Day 37: Shepherd to Kirbyville 92.84

Odo 4448.1 morn

Ho hum. Another beautiful day. Blue skys and a mild tailwind! Made great progress through beautiful pine forests, and was at my stopping point by about 3:30, so I kept going.

Met a couple traveling west. They were a bit more heavily loaded than I was. They had some difficulties that caused them to stop their trip for a few weeks. She had fallen and torn a rotator cuff, and they stopped for a few weeks for it to get better.

By the time I got to Kirbyville I was feeling a bit tired, and my butt hurt. I didn't feel nearly as wussy when I saw that I had gone 92 miles!

Ate dinner at a place called Elijah's in Kirbyville. A nice place with reasonable prices and good food. The waitress was talented, and they made me feel comfortable there. Recommended!

It's interesting to note the great variations in motel pricing. "Americas best value inn and suites" had the same rates as this 60's era motel. The Indian woman running it could see my disappointment with the price. I asked about the laundry, and she said I could use it, just come see her when I was ready. So I did, and she did my laundry for me!

Day 36: Navisota to Shepherd 83.11

I still had laundry to dry from the previous evening since the dryer
did not work. The laundry happens to be across from the brookshire
bros grocery, so I get breakfast there, and also pick up two bags of
David's gourmet chocolate chip cookies. I now am overstocked with
cookies! The day is very sunny and a little less cold than yesterday,
and it is still, or the wind is favorable. About 16 miles out I meet
another tourist headed west. He's from Liverpool, riding a Thorn exp
(a specialized touring bike), and he's headed to south America after
he gets to California. He says that there is another rider only an
hour or two ahead of me. I can't quite decide if I want to catch up to
him or not. By the end of the day I still haven't seen him, and I
think I put in a good day.
The riding highpoint was going through parts of Sam Houston national
forest. I miss the smell of the pine forest.

Day 35: Carmine to Navasota 54.46

Odo 4308.3 (morning)

10:30am sitting in the only store in Carmine eating a hamburger
because they aren't making breakfast anymore. I'm looking at the stuff
on the isles. Condensed milk, beans, soup, spam, cake mixes - and I
get an idea for a new cooking show. Something like "Convenience Store
Cookoff". Chefs vying to make great dishes with only stuff from a
typical convenience store. 7-11 ought to sponser it!

It's cold today, about 45, but pretty windy, perhaps 10-15 mph winds.
It's from the north, and I'm going east, so it's not good, but it
could be worse. Progress is mixed all day. Stopping in a country store
in Indepedence, I discover cyclists had stopped there just yesterday.
The question is: which way were they going?

Along the way I notice a spot that appeals to me. It appears to be a
small park that commorates the founding of a babtist church. It is the
park area that is most interesting. There are about 5 clumps of oak
trees in a rough circle, and each clump of oaks is itself a circle of
oaks. These trees look to be about 150-200 years old. The space had a
certain power to it, although it would be hard to verbalize it.

In Navasota, I eat and try to determine where the RV park is. I never
quite find it and end up in another Indian run motel.

Day 34: Buescher to Carmine 58.21

Odo 4250.0 (morn)

I wake up about 7:30, but consider sleeping a bit longer until a crow
perhaps 10 feet away gives a couple of really loud caws. I had been
hearing them but usually much farther away. I took it as a strong
suggestion that I should get up - I wouldn't be able to sleep with
that racket anyway. The tent fly is totally wet inside from
condensation, and totally wet outside from dew. It is foggy. I try to
shake the water off the fly, but it just makes me wet instead - I'll
just have to put it away wet today. By the time I leave, the day is
sunny, and I'm feeling too warm. I have to take off some layers. The
temperature maxes at about 64 and sunny. LaGrange comes up about 1:30,
and I eat at a dairy queen. On the way out of town I ponder stopping
at a busy laundromat, but decide one of the little towns ahead will
have something. Of course they do, but it's not laundromats, it's
antiques and real estate stores.

On the way to round top, I encounter a guy riding the route from east
to west. He is also camping out, but he looks to be carrying about 40%
of the stuff I'm taking. He says he uses compression stuffsacks to
make everything fit. I think he carries fewer insulative clothes than
I do.

At this point I need to decide where to stay for the night. I can get
to the corps of engineers campgrounds, but they always seem to be only
primitive camping. I opt for an RV campground because they will have a
laundry, and all my clothes are dirty! About half an hour before I get
there a north wind blows up, and the temperature drops. By the time I
get to the Dixieland RV Park, the wind is blowing at about 20 mph,
with gusts to 30, and the temperature is about 39, and still dropping.
The campground host shows me the tent area, and it's really windy
there! He also shows me the laundromat. I leave to get food at the
only open place, a gas station. They turn out to have BBQ, and I get a
really nice sliced brisket sandwich and new potatoes and take it back
and eat it in the laundromat, prior to doing clothes. I begin to long
for the nice still laundromat, so I ask the host, and he readily
agrees to let me sleep there, even offering a heater, which I
mysteriously decline?!

Perhaps most memorable, although painful, was my shower. The restroom
building and it's celing are separated by about a foot of open air,
and the wind is shaking the roof like it's going to blow off, and the
curtains are blowing around in the 30 degree wind like banchees. I
can't believe I'm going to do it. I turn on the shower's hot water -
and it gets hot! It's ok in the hot shower, but I know when I step
out into that swirling wind it will be bad. And it is. What I remember
is shivering hard enough to start breathing like a steam engine. The
clothing fights to cling to my damp feet defying all efforts to pull
it on quickly. I have to slow down and deliberately put the tights on,
then the insulated pants. Half dressed, it seems almost wonderful to
be only freezing half to death!

Day 33: Lockhart to Buescher State Park 50.48

Odo 4199.5 (morning)

I sleep late. I think this is mostly because it is cold in the
morning, and getting out of my warm cozy sleeping bag is very hard to
face. Every cold night I thank myself for getting a good sleeping bag
(a Marmut Pinnicle 15 degree). When I do get up, my hands hurt from
the cold while taking down the tent.
Today there is a generally favorable side wind, and I make good time
to Bastrop on the moderately busy hwy 20. It's bright and sunny and
gets to about 59 degrees by the time I stop in Bastrop at the
Hamburger Road House. While eating a car stops across the highway,
smoking. A waitress runs across the road to help them, calling 911.
It's only overheated, and the fire truck quickly assesses the
situation. The customers cheer the waitress!




The route then takes the park road between Bastrop and Buescher state
park. I have ridden this road before, but it has been years and I had
forgotten just how beautiful it was, and how steep some of the hills
were. I camp in Buescher, in a walk in area. All of the low lying
areas are soggy from recent rain. Even the park road had to be closed
from flooding, but it had been reopened by the time I reached it.

Day 32: (Feb 12) Blanco picnic tables to Lockhart 58.95

Odo 4140.4 (morning reading)

Sara takes me to the picnic area so I can resume the ride, but I have
forgotten the tent rain fly and the pillow pump for the air matress!
After talking to Steve W. ( who met us there to see me off) for a
while, we return to pickup the items. I end up leaving there about
1:20. Conditions are good, and it is easy getting to Wimberley. I
stopped at a burger place where I was served by a very talented
waitress, who cheerily informed me that their only bathroom was a
portapotty around the side of the building. Continuing, the road
becomes a bit busy all the way to Kyle. Then it's a quick run into
Lockhart where I get some BBQ at Smitty's to eat at the campsite.
The tent area is empty, so I pick the best spot next to the small
river that flows through the park.

Day 31: rest day in Austin

Rain and 38 degrees. I think resting my knee today would be a good idea!