Bastrop to La Grange, TX – Neptune's Beard!

Note: THIS IS NOT FROM TODAY! We scarcely smiled today but I thought I should throw this one in for some humor. Greg eats one of the biggest apples I have ever seen. We were riding out of Austin that day.

Here is a pretty little lake in Bastrop State Park, before we hit the blowing wind and rain combination

Bastrop to La Grange, TX – Neptune's Beard!

2/3/10

Day 91

38 laborious miles

It began to rain today at about 3:30 AM. I woke up to Greg putting on shoes to go outside and cover everything we had forgotten to put away. Luckily the rain woke him or our leather saddles may have been ruined. It has been so long since we have dealt with rain, we just didn't think to cover our gear. When we finally got up around 10 AM, it was still raining. Our tent was soaked and the water had soaked in through the ground cloth, tent floor and had wet the bottom of our sleeping pads.

Our road began through Bastrop park and an adjacent State Park. The road was fairly deserted and narrow. We quickly wore ourselves out this morning riding up and down very steep and winding hills for about 10 miles. Once we left the trees and resumed our riding through the countryside, we saw what protection the trees had been providing from the blowing wind. While the hills were steep in the forest, we truly enjoyed the change of scenery this little park provided. After our legs had become worn, we began to ride the rest of the way to La Grange. The wind was unrelenting and the rain blew in our face for the whole day. At one point, Greg asked me “Do you think the sun still exists?” There is not a lot I can write about today, other than how miserable we both felt. The stress of the riding made us grumpy, along with the fact that we could not eat enough food to keep our stomachs from feeling hunger. We were expending so much energy staying warm and pedaling into the wind that we could not satiate our appetites.

When we finally reached La Grange it felt like it had been an eternity. We found a nice little motel in which to dry out every single piece of gear we owned. We cannot camp more than two nights in a row if our tent becomes soaked through and our gear is wet because our down sleepingbags will get wet and fail to dry in the 100% humidity. We went all out and Greg went out in the rain to get us some Subway, a Blizzard and eventually ordered a pizza to feed our calorie deficit. We worked hard to get everything dry and fill our bellies.

Dani