Day 32: Tuesday 04/05/16, Rest Day at the Mexican Hill Ranch. Richards, TX

Day 32 distance: 0 miles (Rest day)

Total miles:  1767 mile

 

Anne served an excellent breakfast this rest day morning. She always prepares foods such as hotcakes and bacon that we do not have when we are riding. My sweet tooth always looks forward to hot cakes and syrup. :)

A great day-off breakfast menu!

The breakfast line was moving slowly this morning. Everyone was figuring out how to get everything on their plates in one pass! I couldn't even get anyone to take the time to look at the camera!

 After breakfast, another coaster, John Ilinin, brought out a hair clippers he had bought in Del Rio. I was able to trim the sides of my hair and got a volunteer to do my neck and the back of my head. That led to several other coasters wanting trims and since my haircut looked so professional, I got today's barbering honors and trimmed about four more coasters.

Look at that head of hair I got to trim! The victim is Jan Ritzier from the Netherlands. Jan and his wife,Truus, are two of the strongest riders on this C2C, while riding their 40 pound, 12 speed Rohloff geared bicycles. Fortunately, when I later asked Jan if he liked his haircut, he said he hadn't looked in a mirror yet. I hope he continues to not look!

At 10:00 am, I hopped on the trailer for the first of two hayrides that Ernie, the owner of Mexican Hills Ranch, was giving the coasters who wanted to see his ranch. Ernie spent two hours driving us around explaining his operation. Ernie has 35 head of cattle. Some coasters were excited as they were able to try to milk a cow by hand as well as feed a new born calf with a bottle. Obviously city slickers, not having grown up on a small Midwest farm like your blogger. Ernie also drove us past two of his deer stands. He said that in the area around his ranch, hunters are allowed to harvest, during season, two bucks and two does every year. Feral pigs and coyotes can be shot anytime, without a license.

Ernie heading out to his pastures with the hayride trailer full of coasters in tow.

Ernie explaining the ins and outs of breeding cattle and raising the calves. It was a very interesting and educational discussion for all.

In 2010, this pond was completely dry due to the drought. It is now thriving again, although obviously warm and oxygen deprived, due to all the algae growth.

Looking back at our camping site at the Mexican Hills Ranch from the hayride trailer.

Odds and Ends

I mentioned a while back that I would tell you about how tent camping works while on a Bubba tour. It is very simple for the rider. All we do is find our assigned tent by the number on it. The tent is already set up and our luggage in it along with a blown up air mattress. When we leave the next day, we leave our luggage in the tent if the ground outside is not suitable to set it outside, open the deflation valve on the air mattress, and leave. The next night if we are in a tent again, the preceding procedure is repeated.

This is part of about 40 tents that were set up at Marathon, Texas, when we arrived from that day's ride. The first thing I do is look for tent B61. There are two tent sizes available, a regular tent which is suitable for one person but is not tall enough to stand up in. The second size tent is a Bubba Dome which is bigger and tall enough to stand up in. Last year I had a regular tent and this year I have a Bubba Dome. Both work, but I am enjoying the convenience of being able to stand in the tent when doing things like packing and unpacking.

Ah, there is my tent, B61.

When I open the tent flap, this is what I see. An inflated air mattress and my three pieces of luggage. The green compression bag contains all of my bedding (sleeping bag, sleeping bag liner, pillow, fitted twin sized sheet to cover the air mattress, and my Walmart $4.88 quilt purchased in Del Rio. I also pack at the bottom of the bag my cold weather sleeping gear. Everything goes in and out of the bag in the order I make my bed.

Sleeping mattress set for the night, although since I took this picture, I also insert the blanket over the liner and under the sleeping bag.

This is my cold weather sleep gear. Good to the low 30's. I double up on the tops and bottoms, single or double socks, stocking cap that covers the ears, and gloves if needed. My sleeping bag is rated for 15 degrees but think it should be rated for 50 degrees!

When I leave the tent in the morning, it will look like the first photo, only with the air mattress deflated. As far as computer gear, there is a separate container where we keep all computer gear for extra safe handling and ensuring it doesn't get wet.

Extra pictures:

 

SAG member Pete McCabe throwin' the bull...or the bull throwin' Pete?

Brad Stafford, City Manager of Navasota, Texas, on the left and coaster Jim Sporer, on the right. Mr. Stafford approached Jim and me when we were viewing the statue of Frank Hamer, next to the Navasota City Hall. Mr. Stafford welcomed us to Navasota and told us to contact him if we had any needs while in town. He is very pleased that Navasota is on the Southern Tier bicycle route.

John Edwards, is known as coaster Eddo, due to two other coasters named John. John is a Probation Officer from Liverpool, England. He always has a smile on his face and is a great sport!

Note Bubba's Phantom drone overhead. There was a contest to name the drone won by your blogger with the name Wolf Craft. The name was chosen because Bubba doesn't fly the drone, but a member of the Wolf Pack is the drone operator. The winning prize was 5 tokens for evening hydration drinks. :)