Day 31
It’s Wednesday morning. I’m writing this post the next morning because I was in no shape last night to write. Everything I might have said last night would have been negative, or at least less than positive. So I saved the days reflection to the next morning. Here’s what I would have written last night, had I not been exhausted…
One of my companions said, “exhaustion makes cowards of us all.” I laughed when he said that, not because it’s funny, but because of how true it is. You really need to check your emotions at the door when you are exhausted. Some days you have it, and some days you don’t. Today I did not have the physical or mental strength to pull off a fully loaded 75 mile day with anything near my normal grace and charm. (This is where I would normally insert the laughing emoticon due to my use of the terms “grace” and “charm.”) I made it, that’s about all I can say. I will feel much better in the morning.
It’s been two tough days. I did not take a single photo today, the first day that has happened since leaving San Diego. That’s speaks volumes about how the day went. There has been some dissension in the camp over food. We have a vegetarian, one a vegan, and a companion that is highly allergic to many common food ingredients. Then there is the rest, half plus one, that likes to eat hearty. I won’t go in to details about what “hearty” means, but suffice it to say “deconstructed” is not always “hearty.” I see signs after the last two days that we are going to pull things together, we’ll see how it goes. It’s a good group of people. The group has a lot of strengths taken as a whole, but everyone, hearty and non-hearty alike, is going to need to make compromises. One of the compromises that I need to make is I need to give up my “one pot” cooking style. “C’est la vie.” Meals is really about the only challenge we face as a group, so as one companion commented, “it’s a tiny cycling problem.” I got a good chuckle out of that. Tiny in the abstract, sometimes big in the moment.
I arrived in camp at 6:30pm and immediately began setting up the cook kitchen. I didn’t unpack or change clothes due to my late arrival. The meal turned out well. I think the hearty and non-hearty alike enjoyed it… for the most part. We are now officially in the Hill Country of Texas. Tomorrow we will see lots of rollers and a fair number should be the type of rollers that you have to gear down to climb. We shall see. My mental attitude is much better this morning, I expect a good day.
Miles: 75
Entering the Hill Country. Some very challenging terrain today.