Day 1 of our 3-day credit card tour in central Texas - we had perfect weather, great scenery, and adventures with new friends. Today we rode from Waco to Clifton on many beautiful back roads. Starting out from Waco, we headed toward Lake Waco, to the west of the city. I was amazed at the incredibly steep climbs getting out of town to the west - saw 14% on a couple climbs. I always thought Waco was relatively flat! Owing to flooding from recent rain with the lake out of it's banks in several places, our way was frequently barred, forcing detours. We had lunch in Crawford - burgers were great! Then as we were heading out of Crawford a few miles, we passed the turn off to Bush's ranch - nothing of note there - a sign indicating "not a through road" - an incognito approach to the ranch. We didn't turn down that road. Then, headed toward Valley Mills and encountered a couple of low water crossings that were best crossed by walking the bikes. The climb out of one of them was a gravel road which peaked at 13% incline before reaching the top of the canyon. At another point, later, we emerged from the detours taking a road with a high bridge over the river that had barred us. We emerged onto a road very familiar to me - the downhill from the south that took us north to Valley Mills (part of the 300k route from Gatesville to Valley Mills). After replenishing water and taking in a few calories at the store in Valley Mills, we headed west on SH 6 for a couple miles before turning onto a gravel and dirt road that would go on for about 7 mostly uphill miles. I actually struggled keeping up along here until I decided to get serious and put it in the big ring - then I had no trouble at all! The riding surface wasn't very rough for most of it. At the top, we climbed some more on pavement before taking a left and a screaming downhill into the outskirts of Clifton. We crossed the Whipple Truss bridge at the edge of town. The bridge crosses the North Bosque River and dates from 1884. It was never a railroad bridge - instead it started off as a crossing for horse-drawn vehicles as well as walkers and horse riders. Today it is paved but as vehicles go over the bridge it gives you a good shake - really not making it inspiring to hang around with vehicles crossing. A few minutes later we reached our hotel. It had been a long day with the unplanned detours and the 67 expected miles becoming 77 miles. But all was good - no one was too put out by the extra miles.  
I had originally planned on riding my Bacchetta on this tour. But the promise of several miles of dirt and gravel roads dissuaded me. There were also a lot of steep climbs on all 3 days as well as back roads with loads of potholes that were hard to avoid even sitting up higher on a road bike. So this trip I rode the road bike and was more comfortable than if I'd been on the bent what with the difficult road surfaces in places. First day ride was 77 miles with 2600 ft of climbing. It wasn't fast - only a 13.4 avg but with touring and sightseeing, back roads, no GPS route link because the route was being made up as we went along, and varying abilities in the group, slow was the order of the day. I didn't mind in the least!
 
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1141042739
 
Day 2 of our 3-day credit card tour took us from Clifton to Cranfills Gap to Gatesville. We left Clifton on a road familiar to me from frequent randonneur rides but we soon turned off to cross a dramatically hilly area on the way to Cranfills Gap. Very unusual flowers were blooming in this area and I was loving the long ascents and descents. A short distance from Cranfills Gap we passed St Olaf Lutheran Church. This church was built on property purchased for $25 in 1884, on a rise above the Meridian Creek Valley and about 4 miles east of Cranfills Gap. It was completed in 1886, built of native Limestone, quarried from the surrounding hills. After lunch at Cranfills Gap, another great burger, we headed west on a long climb before a great descent from the hills we had been traversing. Within a mile, we turned left, climbing a portion of the escarpment we had just descended, then headed southwest to another stop, after another 20 miles, to Jonesboro. Here we took a break, had some cool drinks, and got ready for our final 27 miles of the day. We took backroads for the most part toward Gatesville and paralleled SH 36 for much of it. We climbed the rest of the escarpment we had previously descended, and eventually intersected SH 36 just on the north side of Gatesville. SH 36, I learned while reviewing Google Maps, is part of the 36th Division Memorial Hwy. SH 36 in this area received that designation in September 1939. The 36th Division is the Texas National Guard. We turned right on SH 36 (Bus), passed the 8 mostly women's prisons, and reached our hotel - 67 miles down and 2700 ft of climbing. It was another great day of riding!
 
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1141042788
 
Day 3 - rode from Gatesville to Waco by way of Ogelsby, McGregor, Woodway, and Beverly Hills. Gatesville takes its name from Fort Gate, established in 1849 about 5 miles west of the present city. On my Facebook post, I said that Fort Hood now occupies the previous Fort Gate. That is not true. The Fort Gate site is accessed via the Old Fort Gate Road. It is adjacent to Fort Hood. Gatesville was founded in 1854 and is home to 8 prisons including one housing Texas' women's death row. The city's population of just under 16000 includes 8500 prisoners and two thirds of the prisoners are women.  
 
We roughly paralleled US 84 on the way back to Waco and stopped in McGregor for breakfast, even though it was 11 AM by then. Until we reached suburbs of Waco, we were out in the fields, enjoying views of new corn planting, grass, and wild flowers. There was a strong south wind but that wasn't much of an issue as we mostly headed east to slightly northeast and at the end, more northerly in direction. We ended the third day with 48 miles and 1200 ft of climbing. It was an excellent ride but it was nice to get into the car with plenty of time to get home in daylight.
 
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1141042835
 
Hope to post a link to photos by the end of the week.

Yes, there are photos, but currently they are only on Facebook. I need to download the photos from the phone and then post them on Picasa. That may happen later this week.