What a Difference a wind Makes

A fine country road,
traveled in the morning with moderate wind

I proclaimed that spring had come to the hill country of Texas.  That was day before yesterday.  The evening forecast proclaimed a similar day for my seventy-mile ride from Navasota to La Grange in a southwesterly direction.  I took a quick look at weather.com in the morning before packing the computer and nearly fell off the chair!  The predicted wind had changed from east to south and would rise to 20mph by noon.  La Grange would be impossible to reach against that much headwind.

Burton Café,
a good lunch as the wind rose

Country store at Independence,
the first coffee-stop after 23 miles

I quickly studied maps and looked for a town in a westerly direction so that wind, though strong, would push on my left side and not slow my speed to some five miles per hour.  I knew that a 20mph wind from the left is dangerous on roads without wide shoulders because the bike often swerves in its gusts.  Passing trucks create a vacuum that can pull me into the traffic lane.  I needed a road with a wide shoulder as cushion against potential mishaps in strong left-side wind.  It must be a westbound road leading to a town with a motel in less than seventy miles. 

 Lee County Courthouse in Giddings
1898

I found the town of Giddings.  I could travel southwesterly and make Burton by noon, then head west on a road with a wide shoulder to Giddings for a total of sixty-three miles. 

I started a difficult, windy ride.  The first leg to Burton was along minor country roads, pushing against wind, but not too strong.  After a good lunch in Burton, I was on a major highway with a wide shoulder, leaning against strong wind on my left side, just as the forecast said.

Texas longhorn cow and calf

I have described one day in a planning process that has been as common in its changes as the straightforward days have been, when I followed my original maps and notes.  I don’t know how it will work in west Texas where roads are far-spaced and alternatives few.