January 28, 2019 - 16 miles E on Hwy 39 to Fredericksburg, Texas

Day 28 Cross Country Bike Ride

The guys got a pretty early start from our little camping spot on Highway 39 this morning. The sun was shining and they had very little traffic to start their day.One of the first things we spotted which was unusual for us was the “Boot Hill” fence. There were boots on the fence posts on both sides of the road for about a half mile! The house on the left did have a sign on their gate that said Boot Hill. Highway 39 follows the Guadalupe River for miles and is a narrow, winding road. We went for a few miles in and out of the canopy of trees. I can imagine when they are covered in leaves what an even more amazing drive it would be!The bluffs overlooking the river were pretty, too.We stopped in Ingram to see Stonehenge II since we have seen the original in England. When we visited Stonehenge in England, it was cold and rainy. This was much more pleasant!As a bonus, we got a taste of Easter Island while we were there!After going through Kerrville, our routes took us on ranch roads which wound their way north and east to Fredericksburg. What a great afternoon!

They had some hills, and lots of curves, and “loose livestock”! This steer was standing right next to the road. Tobey has been chased by dogs a few times on this trip and I was a little worried about him being chased by cattle, but he was safe!I was driving ahead of the guys and stopped when I saw a sign that said it was the end of the county maintenance, and the color of the pavement looked like gravel. I got out and walked it. Fortunately, it was just a whitish-yellow chip seal! The road meandered up and down, through farm gates, and past lots of grazing cattle (loose). There were a few times I felt like we were going to pull into someone’s driveway and hoped that if we did, they would invite us in for pie!As they guys approached where Marcia and I were waiting for them, another bicycler came zooming up behind them! He had pedaled from Fredericksburg to Ingram and was heading back. After visiting for a while, he zoomed off and left us to our meander!

In Fredericksburg and we went visited the historic district. The German heritage is alive and well here! In the town square, Marktplatz, there is a replica of a 19th century German church that once stood in the city. There were lots of tourist stores that reminded us of Estes Park, CO!

The National Museum of the Pacific is here, as well. If you remember your US history, Fredericksburg is the boyhood home of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. Admiral Nimitz was the signing representative for the United States at the formal surrender of the Japanese on board the USS Missouri, on August 14, 1945.

We did do some shopping at Rustlin’ Rob’s. What a fun place with tasting samples of almost everything! We could have spent much longer there if it wasn’t near our dinner time!I think Tobey enjoyed today’s ride more than most days because of the quieter roads and beautiful scenery.

He went 58 miles. This is the link for today’s ride: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/31273616

This is a link that will show Tobey’s route. https://ridewithgps.com/events/71165-tobey-s-coast-to-coast-ride-2018-2019

On the left side of the map, it shows day by day stop and start points so you can look at each day’s route.

OR you can scroll to the bottom of the day-to-day and there is a box that says “Show all on Map”. If you click that, it will change the map view to show all days traveled so far.