Day 32 - Mile 1596 - 1680 (84 miles, 1374 ft ascent, 1287 ft descent)

Lake Somerville State Park (Nails Creek Unit) - Cagle Recreation Area, TX

Daily Route

Daily Elevation

Today is not going to be fun.  I woke up around 2 AM with a weird feeling in my stomach.  I managed to go back to bed, but when the alarm went off, the stomach ache was still there.  When I went to the RV, I found out that Jim was also not feeling well.  That pretty much negates that it could be something I ate since Jim and I have pretty much opposite diets in that we don’t eat any of the same food.

I couldn’t bring myself to eat anything, but I made a peanut butter sandwich to take with me.  Hopefully I will be able to eat it at the first break since I won’t be able to ride 84 miles without any food for energy.​

We managed to leave right after 9 AM.  As seen from Patrick’s photo, none of us really seemed excited to be leaving for a long 80+ mile day, except maybe Mary:

Let's get going

Within the first 5 miles we hit a dirt road that was unexpected.  Since I made sure of the route with Patrick, we continued on, and luckily it ended within a mile or so.

At this point, since I didn’t feel well, I was just riding 15 mile stretches between breaks.  The first break at 15 miles was the side of the road.  I knew I had to eat something, so I forced down 3/4 of my peanut butter sandwich.  OK…15 down, a lot to still go.  The next break was at mile 29 where I finished off the sandwich.  Next stop, mile 47 in Navasota where I think I choked down a protein bar.  More than halfway done.  In Anderson, just 10 miles later, we took a quick break in front of a Subway…just a 5 minute breather since the next stop is scheduled for Richard which is just 10 more miles away.  There was some pretty cool scenery though.

Oreo cow?

Beautiful Texas road

Just when all was going well, the road we were on had construction on it.  We had to walk some ways since it was impossible to ride.

Walking through a construction zone.

Tim and I made it to the stop in Richard, but no one else was behind us.  When riding, we usually keep an eye on the person behind us and make sure that we could see them to not get too far from each other.  Since I wasn’t feeling well, my only goal was to make it to the next stop and Tim was my escort.  We soon found out that Jackie is sick and she needs Patrick to pick her up. I think now a stomach bug has infiltrated our 
party…oh no.  Mel, Bill, and Mary arrived and said that Jim was going to go back as well since he wasn’t feeling well either.
After the break in Richard, we had only 16 miles to go.  This was where I really struggled.  One, because I have barely eaten anything all day; and two, the road got really bumpy which didn’t help my stomach ache.​

Finally, after almost 10 hours on the road, we arrived at the camp.  I helped Tim set up the tent, I took a shower, and climbed into the tent without any dinner.  This was before 8 PM.  I have no idea what time we are leaving tomorrow, and right now I really don’t care.  All day during riding I just wanted to get into the tent and close my eyes, and here I finally am.