Texas

Texas is big.  Texas gets hot, cold, windy, and remote.   Texas is hard.  I was in Texas for more than a month, logged over 1,300 miles, got sick 3 times, and of the 5 flat tires I've had since I left CT, 4 were on Texas roads.  I spent many lunch breaks sitting on guardrails, the only place to sit for miles, trying to put peanut butter into a tortilla flapping violently in the wind. Fortunately, Texas has a diversity of beautiful landscapes and many wonderful people.

I arrived in east Texas via Port Arthur and Beaumont, oil towns, and then rode on to Kingwood, a suburb north of Houston (the oil town), then to Montgomery, Carmine, and eventually to Austin.  East Texas wasn't particularly exciting, but full of kind Warmshowers hosts, which I appreciate even more after riding through west TX and camping for weeks at a time.

Riding through Beaumont I had to navigate around a sizable anti-abortion march in route to Jeff and Comeka's home.  Jeff and Comeka treated me to pizza and football playoffs, a day of rest, and to my first Tex-Mex meal.  Then on to Kingwood, which is suburban car land, and made me happy I wasn't getting any closer to Houston.  My Warmshowers host in Kingwood, Nathan, recently did a tour himself and so has hosting down to a science.  He has everything ready that a cyclist might ask for, including a little tray of extra toiletries in the bathroom labeled with a note to cyclists to help themselves, and had plenty of extra dessert.  In Montgomery I camped out at my first bike shop, Lake Conroe Cycling.  In addition to a couch, TV, dual headed shower, and hot beverages in the shop, Cindi provides an electric space heater for your tent on cold nights.

Somewhere around Kingwood I started getting a cold.  Leaving the bike shop the weather took a turn for the worse, with temps dropping throughout the day. After 75 miles of riding the scenic rolling hills to Carmine temps were in the low 30s with light rain.   No chance of fighting off that cold.  Fortunately, in Carmine there is a very special Warmshowers host.  Carol, in her mid 80s, lives alone well off the beaten path on a small piece of property by TX standards (~100 acres).  She has a barn with a bunkhouse which she has been using to host cyclists for years.  After a cold night I awoke to frozen pipes and a coating of ice on the ground.  So I spent a second night and had the pleasure of lending Carol a hand around the house. We went to a neighbor's to pick up a load of scrap wood, filled the tractors with diesel, I moved a microwave, burned some trash and kept the firewood supply coming. Carol was delighted with all we accomplished and gave me a special present. Carol is a woodworker, and carves children's names out of wood with letters that link together like a puzzle.  She carved Madeline and Lily and mailed them to Connecticut.   Reportedly, Madeline figured it out, but Lily is still working on it.

Carol on a cold morning with her mule and mine.

Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana

Mobile Bay Alabama is a transition point from beach world to industrial world.  On the ferry to Dauphin Island from Fort Morgan oil platforms are visible in all directions, and from here until TX the petro-chemical industry everywhere, above ground and below (pipelines).  I  camped underneath a beach house on Dauphin Island with the 4 other cyclists.  The beach was surprisingly nice, but I suspect the site and sounds of the oil rigs dotting the horizon keep most of the tourists in FL.

Oil rig from the Dauphin Island ferry in the Mobile Bay.

FL Part 5: The Last FL Stop, Panama City to Pensacola

As Curtis from Canada warned the quiet roads and nice scenery came to an end riding into Panama City.  With about 30 mins to sunset I made it to Panama City Beach and stopped at a Publix not too far from the entrance of St. Andrews State Park.  Supposedly St. Andrews is one of the nicest parks in all of FL.  Unfortunately I never got to find out.

In the Publix parking lot a guy named Kevin started talking to me and I had a hard time getting him to stop.  Kevin is a salesman of sunglasses and $100 per bottle miracle anti-aging lotion.  By the time I finally got back on my bike I had a free pair of sunglasses with "the highest optical clarity available" and miracle lotion on the back of my hands.  I arrived at the St. Andrews park gate after sunset.  The ranger at the gate informed me the cheapest camping they had was thirty something bucks, and despite the brochure saying otherwise, they had no primitive camping.  She wasn't indicating any willingness to help me out so I rode away frustrated.

FL Part 4: Sarasota to Panama City (The Nice Part of FL)

North-central FL, the northwest coast, and the panhandle are a completely different world from the east and SW coasts. Somehow these areas have been spared relentless development, even along the beaches, and beautiful natural areas dominate the landscape. The ride north of Tampa and west along the gulf coast were a much welcomed change in scenery.

My cousins from NY recently moved to the boondocks in Dade City, so rather than continue up the coast from Sarasota I rode inland.  Once I got north of Tampa a wonderful thing happened: I looked up and saw countryside, and a hill that wasn't part of a bridge.  Horses, cows,  pasture, and orange groves were everywhere.   I saw share the road bike signs and even crossed paths with a group of cyclists.  After a 90+ mile day, I got a hearty meal of soup, a ping pong tournament and a comfy bed.  I am so glad they gave me a reason to ride to that part of FL.

Riding north the next morning two cyclists, Vinny and Jim, rode with me for a bit and took me out to breakfast.  One of them founded the San Antonio FL bike shop.  The area is apparently a cycling destination in FL.  There is even a nice country bike path, which I followed north through Floral City, home to a recumbent specialist bike shop.  I camped at Ft. Cooper State Park just off the path.  More nice country riding to Gainesville and along the way I stopped at Rainbow Springs State Park for a swim.  What a good decision!  The clearest water I have ever seen (120' of visibility I was told) and 72 degrees year round.  I would take this over the beach any day.

Rainbow Springs swimming area

Florida Part 3: SW FL

The Key West Express ferry arrived in Ft Myers Beach after 10PM.  My bike wasn't off the boat until around 11PM. I didn't feel like riding 20-30 miles to the homes of the the people I met on the boat, and I suspected they wouldn't want to stay up until after 1AM getting me settled.  So at 11PM, hungry, and with a seat soaked in saltwater I rode to a nature preserve a couple miles away that I had scoped out ahead of time. Along the way I saw an open hotel office so I stopped and asked how much a room would cost.  $60.  I decided I wasn't that desperate.  The weather was windy, but dry and not too cold.  The woman at desk said they were open all night if I wanted to come back.