May 14, 2021
Day 36 - Cleburne to Weatherford
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It was a perfect day for a bike ride - abundant sunshine, mid 70's and a brisk tailwind to make it even better.
We were again on TX 171 all day.
Kerry here...
Actually, we rode MOST of the day on TX171. Before we left the hotel, I checked our map, but did not zoom in enough to see the detail. I knew we were headed north, so when at first our Garmins did not find the route we were not worried. However after 1/2 mile, we realized that we were on TX174 headed to Ft. Worth. Coming into the hotel yesterday, we were on TX171/TX174, but TX171 split off about a 1/4 mile from our hotel and we did not notice. I assumed that we just continued on the same road this morning since it was headed north. It was hard to admit to Jeanna that, while I was not wrong, I was temporarily misinformed :-)
Back to Jeanna...
There were only a couple of very short sections with no shoulder. Kerry was very considerate today and went along with my desire to ride the shorter, flatter of our two route choices, even though we missed going through a small town with a museum he would like to have seen.
We enjoyed something we have not experienced often - the shoulder had a better surface than the traffic lanes. This went on for about 15 miles.
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Just outside of Cleburne, we rode though a large industrial zone consisting mainly of oil services companies and grain elevators.
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About half of the way today, we rode alongside of a rail-line. We soon learned that it was the Fort Worth & Western Railroad.
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Of course, there were cows today.
And some scenic Texas vistas.
Not far from Weatherford, we went past this big place. Trucks were lined up loading bags of Scotts products. We saw Big Lots and Walmart trucks, as well as many others.
Kerry thought it looked like a cool place to tour, so he pulled in. A very nice woman at the check in booth made a phone call, then talked to a guy on the lot. They directed us to the business office.
We rode up to the office and Kerry went in to ask about a tour. The folks there were receptive to the idea, but all the managers were in a meeting. They said we were welcome to wait and see if we could get a tour, but we decided just to go on since we didn't know how long we would have to wait and what the chances of getting a tour would be.
While talking to the office staff, he did learn that the plant did not produce any chemicals, rather, they just received raw materials and then mixed and bagged the product.
Today's ride: 39 miles (63 km)
Total: 1,529 miles (2,461 km)
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