Where are we?

We began week 5 with an early eastern departure today, mostly to get a head start on possible rain. But as the morning rolled on, so did the clouds and we got another perfect day in eastern Texas. Nice rolling hills with long straight-aways lead us by some nice ranches gave but eventually gave way to the Sam Houston National Forest, which was very quiet and beautiful. It surrounded Lake Conroe, which extends 20 miles south and is a big recreation lake. We are starting to see more and more water now with rivers, ponds and lakes every few miles. With a smaller crew this week, our stops were shorter and with a great tailwind (I know the Week 4 team wonders where that was), Peter and I decided to tack on some extra mileage and still finish early. It was another great day on the road ending in Coldspring Texas. Curt did great job on his first day manning the support van and has brought along another sense of humor and will be a great addition to the team. The day’s highlight was finding another cross country group – this group of 5 from Pennsylvania and Virginia has a daily rotation of drivers so 4 ride while 1 drives the support van on their trek across America. They are staying at the same hotel as we are and it has been fun to compare notes. Moe and more we are finding groups of cyclists riding across the U.S.

So where are we? Through Saturday, we have covered 1775 miles from San Diego. Our group of riders has put in over 5500 total miles:

Peter 1,775

Carl 1,775

Scott 444

Dan 263

Michael 443

Charles 533

Sam 300

Total 5,533

Our safety record has been perfect with no incidents. We have had 9 flats so far and climbed over 47,000 feet with a similar descent – we began at sea level in San Diego, climbed to over 5,000 feet in the California mountains, down below sea level in the desert, back up to 8,000 feet in New Mexico and down again steadily through Texas to about 300 feet MSL in Navasota. We have been through over 50 ghost towns and countless others with populations from 77 to over 35,000. The ride has been incredibly enlightening. We have seen about 10 Dairy Queens so far – not nearly enough.

We know some of you followers like to see the map updates and apologize they aren’t always available. Good internet connections are required to update the map and then provide the link. Our luck at some hotels/towns is spotty keep checking back.

Thanks for following…..Carl

Map to date :

http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/ca/san%20diego/816128865169989989