Day 17 Fort Davis, TX Recovery

May 26

Fort Davis, TX

2 Miles
4 ft of climbing

Today we decided, after some procrastination, to apply our better judgement and eat and rest. We're getting ready for our second hot meal of the day.

Both of us are starting to feel twitchy legs and ready to go again. Tomorrow we start the final haul to Austin.

If we don't get too much wind it should be fairly pleasant. Weather is forecast for the low to mid 90's with chances of thunderstorms. I don't mind rain at all. It's cold and wind that gets me.

As we were riding around town today I remembered thinking my rear wheel looked out of true when I looked down during a climb yesterday. I checked it and sure enough, another broken spoke. This time it was just one so it was much less noticeable while riding. It was on the opposite side of the wheel from the two that broke in Arizona. Another difference this time is having spares. It was a painless fix and we're ready to roll again.

We went to "The Drugstore" for lunch. It's a big soda fountain specializing in everything fried plus smoked brisket. Yum, yum. I started with a malt. It was great.

While we sat at our booth, a young man in the next booth kept looking over at us. He was with a group that looked like a couple of families. Just before they left, a woman from their booth came over and asked if we were biking across the country or something. I said, "yes, how did you know?" she said her son had seen us biking into town yesterday. She motioned him over and he started asking us questions. He wanted to know where we were coming from, where we were going, and how long it was taking us. He wanted to know if we were competitive athletes and his mom said he wrestled. They asked if we were sponsored or something and I told them we were riding to raise money for Lance Armstrong Foundation to benefit cancer survivors.

It was a really nice and friendly interaction. I like talking to people about what we're doing and why. People like to hear about it too. I feel like I'm celebrating Deidre's life every day. Sometimes it's the solitude of being surrounded by such epic natural beauty and other times its talking with people who want to hear our story. What a gift I feel I'm receiving daily.

More to come.