Day 12: Bastrop to Navasota
Hold or fold. You never really know what the next mile on an unknown road will bring.
We woke this morning to lightning and heavy rain, wondered about our ride at breakfast, then found the rain had stopped, blue sky surrounded us, and off we went through the rain-soaked mossy trees of Bastrop State Park on a tiny, traffic-less road for 13 miles. Out of the forest, we spun another 20 miles across lush green fields full of cattle, horses, and Texas blue bonnets.
Texas Longhorn with cattle egrets and one lone donkey
But then, a nasty crosswind blew in just as we hit 15-miles of heavy traffic on a narrow shouldered road with excited drivers pushing their way into parking areas along a 5-mile long annual antique show near Roundtop.
Drivers honked, at least one cussed at us (or rather, cussed at me) for being on a bicycle in the middle of the antique show, and one rider cussed at them (not me). All the while, the wind blew us around a narrow shoulder and a lot of riders felt concerned about the safety of heavy winds on the narrow, high traffic road. So at lunch, nearly a third of the riders put their bikes on the van and sagged, some just 4 miles down the road, others all the way to Navasota.
The thing is: you never know whether to hold or fold and the great thing about having a sag is you can use it if you need to – thatÕs why theyÕre here.
Antique shops line the road for five miles near Roundtop, Texas
The other two-thirds of riders gutted out the crosswind and traffic for another four or five miles and voila! Our route veered off out of the traffic onto a nearly traffic-less road with beautiful pastures and rolling terrain. Hold or fold. It could have gotten better (like it did) or it could have gotten worse. You just never know.
The mass sagging today led to a re-evaluation of the EFI (Every Frigging Inch) club. There seems to be lack of clarity about the more obtuse rules of maintaining oneÕs status in the club, made worse by the fact that there are no actual rules.
So while some maintain that you can sag if you get a flat and still maintain membership, others maintain you must fix your flat and ride on. Then there was the 30 miles beyond Sanderson last week when a few riders (at least unofficially EFI members who rode 15 out and back rather than the 30 miles out and sag back). Now weÕve added the additional confusion as to whether you can sag because of dangerous traffic and still maintain membership, as well as whether you can sag if a crosswind is gusting over 35 mph.
Fortunately, after a day of debating all this, Nate changed the subject entirely by showing up at the evening meeting tonight demonstrating what he would present to the next group of rude drivers. Since this is a PG website, I will not include a photograph. I simply report that it included a lipstick-drawn heart on one cheek and a cycle on the other. And I do not mean the cheek located on the face.