Update 3/21
Day #29
Today: Corsicana, TX, to Tyler, TX (77 miles)
Total miles: 1598
Tomorrow (plan): Rest day in Tyler, TX
We started getting ready early today and we were able to have breakfast and depart Corsicana by 8:30 AM. The weather was good and there was a very mild breeze as we started out. The 35-mile stretch from Corsicana to Athens was pretty flat, so we made good time. As we arrived in Athens, the frequency and grade of the hills increased, slowing us down considerably for the 40-mile "home stretch" into Tyler. Tyler is where I spent the first 18 years of my life, but it's a completely different town now. I knew from my last few visits to Tyler that there was a short-cut from TX 31 (which we were following from Athens) to the loop which goes around Tyler, so I decided to take it to shorten our ride. Bad decision. When you ride on a road in a car, you don't see everything that will affect a cyclist, unless you are consciously scouting the road for cycling. So, on my previous trips across this short-cut I hadn't noticed that: (1) there is absolutely no shoulder on this two-lane road; (2) it has some killer hills, at least for a fully loaded tandem; and (3) everybody likes to take this short-cut, so that there is lots of traffic. Needless to say, the distance may have been less, but it took a substantially longer time to traverse it. We arrived at the home of my sister Mary and her husband Walter at about 5:30 PM, probably 45 minutes to an hour later than we might have if it had not been for the route I chose. We were still early as far as they were concerned, since I had told Mary to expect us between 6:00 and 7:00 PM. After a delicious meal topped off with banana nut cake (two slices for me) we showered and got ready for a much needed rest day. Our last one was when we sat out the bad weather in Ft. Stockton on 3/10, so we're ready for a day out of the saddle.