Rain

Today we rode up and down steep hills through beautiful Texas ranchland scenery. Even though we dropped some elevation overall, we did 3000' of climbing - steep climbing in short bursts. Each mile had between 1 and 3 sharp descents followed by a steep climb. Each mile was hard won, and we did 60 of them. It was very beautiful, but difficult to enjoy with sweat stinging the eyes.

The weather was threatening all day but didn't break until after third-lunch (about 2pm). By the time it started bouncing off the road we were already safely under the porch of a bakery ready to go in and get some giant chocolate chip and pecan cookies. It remained dry for the last 15 miles but as soon as I pulled my tent out of its bag at the campground the clouds opened and the rain started falling in sheets. By the time I had my tent up there were pools of water inside, but nothing a packtowel couldn't fix, then off to the showers through the fresh mud.

A bonus is that the campground (an RV park, really) has a very nice covered common area with booth style seating and pool tables. It was a bar until they lost their liquor license recently. We are now hanging out after our dinner, listening to the rain pounding on the roof and contemplating what states our tents will be in when we venture back to them later and how wet we will get riding into the city of Austin tomorrow.