Texas Hell Week 08 - Day 4

I almost ended up among all the carcasses on the side of the road today. After taking it easy yesterday, I was extra motivated to ride today, even though thunderstorms blew through last night and early this morning, and scattered thunderstorms were in the works for late afternoon. However, according to the forecast, all was good for the time we'd be on the road. I had some doubts when I showed up at the start and no one else was there. In the end, six others showed up. We were on our own, as there would be no official support due to the iffy weather. The rest were doing the 100 mile route, so apparently I was in the "hard core" group. We rode together for a while, but after my rest day I was feeling frisky and went off the front. The day was nice, but soggy. I almost biffed it on a double set of cattle guards, and slowed up to make sure the person behind me made it over them. I think I scared her when I told her about it, but she assured me she'd be extra careful! About halfway into the ride it started sprinkling, then raining, then pouring! Fortunately it was fairly warm (60s), but after a while my fingers were getting pretty numb, and I started getting pretty worried. The others were no where to be seen, even though I stopped at the (closed) BBQ landmark and a couple of other times to put on arm warmers and eat. The wind was worrying me, but I kept up the effort to stay warm. Finally the rain let up, but the roads were still wet, and I slid out on a surprise corner that came up on a little meandering road that must have been a cattle trail at one time. A couple of guys in a pickup who weren't too far behind checked to see if I was okay, and everything seemed to be in order enough to get home. I soldered on imagining I was a racer doing a spring classics race, and eventually made it home and jumped in the tub to soak away my aches. Not the best day on the bike, but I like to think I'm tougher for it!