What a great day to ride a bicycle. Last evening we
drove into Livingston from San Antonio after spending the afternoon there. It
was an arduous 4-hour drive with a 30-minute delay because of construction in
Houston. We arrived in Livingston around 7:30pm and did a quick setup for
tomorrow before snacking from the cooler.
The night was short. On one of my
forays to the bathroom, I checked the tires. Sara’s front tire was flat. Quietly,
I collected the wheel, keys to the room and car, and headed out the door to fix
the flat. In the allotted ten minutes, I was back in bed. I was sleepy in the
morning as the alarm called us for duty.
We met in the breakfast room around 7:15 and were out
the door in half an hour. The gray clouds hanging overhead worried me the
entire route, but we got lucky and the rain held off. It is forecast to rain
tonight and tomorrow. The road out of Livingston was a little more than rolling
that we expected. After two of these bad boys we settled in for a very nice
ride. The wind was rather fickle today, or was it our impression. The SE wind
was in our face, but we handled it well. The 20 mph headwind days of West Texas
have made us that much stronger.
Very likely because of zoning laws, the homes along US
190 varied considerably. Nicely landscaped brick ranch homes sat next to
doublewides ornamented with fenderless, inoperable automobiles. Our second stop of the day in the cozy
little town of Woodville was midway between Livingston and Jasper where Susan
was to meet us on the east side of town. We passed through the Alabama
Coushatta Indian Reservation complete with the Naskila gambling casino. The
traffic was heavy on both ends of the ride and came in quanta in the middle. Trucks
represented more than half of the passing vehicles. We were thankful that for
nearly the entire 62 miles we had a wide, clean, clear berm.
This restful ride is preparation for tomorrow’s long
93 miler, half in TX and half in LA. It will be our longest scheduled ride on
the tour. The flat road will be a plus; the headwind will be a minus. Stay
tuned to find out if we are in the black or red.
 |
| Good morning, Livingston |
No comments:
Post a Comment