DAY 1 - WARDA, TX TO SOMERVILLE, TX

Mileage - 37.0 miles; Total Mileage - 37.0 miles

Margarita Count - 2, plus 2 shots of Tequila in camp and 2 glasses of wine

Okay - we'll address the margarita issue right up front. This isn't Missouri and we can't get alcohol at the convenience store. The only liquor store we saw today was at our lunch stop and it wasn't open on Monday. We still had hopes that Wild Bill's right before camp would have a liquor store close or sell it. No such luck! While they were open today, the grill was closed. There went our plan to get sandwiches or burgers to take into camp for dinner. 

Many restaurants and businesses are closed on Monday in small towns so we didn't have a lot of options today. We shopped at Wild Bill's for dinner before camp. There wasn't much choice and all of us except but Dave decided to eat one of our dehydrated meals instead. Dave bought Spam, crackers and some chips for his dinner. 

The ride today turned out better than I could imagine when I mapped the route. That is until we hit the gravel and dirt roads. Kudos to the gang for just rolling with the punches. RidewithGPS usually does a decent job of telling you which roads are gravel. Well, they did not get the memo today! We had about 6 miles of dirt road. Most of it was hard packed dirt and good riding. Only one small secrion was soft dirt with chunky gravel. When I map a tour, everyone knows there's a disclaimer that absolves me of finding gravel roads!

We stopped for lunch in Carmine about 18 miles into the ride. There was a nice general store with a deli and bakery inside, along with a convenience store. We had a variety of meals - Mexican, pizza, wings and a ruben sandwich - and were also able to get snacks for the rest of the day. 

We had many beautiful views today - it was rolling country with cattle ranches interspersed with the occasional oilfiled pump jack or tank farm. The wildflowers are out and beautiful. Scenery from today...

Rolling out of camp this morning about 10am. The first day on tour it seems to take longer to get everything together and loaded up. A 10am departure wasn't bad!

Idle pumpjack in a field. 

This huge brahma bull was close to the road. He just sat there and stared at us while we stopped, found cameras and were able to get a picture. 

Wildflower pictures from along the road - Indian paintbrush, primrose, bluebonnets and Indian blanket. 

Gravel and dirt roads. Not too bad - better than some paved roads I've been on!

We are camped at a Corps of Engineers park (Yegua Creek) on Lake Somerville. It is a nice park and our two sites have a great view of the lake. Here's what they do when you roll into camp on a bicycle. We didn't have a windshield for the tag and so she put it on my handlebar bag!

Here are a few shots of tonight's camp.

It was overcast and cool all day. We even put on long pants and sleeves this evening as it got a little cool. We should have a little more sun tomorrow and it should be a little warmer. Here's hoping the weather forecast holds.