Day 26 - Navasota, TX to Kountze, TX: The longest day
Saturday April 25, 2009, 132 miles (212 km) - Total so far: 1,908 miles (3,071 km)
Weather: Temperatures 67-85, cloudy to partly cloudy skies, Southeast winds at 15-25 mph.
Most of us have never ridden so far in a single day. But, everybody who started the ride made it, except for Neil who didn't feel real energetic today. The remarkable thing was that despite the long mileage, everyone made it in within 20 minutes of each other, between 5:20 and 5:40 PM. Let me say this about 132 miles: it is a loooooooooooooooooooooooong way on a bike!!!!!We started the ride at 0700 after a good breakfast. The first part of the ride was pretty hilly over rough, narrow farm roads. After about 30 miles, we rode through the Sam Houston National Forest - mostly pine trees it appeared - and over the upper end of Lake Conroe on the San Jacinto River. Then we headed through the town of Coldspring, TX, on the shores of Lake Livingston. After that the terrain got real flat, and we rode mostly with a cross-wind. This area is mostly woods and lots of creeks, and not really a lot of farms and ranches. I happened to miss the van rest stops twice (I just wasn't paying attention I guess), so I ended up riding 80 miles alone and without any food. Finally, after about 100 miles, Charles found me and I had a great lunch of tuna and macaroni (prepared by Charles), which got me in the rest of the way. I didn't take any pictures today as I was concentrating on just making it to the finish. Most everyone was exhausted when we got to the motel in Kountze, so Tom and Neil went and bought a couple of large buckets of greasy fried chicken, which was devoured in, oh, about 6 minutes, as we sat around the pool with a cooler of ice cold beverages.
until later...
Uncle Barry, Flat Stanley, and Share Bear
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