Almost Out of Texas

After what seems an eternity, we are spending our last night in Texas. We have learned that each time we cross a county line we get a new take on road surfacing. We've had some terrible chip-seal, but we've also had some nice smooth surfaces. This was the part of the trip I was dreading the most and overall it hasn't been too bad. Apparently our upcoming states will have their own challenges, which I'm sure you'll be able to read about in the days to come. Another thing that I expect we'll be leaving behind will be the morning waffles (in the chain hotels) in the shape of the state of Texas. We're in another no-star motel tonight (with no internet access), so Linda will prepare breakfast for us in the morning out of the back of the trailer.

Our geography definitely changed today. We had a severe lack of terrain features. That's our guide's phrase for hills and she never uses the "f" word (flat). Rather - it is a lack of "terrain features". We passed our first bayou and rather than wildflowers in the ditches we had lots of water and swamps. We spent most of the day around 100 feet above sea level. There is a lot of logging in this area, with many clear cut areas coming right to the edge of the road. Not terribly attractive to ride through, and the logging trucks on the shoulder-less roads were not very pleasant either. On top of that, there were no cookies at the Cookie Jar Cafe - who knew??

It was a pleasant ride, though. Perfect temperature, no humidity and bright blue skies. Coming in to the town of Kountze I stopped and made a reservation at the Nursing Centre, which I assume is the Old Folks home. They have a basketball net in front so I thought it would be the right place for me to live out my golden years. We stopped for lunch at Mama Jack's where I had gumbo for the first time. They were also serving crawfish and other gulf coast delicacies. We had a fun lunch, as everyone in the place was asking about our trip, taking our pictures and having us sign their guest book.

Stats today: 65 miles from Cleveland TX to Silsbee TX. Just 799 feet climbed somewhere along the way. Winds were calm and not an issue (for a change).