Time in Saddle: 9:05
Distance for the Day: 81.51 miles: From Hwy 290 picnic area To Trey’s off Hwy 290 east of Sonora
Accumulated Trip Distance: 2492.3 miles
Altitudes: Starting/Ending 2879’/2494’, Highest: 2931’, Accumulated: 2641’
Speeds: Avg: 8.3 mph, Max: 27.4 mph
Weather: Overcast, mild temps but windy
Expenditures: $
Got up at 7am, temp 68 deg, very moist, completely overcast, high winds all night, but not raining. It got so windy last night, I thought I might lose my gloves and helmet because I didn’t secure them, before getting in my hammock, but they didn’t blow away, which was somewhat of a relief. I packed my stuff away, skipped breakfast for now, and continued along this loop of Hwy 290, heading back to Hwy 10, which I made by about 8 am. I hit the town of Ozona and got my first Sonic Burger meal ($6), there, just before noon; it was ‘okay,’ but nothing to write home about. I think a Burger King Whopper beats the Sonic Burger, hands down. I got some more supplies ($6) from the mini-mart, and headed out of town at 12:30pm for Sonora, TX, another 30 or 40 miles up the road. The weather following me out of the northwest started to look seriously bad, with bright lightning flashes lighting up the sky, with thunder about 40 seconds away, at first. I was casting around, looking for a campsite, when I spotted this one house just a little way away from Hwy 10. There was a truck in front, so I thought I’d try this one. I knocked on the door, and introduced myself as a traveling cyclist to the fellow who answered the door, and would it be okay to lay out my sleeping gear on the lee side of his house. He was friendly and introduced himself as Trey, and said ‘no problem.’ Great! I went to the side of his house opposite the windy side, and began laying out my gear. Trey came out and offered to let me store my trike in his shed to keep the coming rain off of it, and then said I could bring my gear inside and sleep in his living room, and even take a shower if I wanted. Terrific! About a half hour after I came inside, there was only a 5 second delay between the lightning strikes and resulting thunder, and it was soon raining heavily. Trey was great – he was watching the DVD, “Nixon,” on his big screen TV, and we chatted about my trip and the storm, and stuff. I took a shower in his guest bathroom, and I tried to correct a minor problem he was having with his computer, which I wasn’t able to handle (Demitol!) We then watched a great Clint Eastwood movie I’d never seen before, “Gran Torino,” while we munched on grapefruit. Around 11pm, he went to bed and I slept on his carpeted living room floor while the storm continued to precipitate outside. I was very grateful to be clean and dry. (Hey, Trey! Please let me know the web address of your band, and I’ll provide a link to it from this blog. I thought I’d be able to find it from memory, but I should have known better.)
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