Day 81 Seguin to Luling – 34 miles

11/19/2014

It was easy to see why man has worshipped the sun throughout history. We ran out of propane in the middle of the night so the only warmth was from the blankets. It took the morning sun to thaw my frozen body. I left the Twin Palms R.V. resort mid-morning when the sun was fully out. The energizing rays of light gave me a much needed boost of power. I had stopped short of yesterday’s target so I still needed to complete the twelve miles that remained of day 80. The midmorning run into Seguin was a brisk training pace. I took down 13 miles in one and a half hours. I didn’t pull out my camera because I wanted to make running top priority. What I remember about the first segment of the day was a cow eating away at a huge roll of hay. The other cows surrounded him and stared at his rhythmic chomping. My main thought was, everything in Texas is big.

I ran into Crystal in front of this great Mexican restaurant called El Olvido Hacienda. To my surprise, one of the owners, David, had agreed to donate lunch. After 18 miles I had worked up a huge appetite. I got lucky today because they agreed to make my chimichangas without meat. Many Mexican restaurants won’t prepare them that way. The bonus came when I found out they covered the fried burritos with nacho cheese. This was definitely the most unique and tasty chimichanga I had ever eaten.

I walked a mile at a slow pace after lunch to let my lunch settle. Once I got out of the city the scent in the air took a turn for the worse. I smelled manure and cow for miles and miles. Any time a big rig passed, a gust of smelly air breached my nostril cavity. As I approached Luling, the aroma changed from cow to black gold, Texas tea, or to most people oil. The scent was light when I spotted the first couple rigs but by the time I reached town I could taste the gooey black liquid. It’s acrid scent was everywhere. Small machines that churned non-stop to pump money into someone’s pockets. It was evidence that we were rapidly approaching Houston.

We stopped at the River Bend R.V. resort in Luling; the town known as the watermelon capital of Texas. They even have a seed spitting contest here that is very famous. The resort trains race horses and there are goats on the property. This great spot has plenty of space, a nice pool and some animals which the kids can feed and pet. Crystal was eager to do both since up to this point she hasn’t been allowed to feed or pet animals.