Kinder, LA to Beaumont, TX (69 miles)

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Leaving Kinder felt good. Needing breakfast and having no place around the motel, I wanted to make oatmeal (again). Having requested a room with fridge and microwave when I checked in, and too tired to do anything about it when I discovered there was none, I had remembered there was a microwave in the lobby of the motel. I went to the lobby at 6:15am with mixed oatmeal in hand, picked up the phone that rings the late night attendent, and asked "Is it possible to use the microwave in the lobby?" A groggy "No way, buddy" (click) was the response I got. Customer service here isn't what I have gotten used to back home. Resolving to trade a washcloth I used in Basile, LA yesterday for a clean one from the motel, I pedaled on after this incident.

I had made a decision last night not to bother going north to DeRidder, LA to join the ACA route, but instead keep going west since the ACA route dips south eventually. I went as far as DeQuincy before I stopped for a drink and a break.

Man, things were tough today, I thought. I wasn't sure why I felt so overworked given a mostly flat terrain. After chatting with three motorcyclists that had stopped at the same gas station during their weekend pleasure cruise, I bid them farewell with sights on a Burger King down the road as I thought maybe my calorie intake was low, thus the slugishness. As I biked away from the bikers, I seemed to feel and hear every bump the rear tire went over. Looking down, I discovered a low tire. Aha! Maybe it wasn't me afterall, maybe it was the tire that made the last 30 miles such work. I took everything off the bike, flipped it upside down, and disassembled the tire. The bikers now motored off nodding with a look of sympathym as they drove by. A quick and failed inspection of the tire for the cause of the flat, I chose to replace the tube and investigate and patch the old one later. 15 minutes later, Burger King was my mid-day reward for this delay, reaching the home of the flame-broiled whopper much easier now that the tire was fully inflated again.

Not able to stomach the whole whopper this early in the day, I started off again later seeing the cap to one of my handlebar ends was missing and remembering I had seen it loose through the window while eating the Whopper meal. Looks like it was left in DeQuincy. Oh well. A harmless loss.

On the way to Starks, Louisiana road work again caused my mind to spin with thoughts of "maybe I have come far enough" and "I'm not sure I can complete this anyway" and "maybe I should just stop".

In Starks, LA on Highway 12 right before Texas, I met Bob Pitcher, another motorcyclist taking a break at a gas station. Bob and I talked about the nearby carnival comprised of about a dozen drive up trucks that convert to family-safe thrill rides within minutes of arrival. Bob told me it was the local Mayhaw festival. He described the Mayhaw as a tiny apple-like fruit that grows in bogs. Looks like Bob wasn't far off.
http://www.mayhaw.net/fruits.html
He insisted I go in and try the jelly, but I wanted to keep moving forward since I had made arrangements through my frined Robert in Mobile, Alabama to meet his cousin in Mauriceville, TX at 3pm-ish.

Passing such signs as "Frog on a Stick $5", I kept my focus and stayed on my bike pedaling forward to the Lone Star State. Once I crossed the Sabine River, my cellphone coverage came back immediately resembling the mysterious electromagnetic line that is drawn between Tijuana and San Diego back home. Two messages: I had a place to stay in Beaumont, TX courtesy of my friend Tom in San Diego finding a contact for me via http://www.couchsurfing.com/ and two grad school friends, now married, resurfaced in Houston and I could stay with them tomorrow.

Crossing into Texas: Mixed feelings about this one. Maybe not all my ex's live in Texas, but there is certainly one that does and I prefer to keep a two-state insulator between us. And just about any Dallas Cowboy fan I have met in the past certainly didn't give the Texas image a boost either. But the arrival of Texas marks the completion of my fourth state on this eight state tour, so there is reason to be happy (despite the fact it will take me weeks to reach the completion of this state #5).

I arrived at Tuffy's restaurant in Mauriceville, TX before Robert's cousin Kevin, so I just hung out there happy to be off the bike. A group of guys who worked for a local business asked "You biking across Texas?" and were shocked when I told them the answer. Inisisting they wanted me to have a cap with their business name on it, but finding none in their work truck that didn't have a sweatring already created, we just shook hands before Kevin arrived and joined me for chicken fried steak at Tuffy's. Kevin took me from Mauriceville to Beaumont and delivered me to Michelle Cate's house. Michelle is a "host" registered on http://www.couchsurfing.com/. A quick-witted Arkansasian, she offered a place to crash, a hot shower, socializing with her and her friends, and a hot breakfast the next morning. One other couchsurfer named Alix arrived that night as well. Alix is "scoot'n for peace", driving her motorized scooter 20,000-miles over two years on quest to gain one million individual definitions of peace and raising money for 4 different charities. Alix's purpose and her self were a bit ambiguous and unclear to me, and, despite her gripes about how hard the road was on her body, I gave no sympathy to this motorized two-wheeler that was encroaching on my much needed sleep time with her airy talk.

start time: 7:20am
end time: 3:30-4:00pm
time on road: 5:17:20
miles: 68.57
avg speed: 12.96
max speed: 19.77 mph
calories: 4,894
conditions: flat, mid 70's F, overcast, nice