another pithy comment outside a church
The chapel hosting the pithy sign, which claims to be the "smallest full service" chapel in the world. Actually, I visited the certified Guiness Book record holder for the world's smallest chapel two years ago on the Mississippi ride, but this one is pretty nice, although definitely bigger.
a mixture of Texas Bluebonnets, Coreopsis and Indian Paintbrush
We saw fields and fields of bluebonnets and coreopsis as we rode.
"Dave on a bent"- another Southern Tier cross country rider who is on the same route we are, on his custom built recumbant and self designed protective cover.Today's ride from La Grange to Navasota was without doubt the best day of riding so far for many of us in terms of terrain and scenery.
Although we were on secondary and tertiary roads with little or no shoulder, we were also in farm country which meant tractors and trucks in abundance. Most of us have become accustomed enough to the traffic to be able to ignore it most of the time, but it can be scary at times.
The start of the ride, until the first stop at Round Hill, was cool enough to require several layers. I have a feeling we will all be missing these cool starts all to soon as we progress south and east into the real south. The first SAG stop was in the town square/park in Round Top. For at least five miles before Round Top we had been passing immense spreads of empty tents, in every possible location and in front of every possible house, all advertising antiques. Coupled with all these tents were food venues, a plethora of no parking signs along the edge, hundreds of porta potties and pedestrian warning signs everywhere. It was only when we got to the town square that we saw a sign advertising the "------annual cowboy antique and memorabilia show, March 27 through April 4" so we just missed all the excitement by a couple of days. I guess everybody was busy recovering and regirding their loins because almost everything was closed. By the time we all hit the SAG, the extra layers were coming off and the road had developed enough shoulder that we could ride in relative safely.
After a few more miles we got off onto 390, a lovely winding country road with trees along the road and wide vistas of fields of pasture and wildflowers. This is the first real sweeps of wild flowers we have seen, and the first time we have really felt like we were in a different, more humid micro climate. It seemed like almost every open field was covered with a blue haze of bluebonnets. The ride continued on through pastoral scenes through Burton and Gay Hill and then on to Independence.
As we stopped to consult our cue sheets, we looked up and there was this guy on a recumbant bike wrapped in what looked like an American flag. We had been warned by a friend to watch out for this guy, who has ridden miles and miles and criss crossed the country on his self built recumbant, so everyone knew who "Dave on a bent" is and had been watching for him. We had a brief chat with him about his gear, the ride, the weather and how his rides has been. His rig was very interesting so we spent a long time discussing details and adaptations. He was funny, charming and interesting so it made a good break.
We had hoped to find some food at Gay Hill, but like so many of the little "wide spot in the road" towns, everything was closed, so we were ready to find some food. As we started off again, I noticed a sign for the Independence General Store, so we turned off, figuring that they might at least have some trail mix and something cold to drink. Much to our surprise, the store turned out to have a full service grill, with a beer hall in the back.
We stood in line with all the other locals, dodging delivery man after delivery man rolling in stacks of cases of beer, soft drinks, more beer and chips and snacks, and placed our orders. When I mentioned that I wanted something to drink along with my grilled cheese sandwich, the owner/ cashier/ signer of delivery receipts replied that I could just pick a cold drink out of the cooler and he would add it to the bill. When I mentioned coffee he said the pot was empty and he wasn't going to make any more because no one would drink it. When I asked about iced tea he sort of rolled his eyes and said "well usually by this time of the day, pretty much everyone is drinking beer", but then admitted that yes, he did have iced tea, and that cups of ice were in the freezer, back where they tore out the old display cases. I finally found an antique chest freezer, back in the corner, behind some stacks of beer and chips.
Drink in hand I wandered back into the other back corner to the beer hall. The walls were lined with cases of beer, stacked floor to ceiling, and where there weren't beer cases, there were beer advertising displays in neon lights, carboard cut outs, and banners criss crossing the ceiling. There were three huge flat screen t.v.s one tuned to the country music channel and the other to the 24 hour sports channel. The third was turned off for lack of choice.
The guys eating were all obviously hard working men, a lot of them cowboys, real cowboys with worn boots, short and low spurs, and shiny seats to their jeans, not the Texas goat roper wanna be's with the spanky clean shirt, and sharp shiny boots. We were the only women in the room, and it was quite amazing to have two of the young men, who hardly looked old enough to shave, leap up and pull chair off the stack and shove a couple of guys over to their table so we could have a place to eat. It was dellightful to have proof that Cowboy manners are not dead, in spite of the drivers.
Refreshed from a chance to sit down, we finished the ride in reasonable style, with the incentive of a day off to rest and relax to spur us on. We even had some tailwinds for the last 15 miles or so which made a nice ending to a perfect day.
Today's Stats
distance 69.3 miles
ride time 5:50
speed 12.7
No comments:
Post a Comment