Day 29: Lockhart, Texas

Today was 62 scheduled miles from Blanco to Lockhart with
more ups and downs, but there were plenty of flat sections, making for a more pleasant day.

It started out cloudy and threatening rain, much cooler than yesterday and ended up overcast all day while riding, sunny as we entered camp.

The blue bonnets are in full bloom.  We rode by lots of huge patches of these sweet blue flowers, along with some pinks and some oranges (no idea what the names are).  You can see by Lisa's attire, it was still a pretty cool temperature late in the afternoon.




Some bad news,  two of our fellow riders are off their bikes.  Ken will be off temporarily due to some enlarged abscesses that required some minor surgical extraction.  Wayne, unfortunately, will be ending his tour early.  He had a crash with a fellow rider and broke his arm right under the elbow.  We will miss his happy smiling face and his awesome photography.  He also seemed to be able to capture the best pictures.  Get well quickly Electric Ken and we will miss you Wayne, hoping the recovery goes uneventfully and you are back on your bike in no time, preparing to ride in 2016 C2C. 

We skipped the lunch stop in Kyle and opted to stop in Lockhart for real Texas barbecue, the proclaimed "birthplace of barbecue."  The most famous restaurant, Black's, had a line snaking out the door and down the block.  We asked some locals for alternatives, and we were given directions to Smitty's BBQ.  We walked in to blackened walls and smokey meat smell hanging in the air.  They also had a line, but a local also gave us a tip to get into the shorter line.  Gail and Marla joined us, and even though our eyes were burning from the smoke (and open pit fires heating the smokers), we hung in there and got our brisket and sausage.  No room to sit inside, so we took our trays out on the curb and enjoyed it there.  Not very classy, but no one seemed to care!  The sausage was delicious!

Ultimate sharing this afternoon, only one shower per gender. We got to camp in fairly good time, but all the hot water apparently only lasted for the very first person.  We had cold showers, that may give you a couple seconds of warmth.  Brrrr!  It is all part of the experience, so no one was too cranky about it.  We are off to LaGrange tomorrow, and rain is again in the forecast...let's hope they are wrong again.   Tent camping tonight at a state park in Lockhart.--same place 2 years ago there was a young rattle snake found laying next to the women's bathroom door.  No one except 2 campers who were up at 10 PM saw it.

Another casualty we heard about today, there were 2 terrier type dogs who ran out at us onto the highway, apparently they did the same to other riders.  When they did it to us, we said "No!  Get!" and they both turned and went back home.  Unfortunately, a couple riding a tandem were chased by these dogs, but the dogs did not turn in time and one of them was struck and killed by a motorist.  One of our fellow riders picked the dog up off the highway, took it to the house they came from and apparently the owners were neither surprised by the dog's demise nor appreciative of the riding for giving the dog the dignity of getting him off the road.

UK Update:  Graham wanted us to put an update about him on the blog today, but unfortunately, we did not get a chance to ask how his day went.  He did seem his happy and smiling self at camp tonight, so we know he finished and must have turned in early for a good rest.  We will try to get a quote from him tomorrow.