Around the world on a bike twice

Ray Schiflett III has had his byline on page two of the Wimberley View for as long as anyone can remember. He has donated his time and weather forecasting skills for the paper for the past couple of decades or so. But this is not about his forecasting skills or really about this newspaper. It is about traveling on the back of a bike for the distance of 49,802 miles or twice around the world.

This story starts in the legal field. For over twenty-five years he was the Director of Legal Services for Students at UT. But his real passion is riding his bicycle.

Of course he didn’t ride across oceans, but keeping track of his mileage has been the job of his support team, his ever-faithful wife Peggy. She has been traveling with him all those miles, but always ahead or behind in a car, with supplies, water, etc.

He moved here to Wimberley Hills in 1988. It was perfect on the roads with a bike, as opposed to running. “I didn’t like running although I did run a marathon,” Schiflett said.

He bought a quality trek bike “for riding around Wimberley Hills and every road in the area.” He entered a few bike races.

“The first 100K went so well, (I said to myself) I can do this…in ‘90 I did a 100 mile bike ride and that started a family tradition.” He continued.

“January 1, 1991 I decided that I needed to know how many miles…an odometer. I logged that on a record and kept a log and a running total.”

Riding all those miles means support you can rely on. A good spotter, and in his case a good spouse, is required. His wife Peggy has helped on his long treks. As a high school teacher for 36 years, summers were spent on the road behind the wheel, helping Ray to his next stop.

“It becomes an adventure. Let’s make it an adventure; we can do a whole series of trips. My wife would just roll her eyes.” At first his plan was to cross Texas, the Sabine River in East Texas to El Paso and they would of course, come through Wimberley.

“This led to ‘We can cross the U.S.’ We decided we would go on an adventure for five years… a scenic route through National Parks started west to Morro Bay, California to St. Augustine, Florida.” Peggy recorded each bicycle mile in the car with their two children. She would take them to the National Parks while he put in his miles.

He crossed Death Valley with Peggy’s help. “Death Valley was two days, 130 miles. What was bizarre. It was July, the summer, and it was cloudy and cool.” Peggy added, “It started to lightning. I had to make him get out of the lightning and hail.”

Day Two was sunny and 127º with Peggy meeting him every eight miles for hydration.

“People would drive by and think I was a crazy person, everybody gives wide berth to a crazy person,” he laughed.

South Rio Grande to Canada was another memorable trip. They have a keepsake Saskatchewan flag from Canada where they went about a mile into the country and had lunch. The flag given to them by Canadian crossing guards.

The worst of his adventures was Colorado to Wyoming. It was an early fall day, no snows had fallen yet. On the road’s shoulders were grooves that helped with drainage of snow. Unlike other states, the grooves were an inch deep.

“The bike started sliding, I hit hard and rolled. I was lucky I didn’t get killed. I broke my nose, scalp; the helmet hit and was shattered. I was badly cut and had a mild concussion…. (I thought) I’m going to die here.”

Meanwhile Peggy was fifteen miles away, and told of the accident by a passerby. Schiflett was taken to Jackson Hole where a top Hollywood doctor repaired him. “There were no scars when he was done,” he said.

He still rides the hills these days, although a lot slower and tries to take the less traveled by routes a round town.

But hey! If you do see Ray Schiflett III around town or around on the road, ask him about the time he flew into the eye of a hurricane. That is a story for another day.