Carol & Ken Lyon's Cross-Country Ramblings

The written-as-it-happened reflections of a couple of middle-age non-athletes as they travel across America on their recumbent bicycles.
 

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Part I:
Ventura, CA to High Island, TX
April-June 1996

Introduction & Links

1: New Bikes!

2: Anticipation

3: Leaving All

4: Fear, Courage and Foolishness

5: First Pass, First Desert

6: Drivers

7: Sun, Hills and Wind

8: In the Morning

9: Trying to Get Out of California

10: People Never Cease to Amaze

11: In the Afternoon

12: Attitude

13: Real Mountains

14: Harleys

15: A Tale of Two Cities

16: Life After Globe

17: Chateaubriand for Two

18: 2 Down, 5 To Go

19: We're Back!

20: A Hilltop Experience

21: Refiner's Fire

22: Beyond Balmorhea

23: Mid-Course Corrections

24: Out of the Desert

25: Flat and Wet

26: We Declare Victory

27: Reflections

Part II: 
Houston, TX to St. Augustine, FL
March-April 1998

28: Anticipation--Again!

29: First Day

30: High Island...Again

31: Roads and Bridges

32: Acadiana!

33: Across the Father of all Waters

34: BicycleLand

35: Event-Filled Sunday

36: Dauphin Island, Alabama

37: Louisiana & West Texas Culture

38: Reality Checks

39: Body, Mind & Soul

40: My Dad

41: It is Finished!

42: Awards

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Cross-Country Ramble 19: We're Back!

Sent: 96-05-18 22:22:14 EDT

We're back on the road again.

After riding through the desert from El Paso to Fort Hancock today, last week in Washington, DC, seems like a dream. In Washington the weather was downright cool, never even reaching 70 degrees in the daytime. The average tree seemed to be 60-70 feet high. They were all over the place! Under the trees was green, green, grass. Azaleas were in bloom, great gobs of showy red and lavender. And not a sprinkler system in sight, unless of course you count the rain that came right out of the sky.

The weather here today was HOT! It was pushing 100 degrees. I can't recall a day since we left Ventura that it hasn't been at least 90 degrees. We were grateful for the few large trees along the roadside. They provided some respite from the sun. We rode past pecan orchards and cotton fields with canals running along side of them. And we rode past miles and miles of desert scrub as well as dead and dying towns.

Upon finally reaching our motel room hot and tired, the clerk gleefully told us that our route to Van Horn tomorrow is mostly uphill. "Straight up!" were the words he used. Bah!

After a week off, I guess it will take a while to get back into the cycling groove.

Carol

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Copyright © 2008 Kenneth W. Lyon

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