Day Twenty-Eight — Tatum Bunnett

Day 28

54.76 miles

577 ft (elevation gain)

1,065.1 total miles

Marathon -> Sanderson

Today was really good. We started our ride at around 9 and went unassisted for the first 25ish miles, while mom went to the Marathon botanical gardens. The first 25 miles was really chill, we had about a 400 ft climb, but it was really gradual so it wasn’t to bad. After the climb the whole ride was downhill. We were able to average around 20 mph and it was really nice. We met up with mom around the half way point, she brought us smoothies, and coffee, they were all really yummy. The ride today was really pretty we rode in a big canyon most of the day, the grasses and vegitation along the rode was also really pretty, there were a ton of wild sunflowers. We also saw a lot of cows today, they are all really cute and like to watch us as we ride, occasionally some of them would run with us. We also saw a cool pack of deer, they looked kind of like antelope, it was really cool they ran really fast and ran along side us for a good while. Also throughout the day there were a billion fluffy black caterpillars that were along the road and crossing the street, it was really hard avoiding them as we rode the blended into the road really well. After the smoothies the ride continued to be pretty chill. It was all down hill, and we had a bit of a tail wind. At about the 5 mile outside of Sanderson mark we turned and started to get a head wind, I stayed behind dad again and we were able to finish the ride strong. By the end of the ride it was only about 1, it’s really cool to see how much stronger I have become since the beginning of the ride. At the start 50 mile rides were fairly difficult for me and now the are what we call a short day. I’m super proud of myself and feeling stronger and stronger everyday! Tonight we are staying at our camper next to the Budget Inn, the managers are super nice and even cooked us dinner, it was so yummy! They were so kind and are even making us chai tea tomorrow morning. Oh I almost forgot, it also warmed up today so riding was a lot easier, our muscles weren’t cold, it was really nice.

Welcome to Sanderson! The cactus capital of Texas.

Our elevation profile.

Please help raise funds for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) at https://www.firstgiving.com/event/rsds/Ride-Across-The-Country-For-CRPS