Day 34 - Mexia to Hillsboro - Two Far 2021 - Sooo... Far

May 12, 2021

Day 34 - Mexia to Hillsboro

Chilly!

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We had a day without the threat of rain, but there was 100% cloud cover all day and the temperature never got above 60 on our Garmins. It was basically 59 the whole ride, with a moderate north wind.

We pulled out our cool weather gear and layered up. (We don't carry COLD weather gear, because we do not ride when it is cold. We do not leave the house when it is cold!) It was not too uncomfortable.

Except for half a mile from/to a motel at each end of the route, we were on TX 171 the whole time. It had a good shoulder all the way. We did ride in the traffic lane sometimes because it was much smoother than the shoulder. There was not much traffic.

Indian Blanket is profuse along the road. We saw masses of it all day. It was a cheerful color on a cloudy day.

This is the first historical marker we stopped for. We would get into farm land a few miles later.

Here are some sheep with this morning's cows.

We have just started to see corn growing. There were some large cornfields as we got closer to Hillsboro.

There is also wheat.

Kerry decided he needed a closer look today.

Close up of the spike (We had to Google that.)

We stopped for one more historical marker. The marker is in a cornfield. There is no sign of the community left.

The village of Malone had grain elevators across the street from one another. We wondered if one stores corn and the other wheat.

A different farm animal today - some llamas.

About 4 miles from Hillsboro, we saw this huge mound of "dirt". It was being loaded into trucks and hauled away. When we asked our hotel clerk, she said she thought it was silage, but it smelled like manure to us. We were glad to get it behind us!

Unlike what seems like the majority of our routes, we ended up on a downhill today. So often, we have to finish with an uphill climb.

We had a sad experience today. Just like what Ken and Francie Gass (Gass Powered Tandem) saw twice on their recent Southern Tier trip, a dog who ran into the road to chase us was struck and killed by a pickup truck. We had never seen this happen before. It's an image that will stay with me for some time. We've had more loose dogs chasing us in the first month of this trip than we have in any other bike tour we've done. If people would just take proper care of their pets...

Today's ride: 45 miles (72 km)
Total: 1,455 miles (2,342 km)

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Keith A. SpanglerThat is terrible, sorry you had to see that. Ugh
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