Blue Boat Home

Today was spent mostly in getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner.  I made creamed onions using Velveeta as the sauce base, and Marisa's brother Sean -- whom I had consulted about how to melt cheddar -- didn't identify it as counterfeit, so I guess I disguised the Velveeta flavor well.  I also made egg nog.  Rich made devilled eggs, Gloria brought a low-carb pumpkin cheesecake, and they baked a turkey for leftovers (not to bring).

Today I mostly cleaned and dried my gear.  I went with Rich to get ingredients for tomorrow, but aside from that I just hung around the house.  Feels good!

I made it! I'm safe and sound in Austin, Texas, my home for the winter.

[posted to the Wheeled Migration Yahoo Group on November 23, 2004]

Today I passed through practically every extreme of weather... flooding, fog, cold, heat, dry air, humidity, hail, high winds, driving rain, gentle rain, and sunshine.  Through most of this I was in pretty heavy traffic with no shoulders.

I waited for dawn to wake me this morning, since I knew I had a short day of riding and my taillight is broken.  The rain held off until about 10 or 11, and then it fell practically nonstop until I reached my campsite after 3.

The high point of today was passing through Crawford, Texas: "Home of the Pirates, President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush."  Oh, so they're pirates!  That explains a lot.  I have this vision of W dressed in pirate garb, saying, "Avast there!  Hand over yer booty ur prepare ta be barded!  Are ye with us or against us?  Arr!  Bring it on, ye scurvy evildoers!"

[posted to the Wheeled Migration Yahoo Group on Nov 20, 2004]

Hi, folks! I'm holed up in a hotel in Clifton, TX, while a wild and crazy thunderstorm goes by outside. I didn't have to ride through this one very long, unlike on Wednesday...

Today was pretty uneventful... I kept waiting for the predicted "partly cloudy" weather to materialize, but I only saw the sun for about 15 minutes total.  When I was a few miles from my evening destination of Clifton, rain started falling, and it got gradually more intense as I rode into town.

It was a short ride today from Cleburne SP to Dinosaur Valley SP.  I reasoned that if I felt ambitious, I could make the park just a day trip and ride south in the afternoon, and if I didn't, I could just stay here.

I woke this morning feeling exhausted.  I had gone to bed early, having stayed up late the previous two nights with Chris and Jimmy, but what with the insects buzzing around my mosquito-netted head all night I hadn't slept well.  When I looked in the mirror, I saw that the mosquitos had bitten all over my forehead, so in addition to having freckles, I now appear too have acne!