There are still lots of evening primrose, in shades of white and pink
But as we get closer and closer to sea level, the ground water level rises and the land gets swampy and we begin to see Spider Lillies and other wet ground wildflowers.
After a cooling dip in the pool, Janet decided to ride herself dry while checking out Laurie's bike for fit and handling.
Today was our last day in Texas and after 17 days of crossing the state, today was the first day that really began to feel like riding in the south. Our route passed through the Big Thicket management area, low lying, swampy pine woods with lots of undergrowth, standing water/swampy areas, palmettos, less cypress but lots more crayfish (crawdad) holes and mounds. There were also noticeably more fire ant mounds than we have seen as well as at least one wild flower that only grows in swampy ground.
Much of the area is long leaf southern pine growing in huge plantations belonging primarily to Weyerhauser, so periodically we rode past areas that had been strip cut and cleared of all pine growth, as well as areas of new growth pine forest. There were also a lot of lumber trucks. These seem to be the only big trucks who recognize that the safest way to pass someone riding the shoulder is to slow down enough not to blow them off the road, and then swing wide. Hooray for the lumber trucks although it was a bit disconcerting to hear the squealing of brakes behind and realize that that was what was happening.
I had a failure to unclip incident yesterday while trying to turn around and read a road sign. As invariably happens when you have an embarrassing incident, there were people present in the shape of Janet, three other riders and two cars and a motorcycle who stopped to make sure I wasn't injured. Well my dignity was, definitely, and then I found out later in the shower, that I had come down directly on the heel of my left hand, which was black and blue and swollen across the pad of the thumb and into the center of the palm. I had noticed myself shifting my hand a lot during the last 20 miles of the ride, but had assumed that I was just generally restless and ready for the ride to be over. I guess it was mostly my hand hurting.
To add injury to indignity, I also managed to snap the pad of the right hand elbow pad on my aero bars in half. After I iced my hand for an hour and the swelling was down, I tackeled a super glue and duct tape repair on the elbow pad. It isn't quite as sturdy or stiff as the left and will definitely have to replaced at some point but it will do to get me through the rest of the ride, as long as I remember to rest on the inside edge and center rather than centering the arm.
The end result of the sit down and brace break were that I spent the ride today riding a bit lopsided with my left arm on the aero bar and my right arm alternating between the aero bar position and down in the right hand drop. It wasn't awkward, but certainly felt different. I have hopes that after icing again tonight, tomorrow I will be able to find a position that will let me ride more upright some of the time.
Today's ride was another series of long straight runs through pine forests and agricultural areas, and through towns with names like Rye, Honey Island, Thicket, Sour Lake and Kountze, and we are staying at the Pinewood Inn in Silsbee tonight. The cue sheet was another one of those, turn right out of the parking lot, turn left on 787, go 32 miles, turn left onto 1293, go 22 miles to Kountze, have lunch, turn right and go 10 miles, turn left and enter the motel parking lot. Easy enough not to get lost.
Following our cue sheet, we all stopped at Mama Jack's ("almost famous") cafe in Kountze, a local eatery that came highly recommended by previous riders in previous years. Once again 15 or more hungry women descended on what was already a busy and packed full eatery at high noon, thus slamming the waitresses. It is Friday, which a local, obviously well fed, patron informed us meant that the "all you can eat buffet is in full swing." He also patted his very large belly and commented that "they have the best banana pudding, as you can see." Some of the ladies went for the buffet, which everything fried that you could fry along with dirty rice, etouffe, red beans and rice and a selection of Mexican food as well. There were also fried catfish or fried crawdad "po boys" served "all the way", meaning with onions, lettuce, and tartar sauce on French baguettes which were declared the most delicious thing possible by several of the ladies. I found a cute Mama Jack's t shirt with their motto on the front and state of Texas done as a flag on the back. It's definitely a tourist t-shirt but it's nice to have something different to wear now and then and will do double duty as a gym shirt when I get home.
Today was also the first time we have had any real humidity. Fortunately there was a bit of a cool breeze, which helped keep the heat of the day down but whenever I stopped, the sweat dripped and the gnats and insects turned me into human fly paper. As it got towards noon, even the light cloud cover disappeared, making it feel even hotter. It will be interesting to see how people adapt to what for me was a fairly moderate day, at least in terms of humidity and heat.
Today's ride was almost totally flat, which means that our cruising speed increased a bit. Several of the ladies found the ride "boring" and I hate to tell them that this is probably going to be what a lot of Louisiana and the Florida panhandle are like. People are also beginning to realize that as we pass out of Texas, we are 2/3 of the way through the ride and have a little less than three weeks left to ride. All at once people are beginning to think of things they have to do when they get home, or the mechanics of getting their bikes shipped. Even the guides are beginning to broaden their focus away from the day to day riding and onto the mechanics of ending the ride. It's kind of depressing that it seems to have gone so fast, yet when I think of it on a day to day basis, it seems like years ago that we all started out together.
Myself, I intend to continue to focus on each day's ride and finding something unique to enjoy , thereby putting off the harsh return to reality a bit longer.
Today's Stats
distance 63.63
ride time 4:06
speed 15.5 thanks to straight level cruising time
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