Sabrina and I had a real adventure this weekend. Our plan was to drive out to Sealy, TX and ride up TX-36 to Brenham for some hill training. These aren't BIG hills, but hills nonetheless. My assignment was to plan the route and stops. This was pretty easy - a straight shot up TX-36 with stops at 15 miles in Bellville (for more kolaches at Newman's Bakery!) and then on to Brenham for lunch and come home by the same route. The total route was about 60 miles.
This plan was working really well. I went to #2 child's basketball game at 8am, then met Sabrina to pick up my bike and drove out to Sealy (about 30 min. from home.) We parked at the Whataburger on the south side of I-10 at TX-36 and we were on our way, after a brief pause to put the chain back on my bike as it had slipped off in transit. Sabrina was then coated in chain grease, but she's a trooper (and a good friend!!) The ride was great through Sealy, and then reality struck. The next 13 miles to Bellville was a CONSTRUCTION ZONE! I guess my route planning omitted the step where I checked TxDOT Expressway for roadway construction projects on my route. OOPS! A few seconds on this pavement and we could tell WHY it was under construction. I'm not sure how old that asphalt was, but there was NO tar left in the gravel and that was the ROUGHEST road we'd ever been on. After the first 5 minutes, we were wishing for mountain bikes!
We agreed to press on to Bellville, ask about conditions on the road to Brenham and then pick an alternate route back to Sealy to avoid the construction. Other than the rough conditions, the rest of the ride to Bellville was relatively uneventful. We can always count on getting a few honks and cat-calls. On this trip, we were honked at by cars, trucks, and a BNSF locomotive! And we did get cat-called by the same truck in Bellville TWICE (creep!) A man at the bakery said the road to Brenham was much better and the construction "was already done." So we decided to continue our plan. The man was wrong. Once out of Bellville, it was the same rough asphalt. We were happy to see the county line (in Texas, that is often where the pavement changes) and we could see a different color of asphalt ahead. Oh happy day! Sadly, it was a different color of the same surface. We jittered on to Brenham. After a few miles, it doesn't matter because you can no longer feel your feet, rear, or hands. But it IS enough to give your back a spasm! Fortunately, the road widened to 4 lanes, giving us better clearance from passing vehicles. Unfortunately, passing motorists didn't always see fit to use the left lane while passing us.
Joyously, we pulled into Brenham and stopped at the Whataburger on TX-36 just south of US-290 for lunch. There was a table in a back corner, so we pulled our bikes in and stepped to the counter to order. We were met there by a round manager who informed us that our bikes were "a health hazard" and needed to be removed immediately. No, we could NOT order first. We took our bikes and went a little further up the hill to Sonic, where we found a nice outside table and ordered some burgers. Sabrina ordered hers with bacon! I did not know before this that Sonic has public restrooms - I guess I always thought it was just a drive-in. This was a welcome discovery!
After lunch, we turned our bikes south on TX-36 and began our jarring ride back to Bellville. It was then that the headwind kicked up! Our motto is to ride into the wind on the FIRST half of the ride, because a headwind is a bad thing when you're already tired. But we're tough girls, so we fought our way back to Bellville. We stopped at Dairy Queen to discuss our route changes back to Sealy. We turned south off TX-36 onto Coshatte Rd. AH - we found smooth asphalt!! And HILLS! And DOGS! Those little Jack Russel Terriers are mighty fast when you're sprinting up a steep grade. I think Sabrina rubbed my back tire with the bacon from her burger at lunch! We escaped dog #1 unscathed. A little further up the hill, we met dog #2. He was about 3 times the size of dog #1, but responded better to my stern "NO, BAD DOG, GO HOME." I used my "coach voice." He only chased us a little while after that.
The plan was to take Coshatte to FM-331 to Peters San Felipe, back to TX-36. Coshatte was pretty good road. FM-331 was a little more rough, and we also found a group of guys out enjoying target practice on their land. Fortunately, we didn't hear any bullets zing by our heads! Everything went fairly well until we got on Peters San Felipe. We intended to take that to Maler Rd, but it went to dirt after Junica. And so we took Junica. Oh look! More bad asphalt! By this time, we were just numb to our environment and looking to get home by any means necessary. Alien abduction wouldn't have been out of the question! We made it down Junica without further incident, then sprinted across TX-36 and on into Sealy. We were never so glad to be back in a town with smooth streets!
As we pulled into the Whataburger and reloaded the bikes, we congratulated ourselves on surviving this latest adventure. I think we're fully prepared for whatever the MS 150 has to offer!
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