Day 7 – Back to the Burbs
Sulphur Springs, TX to Dallas, TX
Sunday, June 14th
Knowing we wanted to avoid the late afternoon sun, we woke up around 5:30 and were out the door just after 7. We headed out of town the way we came in – on FM 2297 – and caused another stampede from the same group of cows we startled yesterday. (Over half the herd were young calves, so it’s understandable.) My ankle suddenly started hurting me and though I tried stretching it while I was pedaling, nothing helped, so I just tried to keep pressure off of it and pedaled harder with my right leg.
In the last couple of days I had been having trouble with my front derailleur; on occasion it would refuse to shift into the big chain ring then several hours later it would suddenly work. (I think it has something to do with how the current temperature and humidity affect the cable, but I’m not sure.) We were going fast enough that I needed reliable access to my big chain ring so we pulled over, broke out the tool kit and reset the cable. Dad wanted to double check it so he took my bike down the road and I followed him on the Corsa.
As soon as I set off on the Corsa, my ankle stopped hurting. It was weird. Something about the angle of the bottom bracket in relation to my hips relieved some pressure I had been forcing on my heel while on the Agio. I rode less than a 1/4 mile on the Corsa, then Dad and I switched bikes again and my ankle remained painless. It was surreal.
We turned off FM 2297 onto FM 1567 and took off on this amazing road. Lined with trees that provided great shade in the morning hours, 1567 was almost perfectly paved and was nearly traffic-free. We had a crosswind but the road was too good for us to notice it much. In fact, we were going so fast that when my right cheek ran into a giant flying bug, the impact stung the entire right side of my face (even my teeth tingled from the collision). It hurt like a bee sting and left a red welt just below my right eye (but the bug hadn’t been a bee and the redness slowly went away). I couldn’t help but laugh at the prospect of another day of dodging giant bugs. Ugh!
We flew all the way to the county line, but upon entering Hunt County the road changed for the worse. (We knew the Hopkins County road maintenance was too good to expect of other counties, but we had hoped for the best.) At Lone Oak, we stopped outside a Dollar General to snack on DP, PB crackers, bananas and a peach then we jogged over to FM 513, which took us South toward Lake Tawakoni (where we started seeing a lot of road kill turtles, and a few live ones hiding inside their shells).
We crossed the lake then had to climb out of the low elevation. On our way out, the road worsened, the traffic increased and the climbs took a toll on us. My ankle started hurting again and we both verged on bonking, so just before reaching Quinlan, we stopped at a gas station to relieve ourselves and to rest a bit. We gobbled up some Reese’s bars and finished off the 2L bottle of DP from last night, while we chatted with a guy who claimed he had seen us North or West of there a couple days ago. We told him we had never been here before and that we were coming in from the East and eventually he remembered he had seen two guys on bikes similar to Dad’s. Dad said he thought they were two highracers out of Dallas who mentioned they rode around this area recently.
We eventually made it over to SR 276 which led us East into Rockwall County where we began to ride past a larger number of road kill snakes than we are used to. I counted five total (one of which may have been alive – I wasn’t sure). Three of them were little snakes, at or just under a foot long, but two of them were big! One that looked like a rat snake or a corn snake was coiled up (but obviously dead) so it was hard to guess the length, but I’d estimate it was at least 2 1/2 feet long. It was over an inch in diameter at it’s widest. That doesn’t sound big, but when you’re riding within inches of a snake that size it is a bit alarming.
When we got near Lake Ray Hubbard, we turned onto SR 66 to cross the water. There were two or three car lanes and a mid-sized shoulder, but we followed the signs for the Bike Lane instead. It directed us onto a segment of the road that was sectioned off by three foot high concrete barriers from the main car traffic. It was only about six feet wide and was busy, primarily with pedestrians wearing headphones taking their afternoon walks. If they weren’t facing us, we had to yell loudly “On your left!” to make sure they wouldn’t be startled by our passing or accidentally weave in front of us while we were trying to pass. In several places, we had to slow down to under 3 mph to inch by the inattentive pedestrians, whereas if we had taken the shoulder of the car lanes, we could have crossed the bridge at over 25 mph.
Further into Rockwall, Dad picked up the pace and knowing we had only a short distance left, I turned up the power on the motor to keep up with him. We were both getting hungry, but had less than 10 miles to go. Thinking we could make it, we pressed on then about 4 miles from our final destination, Dad ran out of water and bonked. We pulled over to sit under a tree next to an office park, shared water and snacked on an apple, some peanut butter and some crackers. Once Dad recovered, we covered the last few miles and were greeted at our destination by my Dad’s cousin, Charlotte, and her son, Jerry. They helped us get the bikes unloaded then asked if we would like some water or food or if we wanted to shower, but we surprised them by answering, “Can we have some milk and honey?” We went on to explain how milk and honey has proven itself a good muscle recovery drink and how we try to follow each hard ride with a couple glasses of it.
After that, we showered, then the four of us enjoyed a great Philly cheesesteak lunch. I could barely keep my eyes open after we ate, so I excused myself for a nap and awoke about an hour later to a full house. On Sundays, all of Charlotte’s kids and (most of) her grand kids come over for dinner. I think all told, we had twelve people in the house. It was a blast! And a great meal, too!
Today’s Quick Stats:
Bike Distance (mi) Average Speed (mph) Trip Odometer
MiniWini 82.07 15.9 630.72
Sti(ck/g) 81.87 15.9 633.38
Stampedes: 6
Roadside Pees: 1