Good ride today with busy traffic. Skies continued overcast, with southeast winds. Hence, it was mostly a cross wind today. I started with the same pattern of departure just before sunrise. It must have been very close to time the high school started as quite a few cars & buses out and about until just past the high school. After that it became quieter as I cycled over gentle hills on 220. Without too much trouble, reached US 67 at 14 miles.

Lots of truck traffic from here on in. Still a lot of these gravel trucks, oil drilling trucks and also half a dozen different places with some level of road construction. The shoulder was a bit bumpy but mostly there. Climbed over the hill at Chalk Mountain and then some winding gentle hills to come into Glen Rose for a late breakfast at 27 miles. From Glen Rose, lots more truck traffic. Just past the Brazos River, a several mile gentle climb. Hmmm… I don’t remember descending this. Nevertheless, fairly quick cycling against the cross wind. At this point, I decided to take the business route into the town of Cleburne. Good place to stop for lunch here and determine the next steps. I didn’t quite want to stop here for the day – but also didn’t want to go the ~30 miles I expected until the next motel on 917. So, instead decided to turn north (downwind) and follow 174.

This route went a little quicker. It was mostly 4 or 6 lanes of busy traffic, passing through one or two urban areas. There was a fair amount of debris on the shoulder. Otherwise straightforward cycling. TX 174 ends at I-35 and I was hoping to find some motels at the end point, as well as a frontage road along the interstate. Before I knew it, I was on a ramp with two choices: “I-35W southbound” and “I-35W northbound”. The normal frontage road exit was closed due to construction. So, I got off the bike and walked the bike across and through some of the construction zone to pick my way to nearby frontage road. Yeah! Not much further here were two motels. The first was busy, but second had room.

67 miles today. Today is first day of spring, so after this longer days going further north.