Paris

Day 1

28.94 miles @ an average of 12.8mph, max of 25.7

Total ride time of 2:15'10

To begin with, I changed my plans a bit. I got a late start out of Dallas, so instead of having my Dad drop me off in Greenville, I had him drop me off in Commerce, about 10 more miles down the road, anticipating a lighter 20 mile ride, since the sun was already setting as I got out of the car. And then, I made a wrong turn. And another. And then missed a turn. Eventually, my nice, easy 20 miler turned into a 30 which included about four miles of dirt road, which my bike is not designed for. I got chased by dogs owned by rednecks with neither fences nor leashes to keep their dogs from assaulting innocent passers-by.

I need a bottle of Mace.

Still, the ride was beautiful, lit by the full moon straight ahead of me the whole way. As I started it hung huge and red over the horizon, and slowly rose, shrinking and yellowing. By the time the sun had fully set, it was small and white, and cast shadows as sharp as a spotlight. I kept thinking of the line from the Led Zeppelin song "Ramble On," "the autumn moon lights my way." Come to think of it, the whole song is very appropriate, except I'm not going to Mordor, probably won't meet a girl so fair, and if I do, I really hope that Gollum and the evil one won't slip away with her...

Anyway, I finally arrived at Cooper Lake State Park around 10:00PM, rode to the primitive camp sites, almost ran over an armadillo, set up camp, and began cooking my meal. The meal was bland. Extremely bland. I tried salt and pepper, but to no avail, and ended up trashing about half of the three-serving bag. Such a pity and a waste. Still, I sat down to read more of Those Across the River by Chrisopher Buelhman (a.k.a. Cristophe the Insultor) which, along with the howling of coyotes, kept me up 'til the wee hours. Even after I set the book down, and scared off the coyote that was rummaging around my campsite, I found it difficult to sleep. My mind kept tossing and turning in lieu of my body; it's difficult for a body to toss and turn in a hammock without risking a fall. I finally fell asleep around 4:00 or 4:30AM.

Day 2

So far: 39.74 miles @ an average of 10.0mph, max of 25.8

Total ride time 3:58'16

The sun rose above the trees enough to wake me around 10:00AM, and I awoke in a sweat. Even the morning was nearly unbearably hot, and I planned to ride around 50 miles today up to Pat Mayse Park north of Paris, Texas, but as soon as I mounted my bike, I found that my right knee ached terribly. After about 20 miles I took a sit down in the shade of a tree next to some Angus cows, who also found the sun to be more than bearable at 1:00PM. And the heat had not even reached its climax. It was only 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Google said it reached a good 105, but in the sun I'm sure it was nearly 110. Still, I popped some ibuprofen, and hopped back on my bike to reach Paris, another 20 miles down the road.

About five miles out of town, I drank the last drops of my water, which I had neglected to top off at the state park. Stupid, I know. I figured I ought to hit a filling station somewhere outside of town, and I was partly right. It was just inside the city limits, about 2.5 miles from the center of town where I had originally planned to wait out the heat of the day. Problem with this plan is that it was the heat of the day when I got there.

I bought a large Gatorade, and downed it. Too fast. I began to feel sick to my stomach from imbibing so much so quickly, yet I went back in and purchased another. This I have been sipping on since. At this filling station, I also rested for a good while, but it did nothing to help my still-aching knee, which by this point was the main thing keeping me from continuing on my "scheduled" route, aside from the now oppressive heat. Still, I rode to the town square (very much like San Marcos's square, only lined with antique stores instead of bars and coffee shops as I had hoped) and found a place to lunch and enjoy some A/C. The place I ended up was Subway. Gross. I ordered a sandwich anyway so they would let me stay for a period of time, and asked the check-out guy where a good coffee shop was. He directed me to one a couple miles away, and after a good period of rest, I headed in that direction.

On the way to the coffee shop, a car hit me. Not hard. But still hit me, which knocked my feet out of the clips, and almost knocked me over. I looked over my shoulder at the driver, who waved, and drove off. I yelled some profanities at the bastard and complained about hit and runs. A woman was walking with her child nearby, and saw the whole thing. She kindly stopped to ask if I was okay, which I was. Luckily, the car hit my bag with all my clothing in it, so there was no real damage, but still, the audacity some drivers have when it comes to hitting bike riders... it's like they don't consider hitting a person on a bike to be a real accident, despite the fact that they are more likely to kill the rider than another driver. Anyway, the girl who was with the nice woman yelled out to me as I rode away, "Be careful, people here are crazy!" I couldn't agree more.

So, my knee still hurts, and I'm not sure if I want to ride the 20 more miles to Pat Mayse State Park tonight. I may bite the bullet and find a cheap hotel here in town for the night, and take it easy tomorrow, going only as far as the park, and then relaxing with my book, which I would really like to finish reading.

Say what you like, I'm tired, I'm hot, I'm sweaty, and I'm in pain. Oh, and I've been gaining elevation all day. Every time I saw a long hill ahead of me I would look forward to the descent which surly awaited me on the other side, only to crest it, and find that I hadn't actually crested anything, only reached a slightly lighter ascent. I think I got to coast any reasonable distance three times today. Possibly four.

Yeah, I think I'm going to find that hotel for the night. I need a shower. And I could use a beer.