Day 1.
Thursday April 19th, 2012
It is my eldest daughter’s birthday today.
Thoughts of her dominated my mind. She was 6300 miles (10,080 km) - “as the crow flies” - away in Ghana. I wished her many happy and healthy returns of the day.
So yup, similar routine.
Meet at Rudy’s, kickstands up this time though was at 6:00 a.m..
Ride position and assignments, road signals, reminders and a prayer and we were off.
Off on another adventure of a lifetime.
We thought we knew what pleasure was in store for us based on our prior experience to this part of the country. Well, to a great extent we did but that paled in comparison to what we were about to experience in the coming days.
We were on familiar roads. I-37to Pleasanton, TX-16 on through Jourdanton, TX-173 to Hondo, aaaaah Hondo ……………….
We uncharacteristically broke formation coming into Hondo.
Teri had had the scare of her life as she negotiated the left turn off TX-173 which brought us into Hondo.
Her front tire had gone flat and she almost “lost it”, taking the turn. Pulling up at the Valley Mart gas station on the corner of interstate 90 and highway 173 and upon closer inspection, we found out luckily, that it was a loose schroeder valve core in the stem that caused her to have lost air in that tire.
This was quickly remedied. We had a full compliment of roadside engineers on hand! Last year “it was Terry”. This year, so far, it is “Teri” (I’m referring to tire issues). Is this something to do with “T’s”?
Diagnosing and fixing a flat.
Standing L to R, Tony, Doug, Terry and down but not out, Teri.
Repair work accomplished, we all took the opportunity to take a rehydration, potty and fuel top up break and then pushed on for the next stage of the journey.
This was now all familiar territory so stopping to take in the sights was not a priority. The previous trip took care of that.
So we pushed on towards Alpine, TX. Our home-base to be for this trip.
The day was shaping up to be very nice - weather-wise.
The sun was now high in the clear Texan sky with temperatures climbing characteristically rapidly.
I had already shed one layer of clothing that I had donned to shield me from the cold and damp of the early country-side morning.
We motored on like true road warriors going about our business. The road was straight. It cut through the west Texas countryside with great efficiency.
By the time we arrived in Alpine, Texas – base camp – I had clocked 490 miles on the odometer. We had been on the road for 10.5 hours today counting our stops, which were mostly dictated by our thirst.
Riding through this Texan desert wilderness made for a relatively uneventful journey.
The day had been hot and dry. The lack of rain in Texas made for a parched, dry landscape. Crossing the Pecos River, we couldn’t help but notice that the water level was so low, exposing a sandbar at the mouth of the opening to the Rio Grande.
Talk about looking shallow!
Despite these minor not so pleasing conditions and sights, the journey for me, was still fraught with the anticipation of excitement.
Pulling into the parking lot of the Best Western Hotel in Alpine, it was to our dismay when William noticed an unusually soft rear tire on Terry “McGyver’s” bike.
Oh no!
We began to re-live his episode from last year’s ride.
This was his new Metzler ME 880 Marathon tire. What’s up?
Upon close inspection he found that he had “picked up” a nail. But, no fear!
Armed with repair kit on hand, he proceeded to carry out a successful repair job. Whew!
What is this? The two T’s? Teri, now Terry. Tire problems. Hmm! Smacks of some sort of a conspiracy huh?
All jokes aside, we were relieved. It could have been worse.
Terry, diagnosing the cause of his deflated rear tire.
We met Ed Johnson right here in the parking lot. (He and Tony are workmates of the USPS.) Another gentleman in every essence of the word.
If you’ve ever met someone for the first time and felt like you had known him or her for a long time, Ed is one of those.
He had ridden four 4 hours from Lubbock, Texas where he lived, to join us for this ride. He was such great company.
He blended in with our group seamlessly.
After unpacking, we strolled across the street to Pizza Hut for dinner and almost immediately, the jokes began.
It made for a very short evening.
We had to be up early. We were going into the Big Bend National Park. A distance of 116 miles to the Chisos Basin. So with phone calls to my wife and other kids made for the night, it was time to turn in for some “ZZZ’s”.
I prayed the lord my soul to take, were I to die before “I would wake”.