Happy Hallowe’en

From a weather perspective, the timing of much of my ride through Texas has been rather fortuitous. Okay, not from a wind perspective. That has been far from fortuitous. But from a rain perspective I’d consider myself rather fortunate. I was able to avoid riding in any of Hurricane Patricia’s downpours and I even benefitted from favourable winds in her wake. And in Schulenburg, there has been more than a little rain since Thursday. I’m not going to lie, I’m glad I haven’t spent the past two nights in my tent. To say that there was a lot of heavy rain last night would be a bit of an understatement. Side note: Since my arrival in Schulenburg, there have been flash flood warnings and tornado warnings – not in this immediate area but in the general area.

After last night’s storm, I woke to a somewhat blue sky. The blue sky ended up being somewhat short-lived as rain clouds moved through the area for most of the day bringing scattered showers with them. Despite the clouds, I opted to take my chances and take the short 6 km ride into town. Very manageable, especially if it didn’t rain. Spoiler Alert: It didn’t rain.

The ride into town was generally flat and very easy – part of the ease was due to leaving all but one of my panniers at the house (aka. The Barndominium). Side note: I love the Barndominium.

Part of the reason for pedalling into town was just to go for a bit of a ride and part was to get some groceries (which I why I just took one pannier with me). Both missions were successful. During the ride, I also I got a good glimpse at just how much rain has fallen lately as some of the fields were more than a little waterlogged.

The rest of the day was more than a little lazy as I pretty much just hung out with Tracy’s nameless Boxer. Well, I’m sure he has a name, I just don’t know it. The afternoon became lazier when I discovered a certain movie marathon on DIRECTV. Sadly, I missed the first three movies in the franchise. Perhaps more sad is the fact that I watched the fourth and fifth instalment – the fourth and fifth instalments are not particularly good. And yes, that’s being kind. I’ll leave you to identify the movies in question, but the photo should give it away. Side note: Perhaps it’s kind of fitting that I should watch the aforementioned movie marathon with a Boxer.

The pace of my adventure will continue to be slow (i.e. stopped) over the next few days as I’ll be hanging out in Schulenburg until I hit the road again on Tuesday morning. Given the anticipated lack of blogworthy excitement for the next few days, this would probably be a good time to announce my upcoming detour.

A couple of months ago an opportunity to work on a video project with a friend in a slightly distant location arose and, even though it would mean interrupting my current adventure for about ten days, I decided to seize said opportunity. I mean, it’s not like it’s the first time my ride has been interrupted. Besides, I’ve never been to Cuba before. Oh, did I just say Cuba? Yes, I did. Mark’s Midlife Crisis is heading to Cuba.

In terms of details, well … they’re a bit vague but on Thursday I’ll be boarding a plane in Houston bound for the exciting destination of … Toronto. Sigh. What can I say, it’s still easier to fly to Cuba from Canada than the United States. For now.

My return to Toronto will be a relatively short stop although not an entirely brief layover. My flight to Cuba is Saturday which will leave me a bit of time for both visiting and picking up a few things for the detour. After all, it’s not like I’m currently packed for a week in Cuba. While ‘m not entirely sure of the full plan, I’m certainly looking forward to going. And I’m sure my friend Marleah (conceiver of this brainchild) has everything under her control.

And with that, I have no further news. Perhaps something interesting will happen tomorrow.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 14.83 km
Ride time: 37:17
Average speed: 23.86 km/h
Maximum speed: 41.93 km/h