With fresh legs and full bellies we pushed off from the
105 Cafe in Conroe, TX. Our sights were set on Beaumont, TX some 93 miles down Texas route 105. With no turns to make and hardly any hills to climb we put in our right-side earbuds and tuned into our new favorite app:
NPR One. Our favorite podcasts, hometown stations, local stations, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me, Nerdette recaps Game of Thrones! Radiolab! TED Radio Hour!... the list goes on.
We pedaled through pine forests, past lakes, along farms and through small towns such as Moss Hill, Sour Lake, and Batson. We had a nice picnic at an abandoned restaurant and finished our near century ride by 6 PM. Our Warm Showers hosts Joe and Catherine were ready with a hot shower and a beer as soon as we arrived! To our great delight one of our first conversation topics was Game of Thrones. They had HBO and were excited to watch! Joe had even read the books. We shared a terrific meal, some beers, and a wonderful hour of swords, Arakhs, spears, Valerian steel, and hounds.
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| The outskirts of Port Arthur were heavily industrialized |
We had another early morning, cycling 23 miles south into the gulf breeze to Port Arthur, TX, hometown of Janis Joplin. We took a couple hours to explore the
Museum of the Gulf Coast. Before we even gazed across the gulf we learned about its natural and human history. From Port Arthur we had possibly one of the last hills we will have on our ride: The Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge. With stiff winds off the gulf we pushed along and with another smaller bridge exited Texas and entered Louisiana!
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| More like see ya! |
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| The Ferry to Cameron |
Thanks to Rosie Rivezzi (my mom) we stayed in the only motel in Cameron, LA and ate some great food at
Anchors Up Grill. We arrived at the
Cameron Motel after a short ferry to get into town. The motel provided a nice clean room, an escape from the humidity, and a place to tuck into our burger and po' boy from Anchors Up!
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| Fine eats and beautiful skies |
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This helpful map shows the yearly rainfall in Texas.
That is 6 inches on the far West and 58 on the East! |
I am now writing this in the middle of a severe thunderstorm band that is racing along the gulf coast. We are in Pecan Island, Louisiana with the terrific Juanita from Warm Showers. She has been a WS host since before she even knew what it was, calling cyclists off the road and showing them true hospitality, whether that meant beer, a meal, a bed, or all of the above. We abandoned our original plan of camping at a nearby state park when we heard about Juanita from fellow bike tourer (and fellow
Surly Long Haul Trucker) Nic! We met her during our lunch break and had plenty to talk about. She is headed west, we are heading east!
With our sights on Lafayette and our eyes on the radar are waiting out the storm in comfort!
Till next time.
-WJT
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| Tribute to Janis Joplin at the Museum. She was born in Port Arthur. |
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| Bike Twins! Nic and Sarah with their LHTs |
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| Living the life at Juanita's |
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| Homemade hot sauce swag! |
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| We saw a bunch of gators. This one was the cutest! |
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