A Sunday Ride

 

After several days of rain, cold temperatures, and vicious winds, we finally had a decent bike riding day and decided to do a leisurely Sunday ride.

Distance-32 miles
Average speed-12.5 mph
Time-2 hours 30 minutes
conditions-sunny, dry, 76 degrees and very comfortable low humidity. Days like this make living in Houston worthwhile. The usual headwinds in every direction at about 10 mph.

Highlights
We passed a cricket game out in the middle of nowhere between the gravel quarry and the prison fields. In the past, every time I passed it, I thought it was a kid's baseball field with a weird batting practice cage. Everyone attending the game was nattily dressed in white and speaking a melange of English and various Indian dialects. We stopped off and watched a couple of overs. It was shortly before noon but we were promised tea if we came by later. According to one of the gentlemen (who were spying out the competition for another team) Houston has a cricket league with 7 fields and 18 teams in Houston. Who would have believed it?

We took a short side ride down the main street of Richmond which still retains a late Victorian ambiance crossed with that of the main street of a western town on the frontier. I expected to see a replay of "High Noon" with gunslingers stalking down the street between the buildings and citizens running for cover. The best sign on the street was "bud's Barbershop- the best little clip joint west of the Brazos" , located just about 2 blocks west of the Brazos river. Across the railroad tracks from the Main street area, we passed one of Fort Bend County's first jails. Built in the 1850's, this large red brick and terra cotta edifice features Romanesque arches, terra cotta filigree and an indoor gallows on the third floor. It had all of the modern conveniences possible for the times. Heaven forfend that we have our hanging in the rain. The building currently serves as the Richmond police station.

Across the street was a double door "Greek revival" farmhouse which Carey Nation's daughter lived in and ran as a boarding house after she married. Frankly I thought it looked more like a typical Texas farmhouse with two front doors and a nice deep porch than anything Greek revival. I was also surprised to learn that Carey Nation lived in Texas. I had always associated her with the northeast area. It's amazing the things you can learn from stopping and reading historical markers.

Coming back along a major east west highway that connects the southwest suburbs and downtown Houston with the smaller communities and farming towns to the west, we passed multiple sets of pastel colored women's thongs thrown in the grass and weeds in the verges. Interspersed among the thongs were several empty Moet and Chandon champagne bottles. It must have been some party.

The hot pink and purple wildflowers remain unidentified, but the colorful blooms are now interspersed with white bone set and white prickly poppy which makes the entire field look like a Victorian valentine.