Wed, 10/29/2025; 42 miles, 1909 feet of climb
What a day! I feel like I’m nearing the end of a movie, with all the characters coming together and everything building to a climax. Today I had three great meals for the first time of the entire trip, I was with people nearly all day (including a very special escort), had a Christmas Miracle at the Apple Store, and experienced an amazing random encounter on the bike trail in San Antonio.
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The day started with a great breakfast cooked by my host, Leslie Knight — bacon, eggs, waffles, and coffee. I recorded an interview with her for my eventual YouTube video, and got a photo of me with my cheesehead helmet from RAGBRAI and her wearing her Air Force Cycling jersey.
The USAF team is legendary on RAGBRAI, the world’s largest and oldest recreational bike ride. They are “trail angels” who are always helping fix bikes, directing traffic after an accident, and helping out in any way possible.
I posted the photo of us on the RAGBRAI Facebook page, since it was such an honor to be hosted by a member of the distinguished Air Force Cycling Team.
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The first eight miles to Boerne on 474 were scary — probably the most dangerous of the whole trip. Every vehicle was careful when passing, but it takes only one distracted driver to ruin your day. So I made good use of my rear-view mirror, getting off the shoulderless road if there were more than a couple of cars in a row coming up. Or a big semi.
I also got off to the side before any section with a big dip to cross a creek, or if there was a guard rail coming up, to wait for a gap in the traffic.
But hey, I had a TAILWIND! And it was strong from the north — 19 mph by 11 AM. That north wind also brought some cooler temperatures…it didn’t get out of the 50s until noon.
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After a couple of quick breaks at gas stations (so nice to see those again more than once every 50 miles), I reached the Apple Store at La Cantera at about 1 PM.
I’ve been waiting to stop in at an Apple Store for nine days, since I shattered my brand new iPhone 17 out in the west Texas town of Marathon. The parts are not available yet to fix it, so I need to buy a new one and then sell this one once it can be fixed in a few months.
In extended conversations with Apple nine days ago, they said there were no replacement phones (17 Pro with 1 TB) available in San Antonio, and the nearest one was in Austin. So I ordered and paid for the one in Austin. I would just get it at the of my trip.
The problem is, when it became available two days later, I had only seven days to get it. That deadline was today, and I was still three days’ ride away from Austin due to my planned stops.
So I figured I’d talk to a real live human at the Apple store in San Antonio. I thought if I could plead my case, and he could see my damaged phone and that I was on a bicycle trip, maybe he might have mercy and persuade the Austin store to hold onto my new phone for three more days.
Unfortunately, he said there were no exceptions, and that it is “systematic“ — once that week is up, that phone is put back in circulation, and I am issued a full refund.
So that was the bad news. The good news, however, is that — guess what? They now have the exact one I need in stock in San Antonio! Even the same color!
So I snapped that up and stuffed it into my panniers. (AFTER having them install the protective screen.) I decided not to do any of the transferring now, but wait ‘til I get home. I still have PTSD from that debacle in del Rio, almost not having a working phone.
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As I was wrapping up my Apple Store business, my son David popped into the store! He had just returned from a wedding in Iowa, and came to escort me through San Antonio on his bike. He lives in Northeast San Antonio, and his house is where I’m staying tomorrow night. But today we are going to another house, and we took some very interesting new concrete bike trails through town.
Suddenly a guy riding a “trike” pulled onto the trail, spotted my cheesehead, and said “Hey –– I just read your Facebook post about RAGBRAI!”
We couldn’t believe it! This guy was a fellow RAGBRAI rider, on the adaptive cycling team. I think my son David was a little surprised at how tight knit the RAGBRAI community is. Rob Sabin and I are now friends, and I’m sure we’ll see each other in Iowa next year.
My ride was longer than expected today, and much more climbing than I had planned, but it was still a great day, because the fierce tailwinds and having company and the Apple news.
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And about 4 PM it got even better, when we showed up at the home of Nate and Amanda de Koning. My wife and I have known Amanda since she was a little girl 40 years ago, when we moved to a small town in the mountains west of Colorado springs, Woodland Park. We joined a small group Bible study with her parents, so we got to see Amanda and her three siblings every Friday night.
Our lives have intertwined much since then, with our daughter nannying her four kids for a couple of summers, and her husband Nate mentoring our son‘s parachute team at the Air Force Academy, and our son David living with them for a while in San Antonio during pilot training.
Nate was gone at a pastors’ conference, but three of their four sons were home, Sam, Jaden, and Jaxon. It was great to spend the evening with friends and David. Amanda served up a great meal of salmon, with lemon glazed cake for dessert.
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David went home to get some sleep before he has to work tomorrow. While he’s working, I’ll be weaving through the trails of San Antonio seeing some sites on my way to his house tomorrow night. The MAXIMUM wind speed predicted for today is only 4 mph!
The trip‘s getting so fun now that I’m not sure I want it to end! But my very last day of the trip on Saturday, San Marcos to Austin, is supposed to feature 15–20 mph headwinds and rain. So maybe I’ll be ready to end after all.
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TRANSLATIONS/BACKGROUND: “TEXBIRD” = Texas Bike Ride, my own nickname for the 800 miles in the middle of Southern Tier Bicycle Route, from El Paso to Austin, using maps from ACA (Adventure Cycling Association). This will complete my ride of the Southern Tier from the Pacific Ocean (San Diego) to the Atlantic Ocean (Jacksonville). (I biked the 1500 miles from Austin to Jacksonville in March 2024, and the 1000 miles from San Diego to El Paso in February 2025.)
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LINKS:
Old-fashioned BLOG if you have friends who don’t use Facebook:
“Old Scouter” Facebook page if you want to follow big adventures with more pictures and video clips (but not unrelated personal posts):
“Old Scouter” YouTube page (when I get time to edit after the trip):