tour du jour: castroville

It has been a few months now that i have been going into work 6 days a week. I am supposed to be off Sundays and Mondays. Monday is a typically busy day though, and since they're all about numbers at work, well...they figure if they have everyone there they will make their numbers. This means that Sunday is my only full day off. I am not sure what this has to do with anything, except i think it is a factor in why i ride my bike so often.

Lately I have been tired, tired in more than one sense of the word. So I spent this Sunday sleeping up until about 1pm. it felt great until i realized it was a beautiful day out and i was missing it.

Recently, one of the people i follow on twitter.com posted up a trip route to Castroville. He seems to get a lot of good use out of his GPS, and it's one of those things that makes me wonder what the world would be like without Google. This blog wouldn't be here either! Now, I used to live in Castroville, so his post caught my eye. He lives way up on the north part of San Antonio, so to get to Castroville by bike is no small feat. Consider that if he were to drive at 55 or 60 it would probably still take over an hour. I am not sure what speed he averages on bike, but I probably do 12-15 at best.

It has been some time since i lived in Castroville, but my p.o. box is still out there. When i worked out there it was much easier to check it at least once a week, but i haven't worked out there in about 2 years and these days its more likely that 2 weeks or more go by without checking it. So, let's just say that when i saw his post about pedaling to Castroville, i was inspired to try. It is not that far for me. I am not sure why i was thinking it was 20 miles, but it turned out to be 27.2 miles (43.77 km)from my house to the post office round trip.

That probably doesn't sound like a lot of mileage, but there are quite a few uphills. Actually, i would say the first 7 miles or so is largely uphill. Even when you're not on an actual hill, there is an incline. With all the pedaling I do in this hill country, I'd like to think I can handle the hills now. What really sucked was riding against the wind. It was a very windy day. I made it though, and i look forward to the next time.

Well, it is 3 in the morning and i have to be at work at 8. so i leave you with these pictures from my cell. Next time i will take my real camera. Click to enlarge!