Greetings from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Anybody up for a bike ride?

Day 43- Departure

During the night I received several phone calls reporting that my wife, Nan, had been in an automobile accident. She was slightly injured with a bruised sternum from the seat belt. Neither she nor a passenger required hospitalization and they both came home. The car, however, was a total wreck. Since my car had expired before I left for the C2C tour we were left without transportation. I pondered several possible courses of action on my part.

Ron, aka Stretch and a rider from 2013, had joined us for a week. He and his wife, Carol, were planning to drive home in the morning to North Augusta, SC. I spoke with them about getting a ride home with them as they would be passing by Atlanta. They were agreeable and modified their van to accommodate my bicycle, gear and me. The hardest and emotional moment for me was announcing to my friends and family of fellow riders and support staff that I would be departing. Lots of tears on my part and hugs. I vowed to return next year to complete the last 8 days of riding through Florida to St Augustine. By unfortunate coincidence another rider, Mike, had fallen the day before on a grate and broken his collar bone. I had luckily negotiated the same grate with its openings parallel to the street just moments before it got Mike. I am hoping that he will join me to complete our ride in 2015.

Best wishes and warm thanks to all the riders, support staff and the incredible Bubba for the adventure of a lifetime.

Day 42- Ocean Springs, MS to Dauphin Island, AL

              State #7- Alabama

We delayed our departure from the dry and warm motel hoping the overnight rain storm would end. No such luck! We left in a drizzle that almost immediately turned back to rain and it lasted into the afternoon. We did find our first Krispy Kreme donuts just before another obligatory stop for cinnamon rolls. We liked them but the consensus was not quite as good as Alpine, TX. Perhaps it was that we had just eaten Krispy Kremes five miles earlier. Here are some reminders that we were still in Mississippi:

We did finally pass into Alabama and made our way South with the aid of the Northeast wind for what seemed like the first time in weeks. We stopped for lunch later at the Preacher's Cafe, where I enjoyed a shrimp and oyster po' boy in Bayou La Batre. You may recall this town from its feature role in Tom Hank's famous movie, Forest Gump. We finished the remaining 20 miles in fine fashion again with the prevailing winds aiding us over a causeway and tall bridge onto Dauphin Island. The campground across from the ferry landing was wet with standing water but the Wolfpack did their usual masterful job of deploying the tents artfully around the low wet spots. Chef Ann came through with steaks. We were all 'happy campers' after a long (82 mile) day's ride. We are all now such strong riders it felt more like a ride around a block.

Day 41- Poplarville to Ocean Springs

What a day! It started with me getting up cold, damp and unable to access toilet facilities. Yes, I was grumpy and would have chosen not to have riden. Funny thing, once I started to ride my body as well as my disposition began to warm up. The route took us up and down through thick pines of the DeSoto National Forest. We encountered very little traffic and although cloudy, rain never materialized.

We reached our second and lunch stop where we were greeted by the friendly sign, above. We also learned that our intended destination and campground was flooded so we were asked to remain at the church and await alternative instructions. We soon learned that we would be staying in a nice warm and dry Motel 6 along I-10 in Ocean Sorings. Here's a picture of happy bikers:

Day 40- Franklinton, LA to Poplarville, MS

Sixth state- We crossed the Pearl River into Mississippi today.

We all bundled up this morning and delayed our departures in response to the lowest temperatures (31F) of the entire trip. The sun did come out but the day remained chilly as you might note from all the layers I am wearing above.

We did have yet one more stop for donuts in Bogalusa, LA before crossing the very much flooding Pearl River. Bubba quickly had us exit a very busy and narrow highway in MS to make use of delightful country lanes that climbed and passed many prosperous looking horse and cattle ranches. Here are some swamp irises that remain in bloom with the cool weather:

Here are a few pics from quiet little Poplarville and county seat of Pearl River, MS and including a gathering of bikers at an old fashioned ice cream parlor at the back of a drug store:

We are overnighting at a campground just outside of town and hoping for warmer conditions tomorrow as we head southeast through MS on our way to AL the following day.

Day 39- Clinton to Franklinton

Not many pictures or words for today's ride. The route was West to East rolling 60 miles over one North-South watershed after another. We have stayed in Louisiana after crossing the Mississippi River. The state is shaped like an 'L' or a boot and we are riding across the top of the foot.

The topic du jour is the weather. All five previous C2C tours endured heat at this point. We, however, started the morning at a very chilly 41F and expect even colder weather tomorrow. Fortunately the sun is out but the wind from the North is keeping the temps down.

Day 38- New Roads to Clinton

         John James Audubon Bridge

We crossed the Mississippi River today over a lightly traveled bridge, pictured above, and which is only three years old. Unlike yesterday all the roads that we used were smoothly paved and the shoulders were almost free of depris. We only encountered a few logging trucks. All and all a short sweet ride.

We stopped just outside St Francisville at the Rosedown Plantation. Most of us took a one hour tour of the house that dated back to 1835. Here are some shots of the exterior grounds as well as interior decorative items and toys:

The decorative floor cloth in the front foyer is a reproduction but the other items including the silk quilt are believed to be originals to the house. It, of course, helped to have 40-60 household slaves to maintain the house and grounds as well as another 400 to cultivate the cotton and sugar cane crops.

We rode a bit further to Clinton for lunch at the Red Boot Deli and our overnight stop. We are staying inside again seeking shelter from the rain.

The Partish courthouse built in 1840 and still on use today.

Day 37- Mamou to New Roads

              Crawfish and Rice.

For the past few days we have passed flooded fields, such as those pictured above, and wondered what was being cultivated. The answers, we learned, were crawfish which eat rice stubble, are trapped and harvested from shallow drafted boats powered by what looks like a mini-dredge. The green fields, also flooded, were newly planted rice and benefited from the crawfish droppings.

The ride itself today was a bit of a slog with rough roads, pestering winds and depris. I did gain an appreciation of the difficulty of maintaining smoothly paved roads on sandy wet soil. Several riders, myself fortunately not included, endured  small but distressing falls with accompanying scrapes and bruises to body, bike and soul. We did cross a 7 mile bridge with an escort over the Morganza Spillway. This is a massive Corps of Engineers project to divert water from the Mississippi River to protect Baton Rouge and further South, New Orleans. It has never been utilized as consequences are so hard to predict.

This evening we are staying in an old lodge overlooking False River, a lake like body of water, pictured above, that was once an oxbow and linked to the MS Rver. A few of us stopped at a small museum and saw how the Acadians lived upon arrival in Louisiana after being expelled from Canada by the British.

Day 36- DeRidder to Mamou

Left DeRidder early at 7am to complete a relatively short 62 mile ride by noon. Mostly smooth pavement and no logging trucks on a Saturday. We were rushing to reach world famous Fred's Lounge in Mamou before it closed at 2pm. A live radio show is broadcast from Fred's every Saturday morning and the place closes whenever the feature band gets tired.

We are camping this evening at the Girls Softball Complex just outside of Mamou and will be enjoying shortly gumbo prepared by locals as a fund raiser for the local music festival.

Day 35- Silsbee, TX to DeRidder, LA

Today we completed five weeks of riding since leaving San Diego on March 8. Somewhat more important to most of us was finishing the ride across Texas (19 days including two for R&R and 1035 miles, just over 1/3 of the total distance).

Today's ride was a remarkably easy 72 miles of mostly flat and some modest gain in elevation after we crossed the Sabine River into Louisiana. The day started with two fast segments going north on US 96 including a stop at the Donut Palace in Buna, TX. Our last culinary stop was a hectic, but tasty lunch in Bon Wier just before leaving Texas.

We overnighted in the Stagecoach Inn in DeRidder. Always a treat to sleep in a bed and have a hot shower with real towels. Bubba treated us to a restaurant meal this evening for our first taste of Cajun food, including a huge platter of crawfish, at Presley's.

A surprise for me was finding myself adjacent to US Army Fort Polk. This is where I spent three miserably hot months enduring basic training in 1970. It was even more surprising to learn that two others of the four of us sharing a table at dinner had also been stationed at Fort Polk in 1970 and 1972. What a coincidence!

Day 34- Shepherd to Silsbee

Dawn over Lake Thompson RV Park where we spent our last night in Texas.

Happy gear day. This is a term used by Rose to describe when you are pedaling without any appreciable effort. Usually on long flat or slightly downhill terrain as we experienced today in Eastern Texas.

We continued almost due East again North of Houston and then Beaumont using FM country roads. Except for frequent passing of trucks hauling logs to paper mills the roads and surrounding roads were idyllic. 

We passed over a small lake and stopped for lunch at a country general store. Their specialty was a fried balogna sandwich. I opted for a cheeseburger and a Coke. Several of us stopped in Silsbee for supplies and, of course, some ice cream, before heading to the overnight campground.

Day 33- Richards to Shephard

Cold (low 40's) and late (9 am) start this morning but a very pleasant low rolling and short (60 mi) route. We passed north of Houston through the Sam Houston National Forest. Just as we by-passed San Antonio one was completely unaware of the close proximity of a major metropolitan area. The terrain has now turned to pine forest and the first bayou. It all reminds me of Eastern NC and Georgia. We saw azaleas and wisteria in bloom as well as a dogwood. All quite a contrast to the desert of Far West Texas and the chaparral of the Hill Country. We are now below 100 ft above sea level.

Russell Cushman came and spoke to us at the Mexican Hill Ranch about his career as an artist and local historian. He was the sculptor of the Texad Ranger Frank Hammer statue in Novasota.

We had two sweet stops along the way today. First for pie and coffee in New Waverly and then burgers and shakes for lunch at The Hop in Coldspring. One more bluebonnet sighting:

Then it was on to our overnight camp site  at the Shephard Sanctuary. Check this out:

Another sign that we are still in Texas:

Day 32- R&R at Mexican Hill Ranch

Dawn at Mexican Hill Ranch, Richards, TX

Doris and Ernie are hosting us on their ranch just off the Southern Tier route of Adventure Cycling. This is a rest day for us after yesterday's long ride and in preparation for our final three weeks.

A fierce wind and rain storm passed over us during the night. A cold wind has continued to gust during the day. We are all grateful that we are not riding on it today.

More rider comments: Jim, is my 'roommate' since he and I both have CPAP devices and our tents are set up side by side to share a power supply. We refer to this arrangement as VIP housing. Jim is from Iowa City, an obvious Hawkeye fan and is retired from insurance. He is a remarkably strong rider even though he had hip replacement surgery ten years ago. He usually rides with Doug and Sue , a couple from Ashland, OR. Both are now retired. Sue sold her dental practice and Doug was a school administrator. The three are very congenial and ride at an easy pace.

Day 31- LaGrange to Richards

Long ride (89.4 miles) today over Silk Sheets (smooth rolls) like country lanes and Farm to Market (FM) roads. The distance was 50% greater than what we covered each of the three previous days but the route and modest pace were a real joy over the 9 hours that it took to complete the course including stops. The 3000 ft of climbing equaled the downhills.

We stopped in Carmine beside this little town park and enjoyed coffee brought to us by Gene, a local guy who Chandler, our mechanic, helped on a previous tour. We also had donuts brought to us by Bubba. From here we had to brave the shoulder and carefully cross a very busy US 290 before returning for the remainder of the day to quiet roads surrounded by fields of wildflowers.

We passed through Washigton County, the birthplace of Texas, and stopped for lunch on Academy Hill in the town of Independece. We learned that where we were picnicing was the original location of Baylor University, then known as Baylor Female Academy.

Our next stop was in Novasota to view a live sized statue of Texas Ranger Frank Hammer, best known as the one who stopped Bonnie and Clyde. 

Last, another DQ obligatory chocolate shake before completing the final 20 miles to Mexican Hill Ranch just outside Richards.

Day 30- Lockhart to LaGrange

Rainy day. The route was a pleasant roll through the countryside that reminded me of the Silk Sheets in South Fulton County. We crossed the Colorado River (yes, Texas has a Colorado River) that marks the eatern edge of the Hill Country. 

The wildflowers were in full bloom but the weather precluded any picture taking. We have been promised tomorrow that the weather will improve and that the wildflowers will be even more spectacular. If so, hope to take lots of pics to share.

The rain was an off and on again drizzle with a cold wind. It soaked us but we had a nice hot soup at our lunch stop and were welcomed to LaGrange by a local resident and architect, Brad, who hosted part of the group. The rest of us guys are staying inside rather than camping in a local rec center. Very warm and cozy. Anotherq great dinner of curried chicken and sausage with rice and lintels. 

Day 29- Blanco SP to Lockhart SP

Nice day! Bill and Angie's son, Anthony, joined us for lunch, rode from Kyle to Lockhart and stayed for dinner. The weather was overcast and route still challenging before lunch. We eventually reached Kyle, met Anthony and chowed down on sandwiches and pie form the Texas Pie Company.

Life is Short, Eat more Pie

The terrain turned quite flat after lunch and we had nice fast ride to Kerrville. 

Anthony made sure that I made an obligatory stop at Smitty's Meats for another taste of beef brisket and to see their four open pit cookers. Yummy but I would hate to wait in line in the summer heat.

The prettiest wildflowers on display were at the entrance to the State Park where we camped overnight. Anthony stayed for dinner and a talk by former astronaut, Bubba rider and NC native, Bill MacArthur. Very inspiring!

Day 28- Kerrville to Blanco

Still a wee bit early for the bluebonnets and other wildflowers to be in full bloom.

This was a day of relaxed riding with an hour long stop for coffee in the morning (only our second and first since Alpine) and another for lunch in the two charming villages of Comfort and Sisterville. The route beside the Blanco River and later following farm lanes reminded me of the countryside and rides outside of Limoux in Southern France. We saw mostly working farms and ranches with cattle and horses. There were fewer hunting preserves and hobby ranches than between Del Rio and Kerrville. The hills after lunch grew considerably more challenging and the terrain drier.

We stayed overnight at the Blanco State Park after a DQ stop and treat to reward us for a delightful ride. 

Several readers have requested that I comment on the other riders and participants in the tour. So, I will begin today with the three folks with whom I spend most days. Bob, who Nan and I met as he was staying in the room next to us in San Diego, is in his early 70's, winters in Florida but returns in the summer to his hometown, Dickson, IL. If that sounds familar, it is the home of Ronald Reagan. Bob is a very strong rider and told us when we met him that he had riden 5000 miles since September. He reminds me of Vern of the Chain Gang. Bob is quite capable of riding much faster but is gracious and let's others set the pace. John and Rose from near Boulder, CO and in their early 60's have been constant companions since coming to my rescue during my illness in Tucson. The four of a us now ride together everyday knowing that we will leave about 8 am, pass many of the other riders during the day and arrive in camp just behind those leaving very early. We seem happy to accommodate each other's desire for stops for pictures and historical markers (that would be me) and ride at a consistent pace.

Day 27- Riverbend to Kerrville

Halfway! We've crossed half the country as of today and commemorated the occasion in front of a fence topped by old cowboy boots. 

The day was ideal for biking- overcast and a cooling breeze- but not so good for pictures. The route included an early 1.8 mile climb that looked much more daunting on the elevation profile than it turned out to be in reality. I suspect that the result was an indication of how well we have all acquired new stamina.

We continued north up US 83 but soon turned east on TX 39. The contour was a pleasant mix of ups and downs past many exotic animal ranches. We eventually reached the Guadelupe River. The road followed the river downstream as if we were riding through an article in Sunset magazine or the Provence region of France. One beautiful stone facade home, club and camp after another all along a river (yes, with water) bordered on one side by limestone cliffs.

Here's one of the more exotic structures along the river just before the boot fence.

We stopped for lunch at the Hunt Store in the village of the same name. Then onto Ingram and finally Kerrville. All and all a perfect day of riding. We arrived in time to chat, drink beer and enjoy a steak dinner compliments of Chef Ann. We are camping in a very large and well appointed city park.

Day 26- Riverbend R&R Day

This is our first real rest day. Our previous non-riding days have been filled with interesting activities, but we are all grateful for one day of just nothing. (Note to readers: You have no doubt noticed that I have used much of the day to catch up with the blog.) 

My cousin, Dan, pictured above, and his wife, Lisa, drove out from their home in San Antonio to join the Coasters for a hearty dinner. We have regular guests and it always a special treat when family can be included. Lisa took this picture as well as many more that I hope to include later.

This evening Camile Sanders, the 18 year old and very poised daughter of Riverbend's owner, sang to us after dinner. We were enchanted and most of us bought her two CD's. You too can listen at camilesanders.com 

Tomorrow we set off again for the theoretical mid-point in the journey. It is so hard to comprehend what we have accomplished individually and as a group. We are into our fourth week and have covered almost 1500 miles so far. We have left the desert and are entering a tunnel of green as we head ever onwards East.

Day 25- Bracketville to Concan

Green grass and trees! We've left the desert and entered the Texas Hill Country. We started the day riding east again into a mild head wind towards Uvalde, where we stopped for lunch. I did not try the goat taco but did enjoy a hearty special collection of Mexican dishes at Ofelia's.

 We left US 90 here and made our way north into the Hill Country on US 83. There was one major climb into the crossroad village of Concan and an ice cream stop. We had a bit less than ten miles to complete the ride to the Ricerbend Resort, a cute collection of cabins where we will stay for two nights.

Day 24- Seminole Canyon SP to Bracketville

Another hard day into the wind, albeit much less intense and half the day a turn in the route provided a mild crosswind. (Note: This is a sunset view from the commune on the outskirts of Marathon, but it seemed like a nice shot of West Texas, not unlike the terrain and Mesa of Seminole Canyon SP.)

We left a bit late allowing time to visit a most informative museum in the park and set off for Del Rio. We did have to complete the 9 miles from the park into the village of Comstock. The terrain into Del Rio was similar to the prior day but with much less intense wind. The local sherrif's department provided an escort over a mile long bridge that spanned an arm of the binational Armistad Reservoir created by a dam on the Rio Grande near the mouth of the Pecos River. This area presented significant challenges to the railroad seeking to span several canyons. Del Rio turned out to be quite the thriving community including a most excellent Rudy's restaurant lunch stop for a brisket sandwich. Again, the Sherrif deputies came to our rescue and escorted us out of town. We passed a large Air Force base on the east side of town and noted many ranches with high fences. My interpretation is that these are ranches converted to raising wild game for hunting.

We camped overnight in decommissioned Army Fort Clark, that contained many rock faced buildings in excellent condition. Bubba hosted an ice cream social after dinner with the Women's Tour.

Day 23- Sanderson to Comstock

What a day! Steady winds of 20 mph and gusts up to 35 mph directly into our faces over a long course. Only about half the riders completed the route and those of us that did questioned their decision. Long and hard but we were briefed, prepared for what we faced and had regular support and offers to bring us in. Another accompanying women's tour seemed to have similar difficulties and only 3 of 20 completed their route which was even longer at 113 miles than ours at 82. 

The picture above illustrates the limestone geology as well as the highway design. Unfortunately the cut lowering the climb acted as a perfect funnel for the wind as we climbed what seemed like endless hills and had to pedal downhill at 8 mph.

Along the way and after a modest lunch several of us ventured into Langtry to visit the saloon and museum honoring Judge Roy Bean. He was quite the self-promoter and suggested that the town was named for British singer, Lilly Langtry. Not so, we learned. The town was named after a Southern Pacific RR surveyor, but Bean named his saloon, Jersey Lily. Name misspelled on purpose. The flags above are an indicator of wind ferocity.

We arrived arrived after crossing the Pecos River, above, after 10.5 hours of riding at our campsite in Seminole Canyon State Park. Very windy night with dust covering luggage and inside tent the following morning. We stopped at the park museum the next morning and learned that the canyon was named after escaped slaves of the Florida Seminole Indians who had been moved to Oklahoma. The blacks had served has scouts for the US Army in the wars to suppress the Comanches and Apaches. The park is a n historic site to preserve caves and pictographic art.