March 1, 2014
Day 56: Johnson City to Fredericksburg: Heat, Hills, and Headwinds, but we made it.
Today the trail threw just about everything possible at us. We had no services available from the beginning to the end, a brisk head wind, hill after hill, and temperature that eventually reached 45 C. That's 114 F here in America, eh.
Actually even the trail had to make some compromises. If you heat the Grampies to 45 C and then lay on a head wind, you will be cooling them as well. And if you have a back country no services road, it will be difficult to attract a lot of cars for the Grampies to avoid. Also, to have a lot of heat you need to hold off on any rain, sleet, and cold.
So hah, we slipped through these loopholes and made it!
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These harsh words for the trail should be softened by the fact that the land, and even the hills was very beautiful. We had oak and juniper and cactus to look at, and a fair smattering of cattle and goats. Plus as always for us in Texas, there have been the birds, with their varied song.
In a way the trail could be viewed as long narrow corridor. That is, bith sides of the road are ususally sturdily fenced, to protect the ranches from ... what? Some of the fences are 12 feet high, making us wonder if maybe they were keeping lions inside, or something. Every place has a gate, ranging from fancy to extravagant, and every gate is closed, and radio controlled.
At one point a fellow came along in a John Deere Gator and asked us if we needed any help. We didn't, buit we took the opportunity to learn more about the ranches. Why the 12 foot fences? Well, one lady owns 5000 acres here, and just likes privacy. Where are the animals that should go with this huge tract of land over here? This ranch has horses, and they are all at home in their barn, there, on the horizon! Sheesh!
From this description you can already see that this Hill Country is not the type of place with cute art galleries and Italian restaurants tucked around crossroads. Rather it is huge ranches with palatial houses set a km back from the road, or preferably on a hilltop - like along the Rhine.
As we neared Fredericksberg, a cyclist came up behind us. He was on a touring bike but only had only one Ortlieb attached. The cyclist, Michael, endeared himself right away by cursing the headwind, in combination with the hills, and declaring himself beat. Michael's story is interesting, since it bears on how somebody else from another country might react to the Southern Tier. Michael is from Vienna, and came here with six months of time and a fairly liberal budget. His dream was to wander around the country, enjoying the beaches, the mountains, and similar wonderful stuff, without a really fixed goal or agenda. I think what Michael found was that in between the beaches and before reaching any mountains, America has an infinite amount of boring and/or difficult stuff that takes forever to cycle through. So he bought a van and is driving it to hot spots, and then doing days rides from these. Presumably our gated, hot, hilly route is (or was) a hot spot.
One of our reactions to the Southern Tier is that we wish we were in Austria, so just listening to Michael was a tonic. Michael's story also highlights the impact of having a goal, normally going from the Pacific to the Atlantic. So if today you made the number of kms you had hoped for, you are happy. And if to do it you slogged through rain, traffic, dust, or whatever, then that is all part of the package. On the other hand, if you are here to actually enjoy yourself, then better to be someplace else. One of the mountian bike racers from yesterday made a brief comment that bears on this. He mused that many people would not understand the masochistic pleasure that comes from many forms of sport and exercise.
We parted with Michael with lots of hopes that maybe we would meet in Austria or at our place on Vancouver Island, and with assurances that we could guide him to some super enjoyable rides in the Canadian Rockies.Then we dove into the reception of a Super 8 motel, only to find no vacancy. We stopped by a few others, and judged them too costly. They were well under $100, but we are feeling burned from yesterday's $132 Best Western ripoff.So we broke our hearts and proceeded to the camping outside of town, at the Lady Bird Johnson municipal park. Here, for $10 we have one or more picnic tables, heated bath house, and wifi that actually works (unlike Best Western). Plus, it's camping, which is what we said we were going to do on this trip!
The only thing about heading out of town, and trying not to be setting up the tent in the dark, is that there was no time for actually checking out the famous Fredericksberg, heart of the Hill Country and home to German cuisine and baking. What we did see was a km long strip of shops and restaurants that looked suitably touristy. Whether there was some authentic German stuff in there, we could not determine. One thing we saw, though, made us see red.The street has angle parking and behind that two lanes of car traffic (per side). No provision for bicycles. However, some dim municipal official erected a sign prohibiting bikes on the sidewalk. This time we said fine, and took up (and blocked) an entire lane of the road. When we saw the same annoying sign three years ago in Toronto, we ignored it and took the sidewalk. Toronto traffic is much more deadly than that in Fredericksberg,
Though I am sitting out at a picnic table in the dark comfortably typing this in the cooler and still brisk headwind, the forecast is for plummeting temperature tomorrow, with a low in the low 20's F. That weather pattern is supposed to last a few days thereafter. So we will need to plot out where our stops can be, and no doubt build motels into that. Tonight, though, it's a clear black starry sky, picnic table, and soon, comfy down bag and thermarest mattress. All our favourites!
Today's ride: 69 km (43 miles)
Total: 3,306 km (2,053 miles)
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