Day 23: Silsbee to Shepherd

March 9, 2025

Not much shoulder and what there has rumble strips in it.

Horses too. Also saw but didn’t photograph sheep and goats. A fair number of dog chases too, though not as many as some earlier days.

Passable by bikes on the other side too.

A band of strong thunderstorms came through from 8:14-8:45 yesterday evening. I stayed in the clubhouse until they passed. The tent didn’t leak, but the ground was really wet. I got to bed at about 10. I took a Mucinex DM but no antihistamine. It rained several times during the night and there was road and train noise. We also lost an hour with the change to DST. So, I didn’t get enough sleep.

Some water was on the floor of my tent in the morning. Not much, but it was also damp and cold with a low in the low 40s. I wore tights, sun sleeves, a long sleeve jersey and a vest.

There was a strong headwind from the WNW, just our direction of travel. It and the cold damp dreariness made for a hard day. I stopped at Mike 20 for a rest and to eat a Kind bar. I stoppe about mile 36 for butt rest and are a crunchy granola bar. At mile 41 I stopped to eat lunch, a cheese and turkey sandwich. I also bought a bottle of water and had a king sized white Reese’s. There was a sign saying the bridge we planned to take was out. I found it was supposed to reopen March 24. After some texting, JE, BW, SR, PB, and JW decided to try and got across, so I followed them. It was blocked by machines to cars but easy to cross on bikes. That saved at least 14 miles, though I would have had BD pick me up. The roads were mostly lightly traveled or had a big shoulder. There was lots of chip seal. Anticipating that I pumped my tires to 65 instead of 70 and it made a discernible difference. I also premeditated with 2 ibuprofen. All combined my but was ok today. Windsock says it was a headwind 85% of the time.

We are at Shepherd Sanctuary. It is quite eclectic. We could stay in cabins or camp so we chose the former. There is a nice common room where we ate and got out of the cold. I dried out my tent and the other stuff that was damp. Cell service is not great.

Today's ride: 61 miles (98 km)
Total: 1,110 miles (1,786 km)

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