Day 35: Friday, 4/10/15, Silsbee, TX (73º at 6:30 am) to De Ridder, LA (70º at 2:00 pm) 73 miles, elevation changes: +864/-720.

Today’s Theme: I am in Louisiana for the first time in my life. The 1000+ mile riding adventure across TX is over. I feel cheated because the “Welcome to LA” sign wasn’t there. I did get a picture of the Sabine River that is the boundary line between TX and LA. I also got a picture leaving TX with a handmade cardboard sign by Chandler, our bicycle technician, who took the picture. I hope that you can read the sign. See below.

The roads we rode on today were very smooth and tree lined with no views of any kind until just before reaching De Ridder, where we are staying in the Quality Inn tonight, where the views opened up to fields being farmed. As you can see by the elevation gain/lose over our 73 miles, the land is basically flat. The weather started out very humid, no wind and with a thin overcast. I left early because of the forecast again for thundershowers. A cold front came through at about 9:30 changing the wind direction from the south to the north. We rode pretty much northeast today, thus the wind was an 8 – 10 mph headwind during the last third of the ride.

Biking stats: 73.3 miles ridden in 4 hours and 32 minutes averaging 16.2 mph with a top speed of 25.5 mph.

Highlights:

• Entering LA. I have never been to LA before. This is my third new state to visit counting NM & TX.
• Riding at a +17 mph rate until the head wind picked up. I still averaged 16.2 mph over 73 miles that is really good for me. 

There were thunderstorms passing just north of Silsbee, where we stayed last night, when I left at 7 am. The clouds made for a very beautiful early morning sky.

Horses along the way, still in TX.

Leaving TX. Not a great picture, taken by Chandler our bike mechanic. Try to read the cardboard sign he put up.

 The Sabine River, the boundary separating TX and LA.

The landscape as I was entering De Ridder, LA. None of today's landscape was exciting. All the vegetation is very green and lush.

Make it a great day!

John

Day 34: Thursday, 4/9/15, Shepherd, TX (73º at 6:30 am) to Silsbee, TX (81º at 2:00 pm) 61 miles, elevation changes: +745/-805.

Theme for the day: Riding on virtually flat, boring terrain with truly nothing interesting to look at. This was a first. The weather, for the 5^th day was the same: humid, cloudy until about 1:00 pm with wind out of the south 10 – 15 mph with gusts to 23 mph. The most fun in the last 24 hours was where we stayed last night, the Shepherd Sanctuary. See the pictures below.

Bike stats: 61.1 miles ridden in 3 hours and 57 minutes, averaging 15.5 mph with a top speed of 28.6 mph. (Note the high average rate of speed; it was really flat today.)

Highlights:

• There were no real highlights, a highlight unto itself since it has never happened.
• Staying last night at the Shepherd Sanctuary. It was one weird place.
• This is our last night in TX. Can you guess what a highlight will be for tomorrow?

Picture taken through my fairing showing just how boring the views were throughout today.

The Shepherd Sanctuary. The pictures speak for themselves regarding just how weird this place is.

Sorry, this picture is upside down, but does it really matter?

Here are the doors going into the showers and toilets. Which door would you choose? Last year there were no doors, just a sheet in front of each.

Make it a great day!

John

Day 33: Wednesday, 4/8/15, Richards, TX (70º at 6:30 am) to Shepherd, TX (81º at 2:45 pm) 67 miles, elevation changes: +1750/-1964.

Today’s theme is the weather -- it is also tomorrow's theme since the weather on Thursday is exactly the same  (I am finishing this on Thursday because I had no means to post it yesterday.)  For the 4^th day (and on Thursday the 5th day) in a row it is hazy, humid, mostly cloudy, a temperature in the low 80’s with 12 – 16 mph southerly winds gusting to 25mph. We are only 75 miles north of Houston/Galveston and the Gulf of Mexico coast. The humid air is being pumped in from the Gulf. It feels just like Cape Cod on a windy humid day in July.

Bike stats: 67.1 miles ridden in 4 hrs and 31 minutes of actual biking, averaging 14.8 mph with a top speed of 29.4 mph

Highlights:

• Finally receiving my new replacement rear fender and installing it yesterday morning during our rest day. I am now ready for wet weather which if forecasted for Friday into early next week.
• Riding on roads that were the smoothest, except for about 10 miles, today that we have experienced in TX. It was heaven not to bounce on the chip & seal.
• The wind was a cross wind for most of the day except the last 16 miles when it was diagonal headwind. I must have gotten used to the wind. It didn’t seem to really affect me one-way or the other.
• We are now riding on the TX coastal plane. The terrain is gentle rolling landscape, easy to ride through.
• Riding through the Sam Houston National Forest. It is all tall pines and oaks. It looks a lot like the Maine coastal plane except the pines aren’t hemlocks or Eastern White Pine, they are loblolly. Even the soil is sandy.

Sam Houston National Forest. The second picture is taken through my fairing with my iPhone that is mounted under it.

 A lake in Sam Houston National Forest. It looks a lot like Bickford Pond, the lake where our Maine cottage is located.

Big Blue's new rear fender.

Steers at the Mexican Hill Ranch where we had our rest day.

Our tents at the Mexican Hill Ranch.

Make it a great day!

John

Day 31: Monday, 4/6/15, La Grange, TX (71º at 6:30 am) to Richards, TX (81º at 3:45 pm) 87 miles, elevation changes: +3090/-3061.

This today’s theme is primitive housing.  It was a fabulous day to ride 87+ miles. I was off at 7:05 am, my earliest yet, on a cloudy, very humid day with no wind. About 9:30 the wind really started blowing, 10 – 15 mph with gusts to 25 out of the south. We were basically riding to the east-northeast, thus it was a cross wind and at times an angled tail wind. It cleared up and became partly cloudy by 11 am. It remained humid, but never got much over 80º.  I drank well over a gallon of a combination of water, Gatorade, a DQ vanilla milk shake, and V8 juice (V8 has a lot of potassium which helps prevent leg muscle cramps). The road surface was mostly smooth with only a few rough sections.  The landscape was rolling hills, just like yesterday, thus the high elevation gain and loss. I’m sorry to bore you with details about the weather, the road conditions, and the landscape, but these are the bikers life on the road.

I travelled through cattle country. I took very few pictures; yesterday’s pictures showed the landscape we rode through today. We are getting closer to the Gulf of Mexico., thus rolling, gentle hills. The blue bonnets and Indian paint brush flowers (Thanks to Carol Williams for emailing me last night the name of the orange flowers.) were everywhere, so beautiful.

I did pass several log cabins, the type the first settlers lived in. See the pictures below. I also promised to tell you about life living in a tent. This today’s theme is primitive housing.

Bike stats: 89.6 miles ridden in 6 hours and four minutes of actual biking time, averaging 14.7 mph with a maximum speed of 34.3 mph.

Highlights:

• Having Astronaut Bill McArthur give our Coast-2-Coast group a lecture last night about his 6 months living on the International Space Station. Bubba Barron, our trip coordinator and leader is full of surprises.
• Biking, very successfully today our second longest mileage day, 89.6 miles. Big Blue and I are totally in sync as a team.
• Seeing original log cabins of the type lived in by the first settlers.
• Seeing the statue of Frank Hamer, the famous TX Ranger who killed Bonnie and Clyde.
• Arriving at the Mexican Hill Ranch in Richards, TX where we stay for two nights; tomorrow in a rest day. 

Two original log cabins of the type first lived in by settlers in the late 1800’s early 1900’s, very primitive.

A statue of Frank Hamer, the TX Ranger who killed Bonnie and Clyde.

My tent, T4. The Wolf Pack -- 5 young men who do all the heavy lifting setting up and taking down camp each night and morning -- set-up T4 each afternoon putting inside my two bags with my air matters blown up. The last picture is how the interior of T4 looks with my belongings all laid out. The toughest challenge is getting up and down off the mattress. I sleep really well each night because I have gotten really good and putting foam earplugs into my ears to cut out all the snoring, traffic noise, train noise, the wind, and other noise depending on where we camp.

Make it a great day!

John