Tuesday March 3, 2015

A great day and a great ride. We had contacted a warmshowers in Conroe at the last minute. Sheila called us back and told us we would be welcome to stay with her, she told us she was a teacher and would be home around 5:00pm.

We only had a short ride to get to Conroe. We left the motel late at 10:45 and had a great ride to Conroe.

We spotted this flea market and Ralf stopped to take some photos.

The flea market was for sale and had all the stalls custom built for the market.

As Ralf was taking the photos a car stopped and a lady got out for a chat. When she discovered I had an English accent, she wanted me to speak to her Mum who was in the car. Of course, I obliged and I chatted to a lovely lady who has all the episodes of “As Time Goes By”!

We went through the City of Cut and Shoot, but could not find out why it was called Cut and Shoot.

Conroe is a large city with a very fast growing population, primarily due to the oil industry. A lot of the Head Offices of major oil companies are moving to Conroe. Conroe has the dubious claim to fame of inventing fracking.

However, Conroe has a lovely historic downtown and we spent some time wandering around the area. In 1912 there was a massive fire downtown which burned down a large number of the buildings.  An ordinance was passed that all new buildings would be made from brick.  Ralf had his beard trimmed in one of the many barber shops downtown.

We went to the Flag Park –

In December of 2005, Craig Campobella envisioned the flag park while passing the Montgomery County Library. This beautiful and unique vision was soon in the planning stages as Campobella sketched and researched early Texas History. After approaching the city with his idea of a park celebrating Montgomery County as the birthplace of the Lone Star Flag, Campobella asked Dave Clements, a well-known photographer, to get involved. Campobella designed the concept of the park, complete with the flags and a maquette of the statue that would be named the, “Texian,” while Clements began researching sources for funding. Between the two men, two different City Councils, two Mayors, hundreds of dedicated volunteers, and a five year planning process, the groundbreaking finally occurred in 2010 with the grand opening on April 21, 2011.

It is a lovely park located next to the Montgomery County Library

The bronze monumental sculpture, by award-winning sculptor Craig Campobella, captures the look of the average fighting volunteer during the Texas Revolution, portraying a veteran of the revolution after the Battle of San Jacinto and on the day the Lone Star flag was first unfurled. The 14 ft. bronze is full of symbolism, with 13 rocks under the left foot representing the 13 day siege at the Alamo, 342 marks in those rocks, one for each man massacred at Goliad, 18 buttons on his coat, shirt and pants; each standing for every minute in the Battle of San Jacinto. Under his right toe is a stone inscribed with the name, Santa Anna symbolizing the years of discomfort he continued to give the Republic of Texas

At about 2:00 pm we headed up Hwy 105 towards the warmshowers host, but stopped at a small café for lunch. Everywhere we stopped today people  chatted to us, Texans are very friendly.

The weather forecast was for rain, although there was some cloud cover, it didn’t rain. The temperature was 23 degrees C and the sun kept coming out. Only one dog gave chase, what more could you ask for.  All in all a good day.

The bonus was the wonderful warmshowers host. We went out to a Mexican restaurant with her – on Tuesday nights she meets up with friends for half-price margeritas and dinner. She asked if we wanted to go or stay at home. We opted for half-price margeritas!! It was a really nice evening. When we got back to Sheila’s house we talked until past 11:00 about her upcoming cycle trip with her daughter this summer. They are going to cycle the western coastline.

Sheila is a wildlife expert and assists in rehabilitating wildlife.  At the moment she is feeding baby squirrels.

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”.

Sunday March 1, 2015

I think we may be made of sugar. We don’t like riding in the rain. Woke up to heavy rain, and decided to take an early rest day. As I have been feeling rather miserable about cycling and not really enjoying the Grand Adventure at the moment, we also decided to look at our options for continuing cycling in this weather or taking a time-out.

We spent some time discussing our options, looking into house-sitting or Helpx as well as taking the train to San Diego or flying back to Spain where it is warmer at the moment! House-sitting may be an option for the Part Two of the Grand Adventure. House sitting involves looking after someone’s house while they are away, and looking after pets or gardens often for an extended amount of time. For example, if we were to go to Australia again we could look after a place while the owner is away in Europe. We have decided to definitely look into this when we get back to Canada as we will be able to set up our profile and get our police background checks in place. Helpx is not really an option for us, as it definitely involves longer stays. Most of the positions are for organic farms and require a fair amount of work for room and board. May be great for younger people, but not for us.

Ralf doesn’t really want to do another fast forward, either by train or plane.  He is frustrated about the administration and the amount of time it takes to plan the route.  Which is strange because when we were in New Zealand we were taking each day as it came, going as far as we felt like cycling and changing up the route as and when we wanted to, now I am back to planning a week ahead. Why is that?  We both know that me not being in control is out of my comfort zone. Not knowing what, when, how and how much it will cost is definitely out of my comfort zone.  I thought I was doing really well, but I guess not. It changed after France, where we were struggling to find warmshowers, because of the short notice, and the campsites were few and far between in Spain and Portugal.

The other option of taking a train or flying back to Europe involves giving up on the US and Canada, and we really don’t like to give up.

It is not feasible to go back to Barrie – it is even colder up there. There are financial issues to consider: we have paid in advance for our storage fees, we would not get any refund for taking our stuff out of storage earlier. I don’t want to waste money doing that. Our re-start fund is tied up until October and I don’t want to take a penalty on that either. Control?

So the answer is we are going to keep slogging on.

The roads in the US have been good with wide shoulders, the cars have given us plenty of room, I cannot complain about the cycling conditions, it really boils down to the weather.

Back to enjoying each day, as it comes. We are not in any rush, we are supposed to be enjoying our freedom to go where we want, when we want and not sticking to a timetable. I have been relying upon the internet for accommodation, because there are no Tourist Information offices in a lot of the Towns that we are going through. No more booking ahead and having to cycle, there are churches and fire stations we can ask if we can sleep inside, if we cannot camp.

We will have rain showers for the next couple of days and hopefully be able to find cheap motels until it warms up when we can start camping again.

We are in Texas, how great is that?

Saturday February 28, 2015

A great start to our day, we were going to head out at 9:00 am but got chatting to Debbie and Sidney and didn’t leave until 10:30 am. We could have stayed all morning chatting to them, but we had to get moving. Debbie was working from 2:00 to 10:00 yesterday so we didn’t get a chance to chat to her last night. They are a really nice couple and have a great sense of humour. Debbie and Sidney are not cyclists and yet they still welcome strangers into their home. They give generously of their time and we really enjoyed staying with them. We hope they come up to Canada and visit us.

We talked about Obama Care, which of course we thought is a great idea. But it isn’t necessarily a good thing for everyone. Debbie had Health Insurance and a full-time job, she told us that because her health insurance didn’t reach the minimum that Obama care requires it is no longer accepted by some Doctors or hospitals. Employers have to pay for Obama care if their employees work more than 38 hours. Debbie’s hours were cut from 38 to 28 so that the employer does not have to pay for Obama care insurance.  Their local hospital no longer accepts their health insurance, they have to drive to Beaumont for medical care (82.2 kms).

Now for the ride, NO DOGS! Actually only one that was loose and barked at us, but didn’t chase. I think we scared him, because he had his back to us and we came by him quietly.

We had a big wide shoulder to ride on, the cars and trucks gave us lots of room and some even tooted and waved at us. The route was along Highway 96 and then onto a country road, I was concerned about the dogs, but all of them were tied up or behind fences. The weather was overcast and a little cool, but I was wearing my shorts and leggings.

We arrived at a very colourful motel called the Relax Inn, the first room we moved into didn’t have hot water in the shower. The manager moved us into a bigger room and we had hot water, he gave us the room for the same price as the smaller room – good customer service.

I checked my email and got an email from Chris, who I used to work with – his comment was Hang In There, remember I work alone, so keep slugging at least for my benefit. Thanks for the encouragement Chris, I will keep slugging on.

Friday February 26, 2015

Today was going to be a day for me to quit cycling.   I have enough of being chased by dogs! How can I enjoy the ride when every time I see a mail box  or a driveway ahead I am wondering if there is a dog and where it is going to come from.

Today should have been a lovely ride. The sun was out, the wind was at our backs, the roads had a good shoulder or it was a nice quiet road, but those blasted dogs spoiled it for me completely. I wanted to get to Houston or Austin somewhere with an International airport and take me somewhere warm and where dogs do not run loose.  As I was cycling, I was working out how to tell Ralf that I wanted to get on a plane, or a train or anything else to get away from these dogs.

Then we cycled into Texas, we stopped in Kirbyville and met the nicest people we have come across on the Southern Tier.

A lady at the gas station had me laughing so hard, she said, after we told her we were from Canada “and you all thought you were going to cycle in Texas in the warmth – ha suckers”! She told us to get a zapper stick, Ralf asked if it was used on cattle – yep. Her husband had used it on her – once, she told us. He had zapped a cow to get it moving and then touched it on her, not realizing that it still held a charge. She said he was still alive. She was so funny and told us that she hoped angels surrounded us on our trip and kept us safe. We checked out a cow zapper at the local Feed Store, but it was too big and heavy. The guy at the store asked us if we needed one to keep the other cyclist moving quicker – these guys are all comedians. Ralf bought a riding whip at the Feed Store, he figures he may be able to hit the dogs with it if they come close enough. An older guy in a car followed us into the supermarket at the supermarket parking lot to ask where we were all from and where we were headed. Genuinely interested in what we were doing.

We also met three touring cyclists coming from the west – they were struggling against the headwind. They were 3 brothers, being supported by a daughter. Their bikes were skinny tired and very lightly loaded, the daughter was driving their gear from one hotel to the next. They advised us to go along Highway 105 towards Navosota, less dogs and an easier route.

When we arrived at our warmshowers for the night – Debbie gave us a big hug, as if we were long lost family. Sidney, said there aren’t as many dogs on our route west . Let’s hope not because the Amtrack train runs out of Beaumont to the west.

Dinner tonight is spaghetti and meat sauce made with venison and beef – life is hard!

Thursday February 26, 2015

Today was another windy day, although not as cold as yesterday it was cool to start. At our first hourly rest-stop Ralf asked how I was doing. I told him honestly that I wasn’t enjoying this ride, not just today’s ride but riding in the US.  We have done many rides in the US before and have really enjoyed them.  The route has not been very exciting (apart from the dogs and I can do without that kind of excitement), the weather has been cold and generally miserable and the people have not been as open and friendly. The warmshowers hosts have been wonderful and we have had a lot of luck every time we have requested a place to stay. I am not sure what it is, I just don’t feel comfortable.

After we stopped in DeRidder for lunch we headed on towards Merryville where we are staying at the Historical Museum. The sun came out, the wind changed direction, but it was still a boring ride.

Merryville is a small town with a café/restaurant, a library, a city hall and the Historical Museum. The museum welcomes touring cyclists and has a cabin and shower facilities. The museum site consists of an old building, which houses the local memorabilia.

Burk\’s Log Cabin built in 1883, a jail and a stage area where the Heritage Festival takes place every March.

The cabin (not the one above) consists of a small heater, a sofa bed, a table and chairs. It is very cosy, however, we are sharing it with a large amount of ladybugs. I am sure once we have turned the light off they will go to sleep as well.

We went over to the museum to meet Renee and Eddie and had a good look around the museum. We had a great chat with them, they are lovely people. Eddie told Ralf that Merryville lost its City status at the turn of the century and is now a Town. It currently has a population of over 2,000 people, it may lose its Town status and become a community. If that happens it loses its post office and is off the map.  Renee showed me these Fire Extinguishers, apparently you throw them at the base of the fire.  Very rare to find some in tact.

We ate dinner at Stu’s Grill the local restaurant. My first burger in 20 years! I am officially no longer a vegetarian!

Wednesday February 25, 2015

Ten good things that happened today. You probably recognize this, (I wrote one of these before when we had a crappy day) we had a really crappy day and I (like my hero Anne Mustoe) have to think of 10 good things that happened. This is going to be really tough because it was a really crappy day.

So here are my 10 good things that happened today:

1. Bacon, eggs, hash browns and good coffee for breakfast
2. A little mini muffin with streusel on top
3. Staying warm and dry at the Best Western until 11:00
4. A little mini muffin with streusel on top – I had two so I can count it twice.
5. Passing two dogs that were loose, and they didn’t chase us (it was raining, we weren’t worth getting wet for).
6. Passing another dog, that was loose that only barked at us (as above).
7. Being told that we were hard core cyclists (actually we were too cheap to pay for another night at Best Western and possibly be charged for the room in Oberlin)
8. Having a really nice hot shower at the motel in Oberlin
9. Having a peanut butter, jam and banana sandwich and a hot cup of coffee when we had arrived in Oberlin
10. Crisp, clean, white sheets at the motel in Oberlin.

Now this is how the day actually was. We knew the forecast was for rain so we stayed at the Best Western until we had to check out at 11:00 am, hoping that it would stop raining and warm up. It was still raining, but it had warmed up to a balmy 2 degrees, at 11:00. We headed out in the cold, heavy rain and knew it was going to be a dreary ride. The average temperature was 0.5 degrees, It rained for the whole 3.5 hours (60 ks), the last 10 ks as usual was into a head wind and to top it off as we came into Oberlin we were chased by a crazy dog for 2 kms. I was tired at the time, as we had only stopped once during the 60 ks, and my usual Mark Cavendish impression failed to materialize. We have to get some pepper spray.

The route was primarily rice fields. We saw two very large tractors up to their axles in mud. They were doing something in the rice field, but not sinking into the mud.

When we arrived in Oberlin after being chased by the crazy dog, I spotted the hotel. We pulled in and at first the manager couldn’t find our reservation, but he had vacancies and gave us some old sheets to put on the carpet so that we could bring the bikes into the room. As I took my sandals off I noticed that they are falling apart, one of the straps has come away from the sole. When we get to Austin we will have to spend some money on new shoes for both of us. Austin is about 10 days away, hopefully they will last that long. I like the Keen sandals, even in the rain. This might be odd, but your feet get cold and wet even if they are in shoes, at least in the hot weather I don’t get hot-spots and sore feet. Today I had make-shift booties (2 wal-mart bags) – you know you’re a redneck when!

We ate out tonight at the local diner, we had pork chops and baked potato with a salad. It was a really nice people and we had to smile at the waitress who kept calling us baby.

Monday February 23, 2015

Our sleeping arrangements at the Fire Station were two couches in the common room, and although the couches were narrow couches they were quite comfortable. We were woken up around 3:00 am with the alarm going off. No fire, but a car had driven off the road.

We were woken again at 7:00 with the smell of fresh coffee.  I was a little concerned about the incoming weather, I didn’t want to get caught in freezing rain.  We were on the road by 8:15 am.  It was cold when we started and got colder as we continued on the ride. The route would have taken us through the Chicot State Park, but we decided to take Highway 29 all the way to Ville Platte. We knew the roads would be fairly quiet as the schools and all government offices had been closed due to the incoming weather. So today’s ride was a head-down and go ride.

We arrived at Ville Platte at about 10:15 am. We had booked into the Best Western in Ville Platte, for two nights, it is time for a rest day and the overnight temperatures are supposed to drop and the freezing rain forecast for tomorrow means it is a good day to take a rest day. We have points we can use at Best Western so the next two nights are free! As we arrived so early, we were not expecting to be allowed into the room. However, the manager on duty checked us in and we were able to have a hot shower to thaw our frozen toes.

Once again we walked back into Town to get our supplies. As tomorrow is a rest day and the forecast is not good, I bought a book and I am going to have a blissful day curled up on the sofa, reading.

Although it has been bitterly cold for almost a week now, spring is in the air. The magnolia are blossoming and so are my favorite spring flowers, the daffodil.

Sunday February 21, 2015

Cold day again, we started the day with our light jackets on and within the first 3 ks we changed jackets to our ShowersPass. The day got colder as we progressed westwards.

We made a wrong turn in Hamburg and ended up in Mansura, it added a few ks to the day. However, by making the mistake we saw that there was a civil war battle in Mansura. Early on the morning of May 16, 1864 the Union forces approached, and skirmishing quickly ensued. At Mansura, Taylor (Confederate) massed his forces in an open prairie that controlled access to the three roads traversing the area, where he hoped his artillery could cause many casualties.  After a four-hour fight (principally an artillery duel), a large Union force massed for a flank attack, inducing the Rebels to fall back.

On a bike you spot the strangest things hidden along the side of the road.

In Cottonport we saw the mighty oaks, they were planted in 1823 and were huge.

We noticed a war memorial, most of the names were French, I thought Acadian French settlers. I found out later (from Chief Joey) that this area was not settled by the Acadians that were removed from Canada, but immigrants from France.

We would have missed all of these if we had followed the correct route. Sometimes it is good to go the wrong way.

Today was horrendous for loose dogs. We would come into a village or town and I would hear the first dog, this was the “alerter” dog. He would bark, and let all the other dogs in the area know that there were two cyclists coming through town. The other dogs would be lying in wait for us. Some of them would be loose and give chase, the others would be tied up and would bark furiously at us letting us know that if they were free they would be in on the chase. Some of them would wait until we were almost past their yard and then bark like heck, just to see if we would fall of our bikes with fright. It seemed to be one big game to them.

We spotted a truck with 4 dogs in it and one dog loose on the other side, the owner of the truck was there. I went wide, the loose dog jumped at Ralf and caught his bag cover and tore it. The owner apologized but Ralf was not pleased. Fortunately the dog didn’t bite Ralf’s leg or tear his pannier. I am thinking we should get some Halt – pepper spray.

We arrived in Bunkie at the Fire Station just after 12:30, both of us were cold. Joey the Fire Chief arrived and got us organized with towels and a really good hot shower.

The Fire Station in Bunkie are warmshowers host and are also listed in the available accommodation on the ACA maps. They were a great bunch of guys. Chief Joey told us that they depend on volunteer fire fighters and the more volunteers they have, the lower the house insurance costs were. Like many small towns in Canada and the US they depend on volunteers but Joey said the younger people were not volunteering as often as people did in the past. Bunkie Fire Department covers 12 square miles, they have 4 paid fire-fighters, plus the chief.

Chief Joey’s responsibilities also include Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. We watched him preparing for the incoming weather – freezing rain. We could tell that he did not want to close the schools on Monday morning but as other municipalities called in that they were closing the schools, and after a conference call, he notified the authorities that the schools would be closed. The freezing rain is not supposed to arrive until later in the day on Monday. However, the kids may be on their way home from school when the freezing rain is due to arrive. Joey said that the people in Louisiana do not drive well in the rain, so freezing rain is a nightmare.

I had a great afternoon learning a new card game called Bourré (Booray), it is a Louisiana gambling game. I just watched and did not take part although a couple of the guys saw that I picked up the rules pretty quickly and wanted me to play. It was a fun afternoon laughing and joking with them. They offered to share their dinner with us and they served us a wonderful gumbo. This gumbo had shrimp in it, but they set aside my gumbo before they added the shrimps. The gumbo was a protein packed meal, chicken, spicy sausage, fresh home-made sausage, in a thick sauce, served over rice it was lovely.

It was so nice to be chatting to locals, instead of being in a hotel room.

Saturday February 21, 2015

I woke up early as usual, but went back to sleep for an hour. We still managed to be on the road by 8:45. The weather was warm, but overcast. We were back in our shorts and light jackets. The forecast was for rain by 1:00pm and it was right, the showers started at just after 1:00, but fortunately for us we were already in the motel room.

We are back on the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) Southern Tier route again. The first 30 ks we were on SR1 with a wide shoulder. The road was fairly quiet and we had a great tail wind. At Innis, a very small town, we made a right turn to follow the levees and a quieter country road.

The levees were about 25 feet high holding back the Mighty Mississippi, although both Ralf and I commented that the Mississippi will go where she wants to go regardless of the various man-made structures to hold her back. It was a nice route with small cattle holdings and large crop fields.

After following the levees for about 20 ks we had to make a left turn and went straight into an horrendous head wind, suddenly the legs stopped turning and we went from an easy 27 kph to a hard, struggling, leg pumping 13 kph. Once again 10 ks into a head wind – I might have mentioned before that I don’t like headwinds! But, I guess we have to take the good with the bad – 50 ks of an awesome wind and only 10 ks of hard pushing on the pedals we cannot really complain, although complain I did while trying to keep my bike and me in a straight line. Fortunately for the last 5 ks the wind was almost at our backs again and we sailed into Simmesport at 12:30 pm.

There wasn\’t any towns along this road, a few farms and a lovely old church – the oldest church in this County.  It looked just like any church in England.  The stained glass windows were made in England.

We passed an historic plantation house. White hall Plantation House, circa 1849.

There was also a structure that was being demolished, it looked very strange from a distance.

When we stopped in Morganza for a restroom break, I chatted with three older southern ladies, who asked where we were going. One of them said “Well you must be a very fit young lady”. When I told her how old I was, she said to the other “Ladies we have to take up cycling”. They all had to be in there 70’s.

We are staying in the only motel in Simmesport and it leaves a lot to be desired, it is grubby and smells damp, but it is cheap. We are having pizza and beer for dinner tonight.

Ralf headed to the Piggly Wiggly to get some eggs for breakfast. He asked if they had croissants! The answer was “crois what”?? If you have ever heard Jeff Foxworthy describe his relatives going to Maui with their Piggly Wiggly bags, I think Ralf just experienced some real Louisiana folk.