Day Thirty-One — Tatum Bunnett

Day 31

65.63 miles

1,967 ft (elevation gain)

1,130.7 total miles

somewhere on highway 90 -> Del Rio

Today was a beautiful and awesome ride. We started the day around nine when we had to drive back out 60 mile on highway 90 to the place we stopped riding on Monday. Right from the start the ride was really hilly, although they were big the hills weren’t too bad. The only issue with the hills wasn’t that when you were going up hill you would get really hot and when you went downhill you get chilly. Although it would get kind of cold it wasn’t nearly as cold as it has been, today was the first day in a bit taht we had to take off layers and not put them on. About 15 miles into the ride there was a bridge with road work happening in it. There was a timed traffic light that would control the flow of traffic. We were a little worried that we wouldn’t be able to ride across the bridge fast enough before traffic going to opposite way we were started coming. Fortunately this was not an issue and we were able to ride across the bridge without any issues. The canyon that the bridge was so cool, it had massive limestone walls that were carved out by water, they were beautiful, you could see so many different layers of rocks. After the first bridge we continued to ride up a somewhat endless amount of hills. A lot of the road was cut through the hillside this made the ride even prettier, we were able to look at massive limestone walls, the layers were so cool, there were so many different rock textures. Shortly after the bridge around mile 25 we decided to stop for lunch, we ate fairly quickly and went back in the road. After a couple more miles we road past Langtry, a super small town right on the Mexico boarder. After Langtry we road over the Pecks River. Thee bridge was massive and the river was so cool, it was huge and was in a big canyon. We continued on with the hills and eventually made it to Comstock, we had a quick French fry snack and got back on the road. After Comstock we road about 10 miles before we came to our biggest and final bridge for the day, over the Amsted International Resivoir. Dad and I decided to not ride the half mile section of the bridge, because there was no shoulder and cars were going around 70 mph on it. We thought it wasn’t worth the risk. After riding in the car for about a mile to avoid the bridge we got back in the bikes and rode the last 6 ish miles into Del Rio. The ride kind of flattened out by the last 15 miles and was pretty chill. Unfortunately all day ten shoulder of the highway was really rough, it was super bumpy the ride on but we were able to tolerate it. After the ride we showered, mom made a great spaghetti dinner, and then we went to a gas station/bbq restaurant for some live music and dessert. It was super fun, to get out of the trailer for a bit and listen to some good music. Today I was feeling really strong, I’m now kicking dad and Toms butts on the uphills, it’s awesome to see how strong I’ve become.

Found a lovely snake skin as we were heading out for the day (I’m glad I didn’t see the actual snake).

So many cool layers (like and onion or a parfait).

We saw a lot of trains today with some cool graffiti.

Another cyclist heading across the US just the other direction.

This gnarly wasp thing thought I was a flower.

Our elevation profile (look at all those hills).

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