Filling in the gaps

Memorable moments in Texas

Kerrville, Texas and the hill country – This was probably one of my favorite places in all of Texas. The town is pleasant and clean. There is a bike/walking path along the Guadalupe River that we rode from one end to the other. It was magnificent and very peaceful.

Kerrville, Texas river bike path

Kerrville, Texas river bike path

Austin – My route took me through Austin, so we spent one night there. I did not ride through the city. I have decided that city riding is too crazy with all the traffic and people not paying attention. Austin is a nice city. We went downtown, mostly for the reason of picking up my mail that my daughter forwarded to us to the post office there. While we were there we walked around the capital building. The capital is set at the end of a tree lined street and is very picturesque.

Capital building of Texas in Austin

Statue in front of capital building, Austin, TX commemorating the number of Confederate militia that died during the war

Description of the above statue

St. Mary Cathedral, Austin, TX

Lake Conroe – We stayed at another Thousand Trails RV park. It is a really big park with lake access for water fun. If we would have had the time to spend here, we would have rented canoes. The lake is beautiful and huge. We met a couple here that we have become fast friends with and spent one evening playing dominoes with. We run into them again just by complete coincidence at a small boutique on a side street in New Orleans. It sure is a small world! One of the days we were at Lake Conroe, I rode my bike around the lake through Sam Houston National Forest.

Riding across a bridge on Lake Conroe, TX

Sam Houston National Forest

Sam Houston National Forest

Lake Conroe

Lake Conroe

Riding through the thicket country near Big Thicket National Preserve was a unique area. It looks like a wooded forest from the road, but upon a closer look, it is very swampy in a lot of areas. Texas is diverse in it’s landscape from one end to the next. It has been fun to see how it changed from West to East.

My worst riding moment so far has happened in Texas. A guy of about 25 years of age driving a big truck thought I was too close to the white line on the shoulder (I was about a foot on the shoulder side of the white line to avoid a huge line of gravel on the shoulder). He got up right behind me and blared his horn. Then, he pulled up beside me and drove my speed getting less than 2 feet from me. He rolled down the window and started screaming at me. He drove beside me for at least 1/3-1/2 mile yelling at me and taunting me. I ignored him, and he must have decided I was not worth engaging with because he finally moved on. It was super scary though.

The day after the truck incident, I had probably the most heart warming experience I have had so far on the trip. I started out my day riding, and after about 12 miles, I crossed into another county, and the road changed to be very narrow with the 12 inch shoulder being taken up by a rumble strip which forced me to ride in traffic. I got about a half mile on that road and pulled off into a convience store parking area because I just didn’t feel good about riding the road. The traffic was moving very fast and it was full of semi-trucks. I called Eric to tell him that I did not feel good about riding the road and I was going to try to find a different road to ride. As I was on the phone, a man pulled up in his truck and told me to be very careful riding the road and if possible to not ride the road at all because a girl riding her bike got killed not too long ago on that road. I went into the convenience store to use the restroom, talked to the clerk for a moment (who was quite a character and made everyone he spoke to smile and laugh). I started getting my bike gear back on to head out, when the clerk came out of the store and said that the man who was just there called the store and asked the clerk to tell me to please not ride the road. He said he would gladly come back to the store and take me anywhere I wanted to go. The clerk also told me that the people around there, including himself, were all back country folk and knew each other. He said the man who offered me the ride is very nice and trustworthy, and told me that the girl that was killed on the road, two weeks prior to that day, was the man’s girlfriend. I took the man up on his offer. He came back to the store, loaded my bike up and drove me to a road that was safe to ride. He told me all about his girlfriend. I learned about her personality, her quirkiness, and her love for people, as well as, her tragic death. We were meant to meet each other. He could have possibly saved my life, keeping me from riding that road. It is a narrow, hilly road, and he said people drive about 80 mph, not being able to see what is over the next little hill.

Things like this cause me to be grateful for the number of good people around me at any given time. Out of the many thousands of people who have passed me on the road, only one person was mean and nasty. After the harassment incident, I questioned whether or not I wanted to continue my riding. But, he is the exception, not the majority. Most people are good, helpful, and caring.