Day 28 – Solo Riding

Miles Completed: 74.2

Cumulative miles; 1491.0

Miles to St Augustine: 1567

Today we left Laughlin Air Force base and rode to a campground near Camp Wood, TX. We passed through one small city after about 30 miles, Brackettville, and after that it was pretty desolate. However, we are starting to enter the western edges of Texas Hill Country.

Many days on this tour I ride by myself. This isn’t what I originally expected, but riding alone at our own paces seems to work for the group.

Let me use today as an example. As I told you yesterday, Felix had to stay at a hotel, so Tammy picked him up in the van and brought him back to the entrance of the Air Force base.

Here’s how we left: our fastest riders, Dale, Togan, and Mark took off right away as they usually do. I rarely see them on the ride. Roy is limiting his rides to 50 miles due to a knee issue so he was taking the van to a drop off place ahead. Pat left while we were waiting for Felix since he had to cook tonight and wanted to get moving. The rest of us, Dana, Brent, Chris, and me waited for Felix. Once he arrived, we all took off together. But soon, our paces were all different and we spread out from each other. For the first 30 miles, even though we rode separately, we would leapfrog each other when someone stopped to read an historical marker, go to the bathroom, or take a picture. At one point I saw a mule deer near the road, but it bounded off when I stopped and I didn’t get a picture (although I saw 2 more deer later in the day and I got a picture of them in the distance). Every time we pass each other we always check that the other person’s okay before moving on. When we each arrived in Bracketville, we all stopped at the Dollar General for drinks and snacks. So we catch up at those breaks.

After the short break, Dana and Felix took off first and stayed ahead of me the entire route. Chris and Brent left after me and never caught up. So after Bracketville, I rode the entire 45 miles without seeing another rider in our group until I got to camp. These are long rides and everyone needs to do it at their comfortable pace.

I am okay with this and have no problem riding solo for long distances.