Monday March 2, 2015

I really needed that discussion with Ralf yesterday, it helped me get my thoughts in order and a better attitude to the Grand Adventure.

I woke up with a mild headache, probably weather related. It was overcast and foggy to start the day, by the time we left it was still overcast but the fog had lifted.

It was a lovely route today, we cycled through a wooded area, part of the Big Thicket.

When we turned on to the main road (Hwy 105) that was a good ride.  The shoulder was wide (part of the evacuation route) and the cars still passed us with lots of room to spare.

Spring is all around us. The trees are beginning to blossom and we saw a beautiful tree which had a stunning pink/cerise blossom, I thought it might be a cherry tree, but I really don’t know the trees down here. Whenever we stopped we were serenaded by birds, we saw numerous cardinals and blue Jays. It was a really nice ride.

We saw our first Texan oil pumper.

Although the route took us through some countryside and passed some dogs most of the dogs were either behind fences or chained, there was only one dog that gave chase, but “Mark Cavendish” kicked in and we were gone before he even got to his property line.

Ralf went to do shopping and I went to find a Laundromat. I asked where the laudromat was and people looked at me as if I was speaking a foreign language, it is actually called a washeteria here. I was the only English speaking person in the washeteria everyone else was Mexican.

We had a silly incident today – we were in Town and a lady came out of her house with a big dumb dog, to fetch her mail.  The dog made an effort to run after Ralf.  I waited at the stop sign until the woman got control of the dog.  The dog came back to me and he was a big friendly dumb dog, but as soon as I started to cycle he chased me.  I asked the lady to control him, but she couldn\’t he was too big for her.  She eventually got him back into the house but not until I told her that although he was friendly all he needed to do was bump my bike and I would be on the ground. She didn\’t get it – \”He won\’t hurt you, he\’s friendly\” I indicated that I really didn\’t like dogs chasing me. Some people just don’t understand how scary it is when a dog chases you, even if those dogs are “friendly”.