ahhhhhhh, heck, son! the twins are back! miles undertook: 70. conditions: hill country, WIND country, and 15 miles without water… in the desert. hitching? heck hitching!
We woke to SSW 16 mi/hr winds. It encouraged us to return to the country cook’n convenience store for some additional morning time heckling. it was not long before the county judge had words for us:
“i like to keep tabs on who comes through these parts! now you must’ve had jobs before this? bicycle mechanic, eh? not sure if we could use you. you know, its supposed to blow like this for the next two days… mine as well stay here till then… put a little of that money into our town…” and so on with discouraging words for the road ahead. you had to admire the man.
we set off, against the winds, against the hills. it is 79 miles to the next signs of human intervention. we only had to make it 65 to stay on schedule. after 10 i felt my body go into collapse. pains in the upper body. what the devil was this?! elder twin stopped and picked a piece of cotton from a passing plantation.
“i’ve never felt raw cotton before.”
“what’s it like?”
“like a… sort of… cotton ball like.”
after 45 miles both the twins felt peril. the flesh was weak. but hero steve laughed and said the adventure was back. he was the phoenix from the flames. and being the magical beast that he is, my pointy faced brother drafted this fragile twin the whole darn day. thanks steve!by 55 miles i had run out of water (more like 48 miles and then i put the less than quarter bottle away to conserve for the 15 miles to Iraan [pronounced eiree-ann... darn texans] in the AM. i’m gunna mix it with raspberry emergen-C!). Steve put his camel pak away for extra conservation. water is for babies. and so is air in my rear tire. the leak was quickening.but the last 2 miles were a victorious downhill cruise with a maxing speed reaching over 33 mpr into… the texas oil fields. say what you will, oil wells mean people to man them and life essence water to sustain those fokle. seeing a shanty, i biked up a driveway to meet a squirrelly owl eyed man poured on top a tractor. he gave permission to use the water dealy-hoo in the car port beside his trailer. the area was bombarded with trash and children’s play toys, but no signs of other people. i dug behind motor blades, pogo sticks, floaties, and rusted shrapnel for precious agua. no avail.
“uh, kate,” hero steve beckoned. “i think we should just go.”
“we can’t give up! it’s too important!”
“even with that?” he pointed to the decapitated deer’s head i was standing beside.
“hey, you want to get the fuck out of here?” we rode an extra 7 miles and camped on the side of the road. hero twin kate signing out.
Kate,
You got some toe warmers for them there bicycle shoes? They sure do darn help a heck of a lot and are dirt cheap. Worthy investment if I do say so. I had a lot of problems with the icycle toes alternating with excrutiating stabbing sensations, Yeah? Yeah. No one else had that problem on my trip either. You and me must have some bad circulation or somethin’. Heck if I know.
With love and like,
Bootsie
Hey you two,
I just want to say, DON’T YOU DARE FEEL GUILTY ABOUT HITCHING!!!!! sometimes it’s what you gotta do to keep the moral up. Plus, you will meet some weird ass people, guaranteed. Now, I’m not saying you should hitch all the way home, but when the weather is shitty and you are exhausted and feeling weak, go for it, you need your strength to endure. Endurance is the key word here, not speed, not fatigue from being too damn proud to hitch. So, don’t let ANYONE tell you that you are giving up or any of that crap because I can betcha that they have no idea what they are talking about and have never done anything like what ya’ll are doing. I have and this is why I’m telling you this. If anyone does, feel free to give me their number and I will personally kick the shit out of them (with my biking cleats on).
Till next time,
Bootsie
AHHH SHIT son: seriously Soup…. seriously. where have you been all my life. got your package. the sleeping voodoo ninja is hovering above my bed waiting for me to close my eyes so that he can wisp away on a cloud and come to your aid. btw- there is a constant stream of clouds coming in and out of my bedroom, little known fact.
I was getting worried about you not eating enough, Kate. You need a big damn stack of pancakes or something. Anyway, I’m glad you guys are back to enjoying your adventure (at least Steve is). I’m super-proud of you for not giving up. Arizona might be a bitch, but think how happy you’ll be when those golden poppies Welcome you to California!
Steve, what do you want for Christmas?