Day 91, October 31st 2007 (Rusk,TX to Jasper,TX)

The day seemed to be on repeat around Texas.  I started the morning heading south along the eastern edge of Texas and I could have sworn that this was now the worst road that I had been on.  With the traffic being busy and having horrible roads to ride on, the day seemed to continue to drag on forever.  I would look around to my right and to my left and all I could see for the first 60 miles were trees.  They lined the road on both sides and it made it difficult to see much of anything besides the road and cars around you.  I was focused in on the cars most of the day anyways because of the rude drivers in the area.  If I wasn't on a busy road out of a city then I was in a city on a busy road.   I was so happy to have made it off of the highway I was on after the first 60 miles and then I was able to get onto a highway going east.  It was a much smaller highway with a lot less traffic.  The trees opened up to some great views every now and again, and it was going directly through a forest.  It was a much more beautiful and relaxing ride to get myself to where I was going.  I had the luxury to ride on the road for about 30 miles before I started to turn off of the road and head towards the place that I was going.  I had contacted Nick from the warm shower's list and he had told me that he wasn't going to be able to host me, but that he had found someone who was going to be in town and would be able to take care of me.  He gave me the number of a man named Michael Moore.  I was told that Michael was a great old man with a long white beard and he had a great house on a lake.  As I turned each corner down the very deserted road to get to where I was headed, the surroundings were incredible.  It was such a beautiful area to have a place and away from everything else in the area.  I found Michael's place without a problem and when I first showed up he was unloading a ton of bamboo sticks from a truck and placing them in his yard.  It seemed as though he had a good amount of land and I could see the little lake behind his house.  I was able to get to know him for a good amount of time and he seemed like a man with many stories.  He had lived on the road in his RV for 12 years and had been able o get to know handfuls of people.  He would park his RV at many places and stay there for months and then leave and go somewhere else.  It seemed incredible to be on the road for that length of time, but he had enjoyed every moment of it.  Now, living in Louisiana, he was still a man with a simple life.  He didn't work and he lived off of the land.  He grew a lot of different vegetables and had a system in the lake set up to where he was able to eat the fish that he caught.  He had trout lines set up in the lake and each day he would put minnows on the hooks of the line and then he would go back out at night and check to see what he had caught for dinner.  Well, as we were talking he told me that it was time to check the lines.  We took his little canoe-like boat out on the lake and followed a line that stretched out for about 50 feet.  There was nothing on the line, but we did put a few minnows on a few hooks because something had taken them off.  I was thinking that his seemed like a place where you could probably run into some gators, and that is about when Michael started to tell me about the gators.  He told me that he had been here for a little while and when he first moved here he had killed an 11 foot alligator in the lake.  Then he said about a month later that his neighbor had killed a 14 foot alligator.  I couldn't believe it, but now I didn't feel as worried about there being any more alligators in the area.  As we finished the line I thought that we were going to head back to the dock, but we started to go more towards the center of the lake.  I wasn't sure what we were doing, but then I started to see another line.  This one was about twice as long and yet there was still nothing on the line.  As we came back to the dock it was still gorgeous outside.  The weather was just great right now and it was Halloween.  I wasn't quite used to this, but I wasn't complaining.  When we reached the shore we went inside and made some BBQ Venison for supper.  It was a great meal and was followed by an incredible evening with some of Michael's neighbors.  His neighbors were from across the lake and they came over to play some pool.  We played I don't even know how many games of pool, and it was a very relaxing way to finish the evening.  

Daily mileage: 92.2 miles
Average speed: 13.0 mph
Total mileage: 5,616.0 miles

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

Day 89, October 29th 2007 (Denton,TX to Emory,TX)

I had one more night of a good rest on a bed. I woke up to my usual oatmeal and everything was set for me to go on the road. I took advantage of a shower while I was still able to take one, and said goodbye to Jay C. It was another day on the road and I had some new tunes to listen to. The sun was out shining and was warm as usual. I had checked the weather before I left and had been slightly disappointed. It was great to see that it was warm and there was no rain ahead, but the wind had changed directions. In the afternoon it wouldn't be blowing very strong, but it was now coming from the southeast. With the way I had experienced the wind on my travels I shouldn't have expected anything different. The entire week I had been experiencing a cross wind from the north to the south. Now that I was changing my course of direction to the south, the wind was coming from the south. I left Denton and was very thankful that the wind wasn't strong. Mostly, I spent the first 60 miles of my ride going east and through fairly large cities. I was still north of Dallas and was dealing with some of the suburbs. As I pulled further away from the busy roads and cities, I was able to see some more of Texas country. I had also finally pulled off of 380 east and was now on 69 south. The rolling hills had mostly flattened out and it was a fairly easy ride for the day. It helped that I had taken some time to rest my legs for a day. It was cool to see some large lakes over the past few days, because large bodies of water had been tough to see since I left California. I had covered some ground for the day and I didn't go too far on highway 69 before I pulled over. The sun was starting to set and I needed to get a few things at the store before I set up camp. I noticed a church just up ahead and I was happy to see a large lot of grass to put my tent. I wasn't able to contact the pastor, but I figured it would be okay to camp anyways. The pasta for the evening tasted like pasta and tomorrow would be a new day on the road.
Daily mileage: 92.3 miles
Average speed: 12.5 mph
Total mileage: 5,433.1 miles

Day 88, October 28th 2007 (Denton,TX to Denton,TX)

I wasn't planning on taking a day off today, but it seemed like a good place and time for one. When I woke up it was in an excellent bed and I had slept too well. Since we had stayed in Grapevine for the evening, we had a good 20 mile drive to get back to Denton for the day. Once we were back at Jay C's place I was able to take a nice shower and then enjoy breakfast. He had prepared some eggs and toast and it was a perfect way to begin the day. I had the entire day in front of me and since it was a college town I was anxious to see more of the campus. I didn't want to get back on the bike and since Jay C lived so close to the campus I decided to walk. It had been awhile since I had gone for a walk and so it was nice to use my legs for a different use other than pedalling. I walked through the campus and then up the street to the downtown area. It was a nice little square in the downtown area and it was nice to sit and enjoy some of the area. I was told that there was an interesting movie theatre a mile up the road and it sounded like a good way to kill a couple of hours. It was a perfect day to be outside in Texas, again. I went the mile and when I arrived at the theatre I was able to see what separated it from most theatres. It was called the Movie Tavern. They were a restaurant and a movie theatre combined to give you food and theatre at the same time. After the first movie that I watched I decided to see another because I wanted to try some of their food. It was closer to dinner time and it made more sense to order food at this point in the day. It was a very cool set-up and I really enjoyed having a great meal while enjoying a film. It was a nice set up that they had and it worked very well. When I had finished watching movies for the afternoon, I started to hike back to Jay C's. He had called and told me that he was going to be on campus at the library for awhile and so I wasn't supposed to expect him back for a little while. He had left the door unlocked for me and when I returned I used the kitchen to make a little pasta. Tomorrow was going to be another day on the road and I wanted to make sure I had the energy to go the distance. My body was going to be well rested after the lengthy day that I had just endured.
Daily mileage: 0.0 miles
Total mileage: 5,340.8 miles

Day 87, October 27th 2007 (Jacksboro,TX to Denton,TX)

I was very motivated to get to Denton and have a nice place to stay for a night. It had been a couple of days on the road without a shower, and even longer since I had stayed with someone from warm showers. I was looking forward to being able to meet someone new from the area and to see what was happening in the town of Denton. I started riding at around 9. It was still a little chilly riding early in the morning, maybe 40 degrees. It seemed to usually warm up around 10 to 10:30 so I warmed myself up for the first couple of hours and then I would start to really warm up with the temperature. The wind seemed to continue to not do very much, and for that I was pleased. One thing that seemed to remain the same were the rolling hills in the area. I was riding up and down hills through farm land and I was seeing a lot of the same characteristics of back home in Iowa. I went for the first half of the day and then was just going to pull over for lunch. I figured that I would have a couple of my famous peanut butter sandwiches and then I looked down because my back was practically coming to a stop on its' own. I thought that I had a flat or something, but my bike was stopping on its' own. As I peered down I saw that my bread that had been hanging on the rear rack had swung down and was caught between my rear wheel and my chain. The bag had torn open and bread was being shredded out of the rear of my bicycle by the wheel as it continued to turn. It took me a little while to scrape out all of the remnants of bread that had become glued to my chain and then I started to look for other options for lunch. There was buffet for only $5.50 and so I decided to go and surprise some of the folk in the area. It's always great to see the reaction on people's faces as I come in and shovel a few plates down and then get back on my bike and continue to ride. The food was good and I was starting to approach Dallas as I left. The cities were definitely growing in much larger sizes and the traffic grew as well. I had heavy traffic blowing by me on the road and I was forced to deal with the shoulder of the road. I wasn't able to spend as much of my time looking around as I was spending keeping an eye on the drivers approaching me from behind. There wasn't much around me at this point besides business buildings and restaurants, so I really wasn't missing out on too much. The desolate land now laid behind me and it was the traumatizing large cities that laid ahead. When I was approaching Denton I called the host on the warm shower's list, Jay C, to let him know I was near. He gave me all the directions that I needed to get to his house and it seemed nearly impossible to mess things up. As I came in to the area I was able to see that this was a college town. I had no idea that it was a college area until now, but it was apparently a fairly large school. With about 25,000 students it was easily the largest town I had been in for a good few weeks. When I reached Jay C at his apartment , it was nice to be able to stay with someone my age for the first time. It was a very nice place that I was able to put my things in and call home for an evening. I was given that great warm shower that I had longed for and then I was able to get to chat with Jay C. He was going to school for an English major and he was nearing the end to the degree. I was able to watch football for the first time in awhile and tried to catch up with what was happening and what I had missed. The World Series was also in effect and I had missed a couple of the games and apparently I hadn't missed very much. The Colorado Rockies were being pummeled by the Red Sox and it sounded like a pour display for a World Series match up. Jay C had mentioned that for the evening there was a Halloween costume party that one of his friends was going to have in his home town, about 20 miles away. I had almost completely forgotten about Halloween and the idea of being able to where the same thing that I had been wearing as a costume seemed easy and could be kind of fun. So we went to this Halloween party that started small, but ended up being fairly large. It was funny with some of the conversations I had with some of the people at the party. It would usually start with them commenting on my sweet shorts. Then I would tell them that these were the shorts I had been wearing for quite awhile now. They guessed right away that I was dressed as a touring cyclist and then I would say yes, because I was. It usually took a few more minutes for them to realize that I wasn't just being in character of my costume, and that I was actually touring around the country. It was an eventful evening with some very classic moments. I really needed a video camera at this point of the trip to capture some of the expressions on some of the people's faces. They almost seemed mystified that I was actually on this journey, and some walked away thinking that I was lying to them. I was able to meet a few of Jay C's friends and one whom was Justin. Justin lived only a few minutes away from the place where the party was being held and when we had enough for the evening we went to his place to call it a night. Justin was great to chat with since he was also planning on taking some time off after this next semester to pull a long trip. He was going to attempt hitchhiking around Mexico and with the appropriate gear, it sounded like an incredible time. I tried to answer some of his questions as best as possible and only wished the best for his journey that lay ahead. I had an incredibly nice bed to sleep in for the evening and it was a great way to end an eventful day. I was running into so many great people along this trip. At a place like I was at for the evening, it was too difficult to write about all of the great people that I met.

Daily mileage: 66.1 miles
Average speed: 12.2 mph
Total mileage: 5,340.8 miles

Day 86, October 26th 2007 (Throckmorton,TX to Jacksboro,TX)

It was incredible how well I slept last night. A great lawn to sleep on had been tough to come by until Texas. Waking up to my hot bowl of oatmeal I was able to chat with David and his friend. David's friend had come into town late last night, and he was in town to preach for a weekend retreat in the area. He was a very cool guy to be able to chat with and he had also been on the road earlier this summer. In August he had taken a couple of weeks off to ride his motorcycle a good few thousand miles. I wish I could have taken a few days to stick around for the retreat, but I had arrangement ahead of me on the road. I had contacted someone on the warm shower's list and was projected to be there on Saturday. So I wasn't able to stick around and see how things happened to turn out, but I did have a couple of easy rides ahead of me. With about 140 miles from here to Denton, it was going to be a relaxing next couple of days. After cleaning everything up I was out for a ride. I was very thankful for the wonderful weather I had managed to receive in Texas. There was hardly any wind again for the afternoon, and it was in the low 70's. I had a few towns to stop in before I finished for the day, 70 miles away. With the rolling hills in front of me, I was having to work a little harder. There really wasn't too much to talk about as far as the scenery. Just another day going through Texas and moving East. The roads seemed to change at every county from good to bad. Then from bad to good. I would be riding on excellent pavement and then on the plastered gravel that I had mentioned before. Needless to say, I was glad to see the town I was ending in for the day when I did. It was probably 3:30 and I had a good few hours of daylight ahead of me. I didn't see a park anywhere in the town, but I targeted a church and darted for it. I was able to get a hold of the pastor at the church and was okay to put my tent in the lawn. It was another great patch of land that seemed far enough away from town to avoid too much trouble on this Friday evening. With all of the daylight ahead of me still, I was able to enjoy the afternoon. I sat and relaxed and then took a nice walk through the town. It was a town of about 5,000 people and with it came a lot of little shops. It was great to see some of the Texan culture. With about an hour of daylight remaining, I walked back to my tent. I cooked a heaping bowl of pasta and watched as the sun went down. Tomorrow was going to be a warm shower, and I was ready for one again.

Daily mileage: 70.8 miles
Average speed: 13.0 mph
Total mileage: 5,274.7 miles

Day 85, October 25th 2007 (Jayton,TX to Throckmorton,TX)

AS I was getting out of my tent this morning I was greeted by Pastor David. He had just shown up to the church, and I had just woken up for the morning. The sun was just starting to rise and I was welcomed inside the church for a hot cup of coffee. Once I was sipping some excellent coffee with all of its' magnificent caffeine, I was offerred breakfast. Before I knew what was going on I had a plate full of french toast to go along with the morning coffee. I really enjoyed talking with David, he seemed to have a gret concern about the youth growing up today. I agreed with him on many things, and it was great to see how well he was able to incorporate sports and christianity on youths in the area. Two very strong and important issues today were being incorporated in this one area of Texas. It was an exceptional way to start the day on the road and it was a great boost that I needed in this area. The land was about the same as I left Jayton, but there were a few more rolling hills. The scenery seemed to remain about the same as I had been seeing. The only thing that seemed different was that I hadn't seen any cotton fields. There seemed to be quite a few wheat fields and other plots of land that had been torn up at this time of the year, but not a single sign of cotton anywhere. Thw wind was still blowing from the north to the south and I was beginning to think that it wasn't going to change anytime soon. I would probably be riding with a crosswind for a good portion of the next few days. It seemed okay with me at this point, as long as I didn't have 40 mph gusts of wind. With only 30 miles left to go for the day, the afternoon had gone by like a breeze. I stopped to enjoy some lunch in a small little town of Texas and pondered how great these small towns were. When in New Mexico it seemed like a small town on the nmap could have a population of one family and you had no way of knowing until you arrived. Which led me to think of when I was told that only one and a half million people lived in the entire state of New Mexico. Now, only one state east of New Mexico O didn't seem to have much of a problem with the small towns. Each town usually had at least 500-1,000 peopla and sometimes even more. Every 30 miles I was more than likely going to run into a gas station, civilization, and water. It may not seem like a very big deal, but this was everything I had to look forward to out in this open area of the country. Water was so crucial to have, and now I was in an endless supply. So I left for the last 30 miles of the day and was thankful for being given in abundance on my travels, and now here in Texas. When I pulled into town I decided to find a church to set up tent again for the evening. It was a town of about 1,000 people and I very quickly noticed a First United Methodist Church. It had an incredibly huge lawn and seemed like a great place to sleep. I went inside the building, since I had seen a car in the parking lot, to ask permission to set up camp. There was a great lady, Diane, working in the church and she happily contacted the pastor for me. In only a few moments after she had contacted the pastor, the phone was in my hand and I was being invited over for dinner. I couldn't wait to spend another evening indulging in something other than my pasta. After I put my tent up and had everything ready to go for the eveningm Monty came down to where I was. Monty was the pastor of the church and only lived a couple of houses away. We walked into his beautiful home and I was able to meet his wife, Ashley, and their two younger kids. One of their younger ones was about 2 and the other was only 6 months. It was great to be brought into such an incredible family with open arms. The rest of the evening was full of great fellowship and a chance to play a role in eachother's lives. After the meal was over I was given an opportunity to take a shower. I was squeaky clean in only a few minutes and was feeling much better without the sweat and grime. I was given food in abundance before I left the house, and I was incredibly thankful for all of the hospitality I had recieved. I was now able to sleep full and clean, an excellent combination to have.
Daily mileage: 89.1 miles
Average speed: 13.4 mph
Total mileage: 5,203.9 miles