80 Miles to Fredericksburg, TX .....

It's hard to believe that we are halfway through our cross-country ride and, I think, we have the major hills behind us. Tomorrow is a rest day after riding 7 days in a row. From now on, there are no more than 5 days of riding before a rest day.

Today was my favorite day so far because of the scenery. We are still in the Hill Country, so there were some challenging climbs (my GPS registered a 14% grade at one point), but there was a lot of rolling countryside as well.

We rode along the Guadalupe River for a long time and crossed it no fewer than 5 times. We rode by what appeared to be a resort area along the river with some beautiful houses and hotels. We passed by a fence with old cowboy boots hanging on all the fence posts (see pic). Then we rode on narrow ranch roads with cattle guards to cross and loose livestock roaming about (see the background of the pic of Rona and me). I saw a dead armadillo, but didn't think it was appropriate to take a pic of it. I'm also posting a pic of a hummingbird from last night-- I had already published my blog before I took it.

Tomorrow I will explore Fredericksburg a bit. We're at the Super 8 which is sort of a dump, but it's within walking distance of all the shops. My roommate is Joyce for the next 2 nights. She's British and runs a company called Joyce's Ireland -- she leads hiking tours in Ireland, France, England and Wales. She's the taller of the 2 women in the pic. The other woman, Sheila, is also from the UK.