Saturday's ride was a new (to me and Jeff) route with the Heart of Texas Randonneurs. Smithwicked is hilly permanent that starts in Salado and travels south and west down to the Balcones Canyonlands to the town of Smithwick. Smithwick is very close to Marble Falls which is about 8 miles further along 1431. This route is mostly rollers until you reach Bertram. Near Bertram you join FM 1174 which is a road we normally take on other perms between Burnet and Liberty Hill. It was a nice change of pace to travel it in the other direction.
Since returning from Colorado, my fitness level feels top notch and I have enjoyed the nice feeling of climbing hills and getting up feeling good. Some of the hills on this route pitch up to 12 percent.
My day started with the alarm going off at 2:45 AM. I slept in the front room so as to avoid interrupting my wife's sleep. I got up, made coffee, got dressed, and grabbed the pump from the garage. On Friday, I used electrical tape to mend my frames on my broken Rock Bros glasses. I wasn't sure how well this would work, but I wanted to try it with the repair while I wait for my replacements to arrive. I was watching RockBros web site, but they continue to be out of stock on replacement frames. I finally went to e-bay and ordered a new set at a discount from the prices I saw posted on the other big e-tailer web site.
At 3:30, I texted Jeff that I was on the way. I grabbed a grabbed a packet of crackers for breakfast and headed down to campus to pick up Jeff. I checked to see if the big crack in my windshield had gotten any bigger. I had an appointment to replace this on August 2nd, but the appointment was cancelled/rescheduled due to rain. I now take the van for a new windshield replacement at the end of the month. Fortunately, the crack is not affecting my in my line of sight.
I arrived to Jeff's street at around 3:45 and then waited for Jeff to come down with his bike and gear. We loaded his bike and used bungee to secure and covered the frame and handlebars with a blanket to protect the bike and my van from damage. We then headed to I-35 and up to Salado which is about 45 minutes north of Austin. Traffic was light, so we made good time. On the way up to Salado, I told Jeff about the book I just finished reading Yeonmi Park's "In Order to Live" which documents her early life in North Korea and her eventual escape to South Korea via China and Mongolia. If you read this book, you will more fully appreciate the world we live in. It could be a lot worse if you were in a bad songbun in North Korea where your status is determined by your ancestors' faults.
We arrived to the Cefco where the ride starts and found Amy and Gary there and happy to see us. There had been some confusion about whether we were coming up to ride or not. When we are a fleche team, our name is Beauty and The Beasts. It's always a pleasure to ride with this group as we all get along and enjoy each other's company. Gary was wearing his white kit which sometimes creates some friendly controversy. Jeff wore his France jersey.
Early in the day, we had mild temperatures and we made good time to Florence. Jeff was hoping to get a breakfast taco at D Boone's but the store was just opening and the tacos were not available yet. I drank a carton of chocolate milk and we continued along towards Bertram. I felt good and Bertram arrived pretty quickly. We got fixed up for the miles into Smithwick. This would mostly be downhill, but there were a couple of steep climbs along 1174.
Bottles iced up and stomachs fed, we headed along to Smithwick. Thankfully, the rising sun was behind us as we rode west. I enjoyed the view from the top of the climb before the big descent.
We arrived to Smithwick with the sun fully overhead. The store there has the usual selection of drinks and refrigerated sandwiches. I selected a bag of chips and chocolate milk. The milk was not my favorite. I don't like whole milk chocolate milk because it is too thick. I'm also trying to watch my cholesterol and whole milk has more of this than low-fat alternatives. I drank some of it and then filled the bottle with water to thin it out. We enjoyed sitting out in the shade of covered area with picnic tables and chairs. It was at this control, I gave up on the taped glasses. There was simply too much pressure on the bridge of my nose so I switched to my prescription transition lenses for the ride back to Salado.
Having finished our stop in Smithwick, we braced for sun (made hotter by a tailwind) and hills (all those descents into Smithwick became climbs) I still felt good and climbed up to the top of the 2nd climb so I could get pictures of our group as they arrived.
The return to Bertam went pretty well, We climbed up the last of the hills and then began to enjoy the gradual downhills that would take us back to the outskirts of Salado. In Bertram, we bumped into another group of riders who had come from Burnet. They were out riding in the heat of the day as well and looked like they were ready to be done. One of the riders told me they had 20 miles left to get home. I hated to think we had almost 50. But at least we had Florence ahead of us.
We left Bertram and made good progress towards Florence. About 2 miles outside of town, we noticed a hissing noise from Jeff's rear wheel. It was a flat. We. pulled off in the shade and I held Amy's bike while she and Jeff replaced the flat. I joked that the flat had cancelled our stop in Florence, but Gary quickly said he needed water and I told him I was just kidding. We all needed the stop to get cooled off and iced. In Florence, we stopped at a different c-store and enjoyed the shade and the breeze.
On the return to Salado, Gary suggested we avoid the road that had traffic (FM2484) and he showed us a couple of other roads that were quieter and much nicer. The detour caused us to be short a couple of miles, so we detoured again on the return to another road to add mileage. When we arrived to control, we rode further up to the middle school and then u-turned back to ensure we had at least 127.7 miles (I ended with 128). Jeff joked that with 2 RBAs, we needed to be by the book on mileage. We finished in 10 hours 47 minutes. I was glad to be done. It was hot and the sun was beating down on us at the Cefco. I went in and bought a chocolate milk (for recovery) and a Topo Chico. Jeff also bought a Topo. I told Gary that changing the route to follow the detour would make a lot of sense. However, with the free route of perms, I guess an official change isn't necessarily required - as long as the distance is correct. We bid goodbye to our friends and headed home to Austin.
All the photos I took can be found here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/vUCLXjvHmjTyoNri6
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