Today started with a company Teams meeting at our KOA campground in Kerrville, TX.  We then filled our propane, diesel, and gas at their reasonably priced pumps.

We had been concerned about heating Khan for a few days.  Despite the fact that it was T-shirt weather in Kerrville late in the afternoon on Monday, overnight it went below freezing and there was frost on everything Tuesday morning.  We had gone to bed with the electric heat pump on, but at some point it couldn’t keep up and it got a bit chilly.  In the morning we changed to propane heat, which caused our anxiety about our propane level.

The drive from Texas Hill Country in Kerrville to San Angelo was very pretty.  Things flattened out a bit, and we were once more amazed at 75 mile an hour speed limits on 2-lane roads.

We arrived at the San Angelo State Park around 1:30PM – a bit before the 2PM check-in period, and found it had very spacious sites, a bathhouse with a shower, and lots of trails for exploring. However, none seemed to be Jeep trails – to do that we would have to drive 15 minutes or so to Twin Buttes, and there seemed to be lots of registration issues and such for the trails there.  After some debate we decided to use our electric bikes and explore the San Angelo trails.

We made a few mistakes.  Scott had fully charged his older and cheaper bike in Louisiana, but Tom had not after our two rides.  When Scott suggested he might want to charge it, Tom said “I still have full bars…” 

We saw the description of the trails, which were typically “great for beginning or intermediate mountain bikers.”  There was no mention of their suitability for elderly men on folding Chinese electric bikes.  How hard could they be…

Most were OK.  Some were kinda narrow and required concentration.  A few Scott found to be pretty freaking scary.  At one point we hit three sections that were so steep downward that we had to walk the bikes holding the brakes had and skidding the tires.  At one point we found water deep enough that we had to turn around.  Luckily we did not have to turn around after going down the cliffs skidding the tires…

Tom ended up with a cactus thorn through his kinda-wimpy sneakers.  Scott had several thorns that penetrated his jeans and stuck into his leg.  Both of us pulled them out successfully on the trail. Both were missed photo opportunities.

Towards the end, we were 1-2 miles away when Tom’s extra-range Lectric bike showed only one bar of charge, and could only muster 8 MPH at full throttle (normally 20).  But – we both made it back.  Steve would have said “these bikes weren’t designed for this.”  Tom still insists they were fine.  Scott is undecided, but at any rate he recently updated his will.

Dinner was chicken on the grill – the first time we used the grill this trip.  Was great.

Tomorrow we leave Texas for Hobbs, NM.