Friday, April 8, 2011

April 8, 2011. Cleveland to Silsbee, TX. 63.5 miles.

We had a grand time at dinner last night! This is the first time we have had our parking lot feast so close to a WalMart parking lot.... a lot of people were very interested in what we were doing. What were we doing? Eating chicken piccata, pasta salad, caesar salad and strawberry shortcake! A real feast. Nancy and Lise brought a goody bag with something for each of us--Carol (ride leader), Fiona (in the middle), and Dianne all received bandanas and modeled various options for stylish bandana tying. Their gift to me was sparkly blue nail polish, which I will use on my toes at the end of this tour.
Carol starts a lot of map meetings by saying "I would not use the F word (flat) to describe tomorrow's ride..." The first time I heard her say that took me aback... I wonder if she will change her statement (and use the F word) now that there are less hills each day?
We were warned that there would be a lot of log trucks on today's route, and there were. We passed right by the Cleveland yard of GP and a couple of open log yards. Most of the log truck drivers were considerate of us, moving to the other side of the road whenever possible.
The first 32 miles of the ride we had a strong gusty crosswind. We passed by the Trinity River, below, our first sighting of white sand. We are getting quite close to the gulf now, and the humidity is up.
At 32 miles we turned into the wind, and struggled with a headwind for the next 20 miles. I was getting pretty tired, since I did not sleep a wink last night.... you only can go so far on no sleep.... so I stopped for lunch at about mile 55. I met a young woman at the Dairy Queen who is just starting to ride a bike, and told her how much fun we were all having... You go Jasmine!
With 7 miles left to ride, we turned again and finished the ride with a crosswind. It was very hot, and I have to get used to it--it will only get hotter as we travel east to Florida. This is our last night in Texas. I've only been here a week, but the others on the tour have been riding in Texas for 3 weeks now, and are quite excited to move on to Louisiana. Texas is indeed a very big state!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Isn't it funny how humidity changes everything? 90 degrees is one thing, 90 degrees with 90% humidity is something else all together! I think you'll find a big culture change in Louisiana too.

And tomorrow you get your first margarita party! Woo Hoo!