Friday's ride to Cleveland Texas

April 11, 2013

A 63 mile ride to Silsbee, Texas and the Pinewood Inn 

Today is our last day in Texas because tomorrow we go to Louisiana – after three weeks of riding across this enormous state. After another dose of chipseal, I am ready to move on to asphalt or indeed, anything else.  Again, it was a lovely ride along Farm Roads with a couple of brief highways in between. We are near logging country so enormous trucks laden with young saplings strapped on to the back about 12 feet high and 50 feet long zoomed past us, leaving an aroma of pine trees and pine bark and the forests they had once lived in so peacefully. There’s a sawmill somewhere round here and we thought they might stop sometime. But they kept zooming past us going somewhere else most of the morning as we drove along two-lane quiet farm roads and past open fields and a few horses and cows.

     We left Cleveland at 8 a.m. for the ride, and when we start off in a long line, it’s hard to know where anyone is going – so the leaders missed a turn but the others noticed and we all made the correct right turn at the right time. After the first half hour, we are all spread out along the road going at our own pace, and the Sag goes to the 20 mile mark and waits for us to refill water bottles, provide snacks and encourage us or take us off the road into the wagon.

      Today, I did 20 miles and felt fine, so Jo and I rode on. At the second sag, a truck pulled up because a rider had a flat tire and a nice woman pulled over and offered to help so took her and the other rider and their bikes in her truck to the sag stop for a repair. At 40 miles I was tired, but Carla The Sag Rider urged me to rest and then finish the ride. So I rode on 10 miles to Mama John’s restaurant, a big family restaurant which is popular and has good food and was recommended on the cue sheet. I had a BLT sandwich with French fries – and discussed how ‘chips’ are different in America from Australia, New Zealand and England and I still have to remember that they are. It was delicious and nice to have a lunch break.

      Afterwards, we rode on the last 12 miles to the Pinewood Inn in Silsbee, population 6,000 or so, though it has a Subway, McDonalds and Sonic, but no Walmart. When we asked the guy at the desk about a Starbucks, he laughed heartily…..”Not round here” he said, “though I like a triple macchiato with skim milk.” Who knew?

       The pool was cold and being cleaned by its automatic cleaner. The hot tub was warm but “it’s an old Jacuzzi and the sprays are old and tired and don’t work ,” he told us.  The hot tub aficianados sat in it anyway because it feels so good to rest our legs and knees in hot water. I sat in the sun drying off for a while, and then came in for a shower.

       This morning as we left the hotel, It was about 50 degrees and clear and sunny and it warmed up to about 80 degrees by the time we got to Silsbee. The sky was blue, there was a light breeze so not too windy, and it was a beautiful fresh clear day, ideal for riding except for thundering lumber trucks hurtling down the roads behind us and overtaking at breakneck speed.

       It was a lovely ride with some long uphills but slow and steady, and a few nice downhils, but mostly pretty flat which is a pleasant relief for me. Tonight we have dinner in the parking lot and our map meeting for our ride to Louisiana tomorrow, and our farewell to Texas.