Day 90, October 30th 2007 (Emory,TX to Rusk,TX)

I realized today why I hadn't seen many cyclists. It all started with the morning routine of oatmeal and then going to a gas station to refill my water. The cashier had noticed that I was travelling on a bicycle, so he asked me what I thought of the area. I couldn't resist telling him how much I disliked the roads, but he had a few more stories. He told me he had moved from California and had decided to take his bike out for a ride. He agreed with me that the shoulders of the road were horrible, so he stayed on the road. The road was a little better, but nothing to brag about. So he was riding along, and drivers were yelling at him as they passed by. Within one week of riding and having a combination of drivers yelling at him, the poor roads, and having two bottles thrown at him, he sold his bike. I was fortunate that no one had thrown a bottle at me yet. I continued heading south down the eastern part of Texas for the morning and I couldn't help but feel a huge misunderstanding between the cyclists on the road and the drivers. Every vehicle that passed me seemed to be a truck, and none of them were happy to see me on the road. I spent most of the morning going from the shoulder to the road and then being kicked back over to the shoulder. I could see from the driver's perspective why they were upset. The shoulder of the road looked the same condition as the road when you were going 70 mph in a car. Where I was riding from, I could tell a significant difference between the two. I heard the yelling that I had been told about earlier in the morning. The most common chant seemed to be; "Get off the road!" I was only 40 miles into the ride before I felt exhausted from the bad roads and the horrible traffic. I took no delay in having a buffet at Pizza Hut when I saw the sign. When I walked in it was very clear that I was, once again, out of place. Every guy in the restaurant had on a cowboy hat, and I came strolling in with my cycling hat. They had all probably tried to run me off the road, and no one seemed to pay me much attention. It was an awkward half hour for lunch and was about to get much crazier. After travelling for only 10 more miles I started to enter a town called Tyler. From the map, I was expecting it to be a large town, but it was much larger than I had thought. I went through the town around 2 pm, probably the one time with the least amount of traffic. Cars were everywhere, the road was still horrible, and I've never had so many peopled grouped together all trying to run me over. For 10 miles I crossed the town of Tyler, in what seemed to me as rush hour traffic. It was an insane trip through the town and I'm glad I'm still alive. Moving further south out of Tyler, the traffic was starting to slim down and the roads were starting to roll. There were a couple of monster hills I was able to go up. and then go down. I was going through a much more wooded area of the country and Texas was constantly changing. I was so close to Louisiana at this point that I was starting to feel like I was already there. With a lot more trees, green surroundings, and swamp-like lakes that had no visible alligators, this is what I had pictured of Louisiana. Besides the environment I was also starting to see more of a southern change in the fast food restaurants. The three most common places I had seen everywhere were McDonald's, Subway, and Dairy Queen, and they were still here. There were a few more restaurants that were now everywhere as well. There was a place called Whataburger and then another place called Waffle House. The Waffle House was one great thing I enjoyed about visiting the south. Great food, great service, and excellent southern hospitality. I hadn't stopped at one yet, but the time was near and the opportunity was constantly growing. When I arrived at my destination for the evening, I was cutting it close with the sun. I received permission to throw my tent down on a piece of land outside of a church and it was a race against the sun for putting my tent up. I quickly set everything up and cooked a dinner. Tomorrow I had plans to stay with someone in Jasper,TX and a warm shower sounded great.
Daily mileage: 90.7 miles
Average speed: 12.2 mph
Total mileage: 5,523.8 miles