Happy whatever holiday is it from Coldspring, TX

The rain is back!  Yesterday the store clerk in Navasota told me that the town rescheduled Halloween for the 30th due to the expected rain for the 31th.  Apparently, there was too much rain and thunder last year for the kids to trick-or-treat.  An observation that I have as a travel through various towns is Texas is how nice it is to see how many stores in relatively small towns are local.  One does not find a Home Depot on every corner.  However, Wal-Mart is the King of Retail in towns of any size.

Today I had the opportunity to drive through County Roads, and what Texas labels as "FM" or Farm to Market Roads, and Spur Roads, (a frontage road  that usually runs parallel to the freeway.  It's complicated and I am reminded how much easier it was for me to navigate the freeway system in Southern California with a Rand McNally map.  

My navigation skills, challenged as they are, worked because I managed to rendezvous with the cyclists twice.  The first time I located them they were drenched from the inside and the outside. The second spot is where we are staying for the night.  One would think that locating places in small towns would not be so complicated.  WRONG!

Anyway, the drive through the Sam Houston Wildlife area was beautiful in spite of the rain.   One of the spots where I stopped, a Zamzow's kind of store, I met two cats who, when I spoke to them, gave me a look and went back to sleep.

I think we are getting closer to the Louisiana border and may be out of Texas in few days.  Texas is an interesting place as my photos from yesterday show. I had to chuckle that the town of Warrenton had some eccentric displays of art and other towns one will find a church on every corner.

Everyday is an adventure, as is every town in Texas.

Is This Minnesota or Texas?

Today was quite rainy as we cycled through thick forests of Loblolly Pine and oak-like deciduous trees. We even passed along Lake Conroe, as we rode out through a peninsula that extended out into it. The lakes, woods and rain (and high humidity) reminded me of Minnesota. All that was missing were the Loons! We were quite wet by the end of our 65 mile ride, but I did sing a few lines of "singing and biking in the rain"!

The open plains of Texas are yielding to piney woods.

 

Paul C from my perspective on the back of the tandem (Paul P kindly ducked down out of the picture).

 

Riding side by side.

Day 31 Navasota, Texas to Coldspring, Texas

Day 31.  Happy Halloween!!  Today was a very wet day - essentially rained or sprinkled all day.  We left early to avoid the thunderstorms that were predicted -so far only predicted - and made it to Coldspring by about 1:30.  It was raining though.  The mileage was actually 65 miles and we climbed 2012 feet.  Lots of ups to hills and down to creeks. 
Here are some pictures when we finished showing how wet we were.

On the way we saw some interesting things.  Here are two.  The first is a Halloween show at the fire station.  I don't know if they were recommending fires or fireworks to enhance business.

The next was a very basic beer joint.  Pretty simple.  Not a lot of math.

After we got lunch at the cabin, we got some clearer weather and hung up the bike clothes to dry.  It seemed to be healing and drying fairly well, or at least a bit.

Tomorrow is supposed to be dryer.  While there might be  a bit of rain, it can't be more than today, at least I hope.
Paul C

Balstrop to Navasota TX

Dripping Springs to Bastrop. Bastrop to Navasota.   For some reason, the blog isn't allowing images to be downloaded.  So, if you want to see some of my photos from the next few days, refer to my website: DanaGrigg.Weebly.com

Last night we camped at Balstrop State Park.  Here’s some interesting facts about the park:

Bastrop State Park is a state park in Bastrop County in Central Texas. The park was established in 1938 and consists of stands of loblolly pines mixed with post oak and junipers.  It is the site of the famous "Lost Pines," an isolated region of loblolly pines and hardwoods. The park is beautiful.   The only complaint is that the camp site where we stayed was in close to a freeway.  A very noisy freeway at 5:30 a.m.

The drive from Balstrop to my present location was interesting.  Texas refers to some of their roads as “FM” meaning Farm to Market.  Of  note is that one can drive down the “FM” road and to the right a street has one name and to the left an entirely different name.

On the drive to tonight’s destination, Navasota, we stopped for lunch in this quirky town, Warrenton.  I will refer you to my website for photos of a pink roaster and other peculiar items.

Guess where I will be tomorrow?  Yep, Texas. dkg

The Cabin at Barton Creek

On the drive to Navasota, TX,  from Balstrop (great park) we stopped for lunch in Warrenton.  Interesting stores.  I have more photos to post, but I need to get packed and off to meet the riders. 

Day 30 Bastrop to Navasota, Texas

Day 30.  We decided to crank out some miles today as tomorrow there is supposed to be rain and thunderstorms.  The mileage was 104.8 with 4,779 feet of climbing.  A tiring day, but overall a nice ride.
In the morning we started out of the park, and while the hills were steep - very steep.  Still, there were some great views.

Overall, the hills were pretty much gone now.  The rides on the back roads were still a bit busy, but nice rides.

We did see the first oil well though. 

And, we saw several places they were creating places where they were mining fracking.

We had lunch in Gay Hills, and there were at least 10+ places where "antiques" were sold.  Very "interesting".

 We did stop at a Baptist Church to take a break and get some water.  There was really no place to sit, and the water was "funny".  So, we just took a rest and headed out.

 At the end of the ride, we were casting some shadows ahead, and we got to where we stayed just before the sun set.  A long but satisfying day to ride!

Tomorrow we plan to start early as there are thunderstorms predicted for the afternoon.
On we go earlier!
Paul C

Texas Tree Country

Well I will have to say that my impression of Texas is quite different from what it used to be.  Now as we ride into eastern Texas, the landscape is changing once again.   Thick forests are beginning to dominate, including these Loblolly Pine groves in Bastrop, which are recovering from a 2011 fire.

 

The Loblolly pines look a lot like the Ponderosa's we have in Idaho, although they seem to grow taller for their diameter than our Idaho trees.

Along some of the roads, the trees are tall enough to make a canopy.  Here's Paul C. boring through a tree tunnel on William Penn Rd, not far from Navasota.

The rivers now seem wide and full, instead of the little aroya's.

 

It still cracks me up that Texas' idea of a bridge is a couple of concrete culverts with a concrete overflow if they can't handle the flow. 

There is a lot more agricultural activity now.  I got a kick out of this farm that was selling Halloween pumpkins.

And so we keep rolling along.  I think Adventure Cycling should call the "southern tier" the "BRAT" - Bike Ride Across Texas!  The following map shows our route so far.  We're nearing the eastern edge of the state - Only two more full days in Texas.

I thought that the map was especially interesting since it shows the underground cavities from all of the fracking operations in Texas.

History Lessons

One interesting but frustratingly annoying truth seems to be the tendency of the victors in a conflict to rewrite history to diminish the atrocities that they committed and magnify those that the losing side committed.  There's no better example of this than the historical marker signs that we've seen as we've ridden across Texas.  Native Americans, including Apache's and Comanche's roamed much of the land in south west Texas, subsisting with a hunter-gatherer resource dependency.  Encroaching white settlers pushed them off of their ancestral hunting/fishing grounds and eventually shrunk their range to a tiny fraction of its original size.  From the seventeen hundreds to the late eighteen hundreds, the story of European expansion is littered with broken treaties, promises, and boundaries.  The historical markers conveniently never seem to mention these facts.  But they do seem to note the Indian raids and other atrocities committed by the natives who were just trying to counter the loss of their lands.  So, here's a few of the examples we saw of those naughty Indians causing all sorts of troubles for the whites who were entitled to their lands.

 

 

Day 29 Barton Creek Cabin/Dripping Springs to Bastrop, Texas

Day 29.  We did 70.4 miles today and went about 20 miles south of Austin to avoid the traffic - but - the traffic was amazingly heavy and constant.  All day we dealt with a constant stream of fast and aggressive drivers of cars and trucks.  A tough day, and a tiring day.  The elevation was only1,814 feet gain, but it was one of the most tiring days.  I took a video and will try to show that on a different blog-site.
But first, we said goodbye to Susan and Richard.  The made a great breakfast for us and what a neat cabin they let us stay in!  Very nice indeed.

Then, we went much further south to try and avoid the traffic.  In fact we went through what appears to be several new subdivisions.  The Texas ranches even 20+ miles from Austin are changing into subdivisions with BIG houses.  Here are a few views.

We also had a "Google" experience again.  The Google map said we should go on such and such road, but when we got there it was clearly not a finished road.

I went out and tested the track, and while it looked sloggy, it was actually dry and passable - but not while riding.  We went about 300 feet and found the other end of the road - and on we went.

Only after passing through the dirt section could we read the sign.  Oops!?

On the way through the housing development, there was a kid sitting on a trailer while his dad was fixing some sprinklers.  We had a chat, and he got a PayDay.  Very happy.

After going through the subdivisions we got on some "back-country" roads - NOT.  They were just constant traffic both ways - constant trucks and cars as I said.  Very tiring.  On another blog I will show a video if I can.
When we did get back on the Adventure Cycle route things got a lot better.  Here are some of the roads.

Yes, they do have longhorns in Texas.  This one was very content and had no interest in showing us how the horns work.

This shows how banks in the area attract customers.  It looks very attractive after a day of riding.

We saw locks on the bridge in Bastrop that looks just like what we saw in Paris!  International exchange.  I did not stop to leave one.

We also saw remnants of the floods.  Look closely at the streetlights.  They are still in the water!

Finally we got to the campground and what a pleasant place!  Great showers as well as water and power.  A great combination for the end of a long day on the bike.
Tomorrow, we hit the road again.
Paul C