Day 19 - Seminole Canyon State Park - Brackettville (Fort Clark Springs)

74 miles



The campsite yesterday wasn't actually that bad. Once it got time to set up my tents, I realized I was the only one on the primitive site. Everyone was on the electricity site. So I had the whole campgrounds myself pretty much. Not much you can do with that, but it's nice to know.


Woke up at 6:00, was on the bike around 7:00. It was 10 mi to the first town. So I did about 80 mi yesterday, and then that 10 mi this morning made up the 90 mi without food. So I was able to buy some snacks and head on. I rode another 30ish miles and made it to Del Rio. This is the first time in a while I was seeing fast food restaurants and just businesses in general. It was a nice medium sized town, and it seemed pretty fun. I stopped in at the bike shop, unfortunately the mechanic wasn't in today. It was a unique bike shop because half it was a bike shop, and then the other half was a landscape company! The owner owned both and put it under the same roof. I was able to talk to the two people from the landscape company for about an hour. They gave me some recommendations and I certainly took them.


One place they recommend it was Julio's. It's a big chip place, and I believe Walmart sells their chips in some locations. Those chips came in handy later on. From del Rio to where I camped tonight was about 35 mi.


So all the mileage to del Rio was not terrible. Most the roads were really smooth, which made the riding go a little bit faster. However, there was a headwind. And when I woke up this morning it was already over 10 mph. I think around 12. When I hit del Rio it only increased. So the ride from del Rio to Brackettville was going to be pretty challenging. Unfortunately the nice roads had stopped. What I was left with was chip seal. Fresh chip seal.


Basically what this is is they tell the road, then they throw some crushed stone on top of it. The crushed stone will not move. In the car lanes, it will get compressed down cuz it's been driven over so much, and it gets kind of smooth. On the shoulder that is not the case. The rocks kind of lay however they were set. So very jagged and bumpy. And since it was fresh, it was all pretty rough. Not only did this slow me down tremendously, it also just added unnecessary bumbs. A lot of bumps.


That last 35 miles was extremely challenging. Not fun at all. The wind was probably 15 mph in my face, and the bumps were tough.


At about 10 mi out of town, I kind of blew up. I was going down a very negative spiral, so I pulled over a picnic area and rested up a bit. Ate a ton of food, drank a lot of water and got on the bike about an hour later. This was much needed.


Once I got to my town, the first thing I did was go to a burger and shake joint and order both. Delicious


Went to the campground / RV park. Took a shower washed my clothes and set them up to dry. After sitting outside in the shade for about an hour and a half I realized that there was a "sitting room" that I could access. So I went in there sat in the AC and watch TV. That was pretty nice. Something more akin to a hotel.


Right now I am laying in my tent. It's pretty warm. I don't think it's going to drop below 70 tonight.


Unfortunately, tomorrow will be much akin to today. Headwinds, and probably more rough roads... But, each day is a day closer to San Antonio, and San Antonio means family

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