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Tuesday, November 09, 2010

San Antonio, TX to Jourdanton, TX

First full journal entry, though I will go back and make entries for the three other days I biked so far this trip. Today was a good day in that I made progress. I got out to a late start as I had to go to the post office to pick up a package I had mailed General Delivery to San Antonio. There is only one post office in San Antonio that accepts General Deliveries, and that is the Main Office, which is the one in the Northeast on Perrin Beitel and Wurzbach Parkway. An employee at another post office, the one on McCullough street, over the phone, told me that his office accepted and processed general deliveries. So I had the item I ordered on Amazon, a backup battery for my android phone, sent "General Delivery" to his post office. I kept checking there and they said nothing had arrived. But the usps tracker indicated it had arrived in San Antonio. Later I realized that they indicated the zip code it arrived to, found out the nearest post office to that zip code, and realized it was the same post office that one of the McCullough employees told me was the main office and the only one that accepsts general deliveries. So I put 2 and 2 together and surmised that postal employees had the package delivered to the main office instead of the one I specified since it said General Delivery. I went to the office to pick it up, and at first they could not find it! Well, eventually the higher ups found it and realized it was their fault because they had scanned it both received and delivered. It should not have been scanned "delivered" until the customer, me, picked it up. Anyway, after I picked it up, I headed to my couchsurfing hosts' house, packed up, wrote in their guest book, and then headed out South.
I revisited the River Walk a bit, and then I went to a bike shop to pick up a spare tandem length shifter cable. I wanted a multi-tool, but they were out. He told me a new bike shop opened up South, on my route, so I resolved to stop there and check to see if they had a multi-tool. A pleasant surprise was in order. The shop was not only open, and they had a multi-tool, but the owner was present and he hooked me up with a prodeal on the multi-tool, and threw in a free waterbottle and cage (I wanted to exchange mine because it was one designed for a very large, like 32 oz Gatorade, bottle. Dude rocked. Garrett or Jared I think was his name. Thank you, again, man, if you are reading this. All all you other folks, patronize this guy if you ever go to San Antonio. The shop is called S.A. Cycles, or S.A. Bicycles. It is on South St. Mary's road, just before the underpass where it changes to Roosevelt Blvd.
Okay, I finally got heading South, after he hooked me up with a big cup of fruit because, "I think you have a lot farther to go than me and can use this more; I only live 2 blocks from here!"
Yeah, so I headed South, and then after a bit, I wanted to charge up some more. The wind was blowing hard in my face. I sat down in the shade. I put some sun block on, and I whipped out the two PB&J sandwiches I made earlier and I took those in, and drank some water. Soon I was back on the road. After about 10 miles of riding into the wind, I was hungry for more food. Stopped at MickyD's and had a grilled club chicken sandwich. Not bad. Was $5. Loaded up my waterbottle at their drink station with Powerade. Blue. Chugged and refilled. Then headed out for some more up against the wind, uphill riding. Cadence. Pretend like you are in an excercise bike. Doesn't matter how fast you go, just put out the high amount of power that you can when you have the right cadence (~70-90), you are in the appropriate gear for the resistance you face, and you are at a good workrate. The miles went by slowly but surely, as I listened to my music and I did a Portuguese lesson and an Spanish lesson (Pimsleur, which I love and highly recommend for language learning, especially when you are biking since you can listen and respond out loud as you bike along, and that is the main core of the learning process of Pimsleur). I eventually sat down in the shade to rest, chug some Powerade, and change the music. Got back on and plugged the last 10 miles to Pleasanton. Looked for a motel. Eventually stopped at one, the price was $40/night but no internet so I kept going. Forgot my helmet at a gas station, went 4 blocks before I realized and went back to retrieve it. Continued on and checked out a total of four more motels and they all were completely booked, no vacancies! Saw some Halliburton employees at one, truckers at another. Various things draw people past these towns and to them. I made it to Jourdanton from Pleasanton, looking for a motel, after dark. My lights are pretty good, so no real issue. In Jourdanton, I ate at the Mexican restaurant I ate at four years ago on my trip from DC to Chiapas, which originally had the intent of making it to Brazil. The waitress of the restaurant said she remembered me from four years ago! I was quite impressed and felt loved, cared-for, etc. The food was delicious and she didn't charge me for it! I gave her a $4 tip on a $6 meal:)
Then I checked in with the firestation next door to see if they would put me up. Pretty much all the motels were booked, I told them. I was hosted by four different fire stations during my trip from DC to Chiapas, and folks such as David Kroodsma have had great luck with firestations hosting them as touring cyclists. They said I could camp under a tin-roof covered area, and he would let the cops know I had permission and so to not bother me.
I thanked them for the offer. I tried a motel/hotel I had not yet tried, Holiday Inn, and they, too, were booked, but let me use the bathroom and the internet from the lobby. And so that is what is happening now--I amd in the Holiday Inn lobby as I write.

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