On the road and beginning the climb. Hot, overly hot in the first few seconds of hard pedaling. I am breathing so hard that my glasses are fogged to point of being virtually useless. Effectively I can no longer see. Without my glasses working in their predictable manner most of my other senses seem to no longer work either. I hear a car approaching form the opposite direction. I am not happy and feel out of control but I must add that I was hanging on to the handle bars like glue. This is not good for keeping the muscles relaxed. The car passes. I am over heated which is not a good thing. I have made it half way up the hill and decide to stop knowing I will not be able to resume biking until the I have walked to the even terrain at the top. I take off my jacket. Heavenly cool now. I wipe my glasses but they fog up immediately. I must one more time quit breathing through my mouth after I have managed a sufficient amount of oxygen into my lungs.
At the top of the hill I am back on my bike. Now when I ride down the next hill and there will be 53 of them this particular ride, I freeze going down. The next hill to climb is only a short distance so there is no point in putting my jacket on again. And so it goes too hot up and freezing on the way down. Sometimes the ride down was fun when the drizzle had let up and my jersey had dried. The ride seemed to be free, the prize of making it up the hill. It was around twenty three miles that the up and down had lost its charm. This unrelenting up, down was affecting my normal cheery and bubbly mood and view of life. Some of the uphills had a twist in the middle with a swift increase of the incline and I was not prepared to shift down enough plus these were at the same time blind curves for the traffic on this two lane road with no shoulders.
David had stopped to check on my progress at fourteen miles and I reported I was keen to proceed for the next twenty. Luckily for me David stopped at twenty six miles on a curve with a turn out for him to park the truck. The road crossed the Guadalupe River with bird song to rival heaven, flowering trees, fish in the river, a delightful haven. I shared with David that I was not thinking kindly of the Texas hill country. David suggested I quit for the day. I hated to give in, it is always a gamble to make a choice to not go the full distance or to over do the ride. after arriving back at camp I took my shower went to bed and began a fever with chills and aches in every joint.
After a perfectly miserable night I felt worse with the aching and headache. Not really the worst on a scale of one to ten maybe a five of misery. We needed to break camp and head out for Pedernales Falls. David did more than his share but I did try to help a bit. The ride was miserable. When I fee poorly I want to lay flat which one can not do in a truck. Finally at 4:30 pm we arrived. With the truck and trailer we do not travel on these roads at a break neck speed. No energy to be hungry nor to eat, just not a possibility. Finally the next day on the 12th at around 2 pm I fixed a little food and like magic I finally seemed to be coming around.
The night of the 11th we had a hard rain all night and the trailer is not used to this climate. David was up and down the night working to keep the trailer afloat fixing leaks or putting out towels or bowls to catch water. The locals tell us that they have been in a long draught with no rain since September so they are pleased with the change. Peach orchardist will be pleased. every plant and animal and bird will thrive a bit better.
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