we camped at Lost Maples State Park north of Vanderpool on highway 187. The ACA group was camped there as well and invited us to dinner, prepared by Isabel of San Antonio, friend of group leader Joe). We really enjoyed Isabel's potato salad, cookies, and very fine beer!

Yesterday (day 33) we got back to "Texas" civilization, Kerrville. The area on highways 39 and 27 going through Hunt were absolutely stunning. We must've crossed over the Guadalupe River ten times as the road wound up through the hills. One picture in particular will remain in my mind for a long time - just before Panther Creek, to our right was a sheer rock cliff going down to the river, flanked on the road side by big shady trees hanging over a greenbelt that went down to the river's edge. If there had been a campground there, that would've been it for me that day. However, we pressed on another 13 miles and camped at the Kerrville Schreiner Park just east of Kerrville. We were both so beat last night that we didn't blog (actually started to, but the battery went low on the computer before we could finish -- we'd been camping for 3 nights straight).

Texas hill country -- all we can say is it's "hillarious" . While the climbs are not long like the ones up to Silver City or Emory Pass (New Mexico), there are many, many shorter climbs. Cumulatively, I think they may add up to as much as the others. We still have another 3-4 days of this "hillarious" country, although perhaps the climbs will be a little smaller. Overall we've been dropping altitude from over 2,500' just past Vanderpool. But again, these "downhills" are not really downhill.

Tonight we're in Blanco, a cute little town on the Blanco river. We decided to motel it tonight and came to the Blanco County Inn -- what a wonderful surprise! Deborah and Ralph are very welcoming hosts and upgraded our room, a courtesy they extend to traveling cyclists. It's practically a suite - sitting area with sofa and kitchenette, nice comfy queen bed, really nice bathroom, all decorated very tastefully. We walked to the town square tonight and had a hearty dinner of pasta at Papa Joey's pizzeria.

So, here's the mileages and times for these past 4 days:

Day 31: 76.87 miles, 5:48 time, 13.25 mph avg
Day 32: 47.56 miles, 4:30, 10.57 mph avg
Day 33: 53.2 miles, 3:51, 13.82 mph avg
Day 34: 60.5 miles, 5:29, 11.03 mph avg