Day 17, Hills, Pain and a new friend

I want to start today's blog by giving a huge Thank You to Karen Buckner and her family.  She lives in Lockhart, TX and put this wonderful sign up at here drive.  This was so great to see as we were six miles form our finish and needed a boost to get us through the end of the day.  Her mother has PD so this cause is close to her heart as well.  She brought her mother and father to dinner with us, Karen thank you for dinner as well, which was a real treat.  Meeting people like Karen along the way makes all the tough parts of the ride seem like nothing.  Wow, it is really motivating, Karen thank you again for the sign and your encouragement. 
Well the day started off good enough legs felt like they were back, my ankle was feeling good.  The miles seemed to fly by as we rode our way to lunch over more rolling hills.  Nothing special to note along the route just the standard road kill, vultures, cattle.  I have a new appreciation of Texas and I am glad we are seeing it this way.  We entered Barstop state park where we ate lunch.  After lunch the day had reached a record heat for this area 96 degrees.  I am not sure what the dew point was but I can tell you i was sweating a lot.  The forest was extremely dry which is scary with all of the fires that have been going on here in Texas. 
As we headed off I anticipated some more of the rolling hills we had ridden through earlier, WRONG.  What we found were long descents and crazy steep ascents.  I will tell you my heart rate has been the highest it has been on this trip.  When we stopped for water Bill stated that he had not heard us breathing this hard the entire trip.  These hills were over 6% grade, you could not carry any of the speed you picked up on the previous descents. 
I guess we needed a little training for the infamous Texas Hill Country.  Well all I can say to that is bring it on.

Lesson for the day,  The simplest gesture sometimes has the greates impact. I have been fortunate enough on this trip to experiance many gestures great and small.  Each one has a special place in the story of this trip.  The sign that was made for us today really took me by surprise.  Here is someone who just two days ago had not heard of Pop's Ride and today I consider her and her family friends and part of our team.  Never hesitate to give encouragement even if it is simply to say good luck.