Day 15 - Saturday, December 6

Description: Finished the ride in Alpine TX after 116 miles. It was awesome and the scenery was fantastic.

They say everything is big in Texas and it was today. The wind was big, the mountain was big, and my distance was big. I woke up very early at 5:45 in anticipation of a big ride. I hit the breakfast bar very hard with double helpings of waffles, cereal, OJ, and coffee. I loaded up the war scarred Big Green Machine but then had to wait until the sunrise as I just entered Central time and forgot that daylight started later. Checked out and was rolling around 8. Wow - the wind was howling at 15-25 mph mostly at my back. It was very cold and overcast so I put on my shoe covers, gor-tex jacket, ear covers and blasted off in I-10 East. I had to ride 38 miles on I-10 before turning South into the mountains. The wind was awesome at my back and almost felt like being in a draft line behind Mr. Bridenbaugh, Ron, Kevin, Ernest, Fast Tim, Slow Tim, Slow Todd, and Sporadic Stephen. Brian is always at the back except when it counts so he was omitted. While riding the wind and drafting tractor trailers, another cross country cyclist passed me on the other side of I-10 and he appeared to be struggling with the wind. We waved and moved on. I rode with the wind for 38 miles to Kent where I exited and stopped at a gas station. I re-fueled with a turkey and cheese sandwich, peanut butter criss cross cookies (my favorite), and a large coffee to prep for the upcoming climb. After exiting I-10, I turned South and was ready for a battle with the wind and the big hill. I was riding on the edge of the knife as whenever the road went left, I had a favorable side-wind but when it went right, it cut me hard. The road turned left and right for 37 miles up to the top of the mountain with very little relief (Stephen, I would love to see the profile view of this climb from Kent to Fort Davis). The climb felt like 7 or 8 Lystra's and a half dozen Up Chucks (my weekend ride group knows what that means). As I neared the first pass, 2 wild mountain goats with big horns ran across the road in front of me. They did not like the AC/DC cranking out of my boom box and did not stop for pictures! During the climb, I saw lots of vehicles with fresh cut Christmas trees on them - I think they were stealing them. At the top of the climb was the McDonald Observatory which has several cool looking observation domes on the top of the mountain. I was just glad to be at the top of my final mountain climb of the trek. After the top, I blasted down the mountain to Fort Davis which was my planned end point at 91 miles. Wilson and I scoped out this small town quickly and figured it did not have a comfortable bed or enough calories to satisfy our appetites. Then Wilson challenged me. He said I had plenty of Daylight, Downhill, and Da wind at my back and said I could make it all the way to Alpine which was another 25 miles. I had lots of excuses for calling it quits. Then Wilson said I should stop complaining about my burning thighs, 91 miles ridden, and the silly 38 mile climb I just completed. He said to fuel up, shut up, and start riding as daylight was a burning. I reluctantly agreed to Wilson's challenge and looked forward to beating the sun down to Alpine even though this would mean 116 of total miles. I hit a small grocery store in Fort Davis and re-fueled the furnace one more time with a ham and swiss on rye, a banana, and a Starbucks Mocha Frapp. Then we cranked on through the small town of Fort Davis and on toward Alpine. Just before the city limits, a herd of deer started running across the road in front of me. All I could think of was Norris who got run over by a deer during a Blood, Sweat, and Gears ride a few years ago. I stopped and waited until the 9-10 deer crossed. From there, I watched the sunset as I entered the somewhat small town of Alpine. I actually saw the sun rise and set while on the bike today - how many of you could say that? I grabbed a room at a Best Western and took a long hot shower. Then I went across the street for a huge pasta dinner with a salad, cheese biscuits, and a large draft. For the day, I ate a huge breakfast, a good lunch at Kent, 2 candy bars, an energy bar, 2 GU Energy Gels, and then a big supper. I also drank 6 24 oz water bottles. All of this was needed to fuel 116 miles, I suppose. As Chris Cope said yesterday, my diet is starting to look like Michael Phelps.

Tomorrow will be a recovery ride of only 85 miles or so to Sanderson TX.

Good night!


Weather: Cold and overcast in the morning and then perfect blue skies and warm temps in the afternoon.

Performance Metrics:

Miles: 116 Trip: 1,137
Total travel time: 10:00 Trip: 114:50
Bike Riding time: 9:04 Trip: 91:00
Avg speed: 12.81 Trip: 12.74
Max speed: 41.56 Trip: 41.87
Total ascent (ft): 3,693 Trip: 32,124
Avg pedal RPMs: 90 Trip: 87
Avg heart rate: 121 Trip: 118
Max heart rate: 192 Trip: 195 - almost blew an artery today
Calories burned: 6,723 Trip: 67,058 - record burn today!

Weather Statistics:

High temp 64 Trip: 75
Low temp: 44 Trip: 28
Hours of rain: 0 Trip: 8
Hours of snow: 0 Trip: 0
Total days of rain/snow: 1
Wind factor: Helped me mostly
Total good wind days: 6
Total bad wind days: 9

Misc. Stats:

Flat tires: 0 Trip: 8
Mechanical failures: 0
Hotel or camping today: hotel - Best Western
Total hotel nights: 14
Total camping nights: 1
Cups of coffee: 3 Trip: 45
Pints: 1 Trip: 25

Mood rating (1-10): 10 - awesome day and I hate to see the mountains behind me.

OK ESN:0-7458562

This is Steve and I am checking in to let everyone know that I have finished my ride for the day safe and sound.
ESN:0-7458562
Latitude:30.3658
Longitude:-103.6387
Nearest Location: E Holland Ave, Alpine, TX, US
Distance: 0 km(s)
Time:12/06/2008 16:10:56 (US/Pacific)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=30.3658,-103.6387&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

One more big Payday climb.