Day 5 - San Antonio to Gonzales

The Route

Today's route from San Antonio to Gonzales started south through the center of San Antonio, along the Mission Trail and then back north through Seguin to Gonzales. The trip down through the center of the city was very scenic and the missions were spectacular. We hit some initial traffic on the way through, but once we got to the Mission Trail the traffic subsided and things were very smooth.

Surprisingly the roads were mostly smooth as well, at least until we hit Alt-US 90 out of Seguin to Columbus. At this point we hit some roughly paved road for the 35 mile segment into Gonzales. We were all ecstatic when that section of road was over with and we had arrived at our destination. The route also took us along side Randolph Air Force Base. Paul was able to share some of his experience with the Air Force and airplanes with us. He was able to point out what each plane was and what its use was within the Air Force.

The Ride

Today's ride went by without a maintenance or mechanical problem. It was a relief not to have to stop and deal with a flat tire or a broken rack. Hopefully there will be very few incidents in the coming days as well.

The Missions

The San Antonio missions were an excellent history lesson for all of us. Of the five standing missions we were able to visit 4 of them. We would have visited the fifth, but high water rushing across a bridge prevented us from getting there on our route.

The missions we visited were Alamo, San Juan, Concepcion, and Espada. Each mission had its own character and somewhat its own style. Some were more ornate than others, and one included a very large courtyard that was a kind of bazaar in the early days of the mission. We had a great time wandering through each of them, even though we were told a few times that bikes weren't allowed in the missions. We weren't about to leave our bikes outside the missions. We all know what happened to Pee-Wee's bike when he did that, plus we all knew there wasn't really a basement in the Alamo.

Seguin

Seguin was the lunch stop on our map. Unfortunately we arrived in Seguin at about 3 pm and the restaurants down town had already closed for the day. We ended up eating some chicken strips at the local Dairy Queen and getting a Blizzard to top it off. Maybe not the most carbohydrate loaded lunch we could imagine, but we were starving at this point in the day. After loading up on ice cream it was time to get back in the saddle and head to our overnight stop in Gonzales, Texas. 

Gonzales

This small farming community was where a battle preceding the Battle of the Alamo was fought. In 1836 Sam Houston ordered nearly all of Gonzales to be burned to the ground to prevent the buildings and other supplies from being overtaken by General Santa Anna.

We ate an excellent authentic Mexican meal in Gonzales at a restaurant in downtown Gonzales. We called a cab to come get us, which in a town as small as Gonzales was an interesting experience. The man who picked us up in his "cab" was a nice guy, but we didn't notice any taxi licenses anywhere in the car. I guess there are very few taxi regulations in Gonzales. "The Ranchito" comes very highly recommended from this group of Quattro Assi.

After dinner we quickly settled into bed and got our sleep for the next day's adventure to Columbus.

Riding Update

The ride today had a variety of challenges. The wind was again from the south, so wandering down through the missions was challenging riding. From the missions we went north to get to Lower Seguin road and were treated to a tail wind and some very easy, comfortable riding. Once we reached Seguin we had to turn to the south east and were once again treated to a nasty wind coming from the south to south-east. We finally organized ourselves into a pace line and rotated the lead to try to keep everyone fresh and make good time getting into Gonzales. 

By the time we reach Gonzales we were all tired and dehydrated. We left Seguin with full water bottles, but there was only one stop light from Seguin to Gonzales, and there were no convenience stores at that stop light. Unfortunately we had to go 35 miles without a water stop and were very ready for some liquid upon arrival.

Miles: 94.55
Average Speed: 14.31 mph
Total Trip: 263.58 Miles
Total Average Speed: 15.91 mph

Weather

The day's weather started off wet. It had rained overnight and was still sprinkling as we were getting ready to leave. Though as we got started riding it stopped raining and the sun came out. Reminded me a little of the beach with the early morning rain and the quick clearing. As we approached Gonzales we became worried about storms. The skies began to get very dark and appeared that it could storm at any moment. When we arrived in Gonzales we learned that San Antonio and Dallas had each had pretty intense storms that evening. The high temperature for the day was 86*.