Still Alive

The Intracoastal Waterway in Southern Louisiana

So its been a while.  Things have been happening in the world of Chris, but they have been left unblogged.  Tragic, I know, but this will now be fixed.

The world famous, Prada Marfa

Its been a full month since my last complete post.  You can probably correlate this fact with other events, specifically the arrival of Brittany, my girlfriend.  I wouldn't causate it, though.  Correlation doesn't not mean causation.  

Leaving Alpine, TX

Other things have also slowed pace in the last month, namely book reading, journal writing, and, heck, maybe even bicycle riding.  Its true that my miles per day statistic has dropped, but my sights per mile statistic has increased (do I detect an inverse relationship, perhaps?)

Ville Finale in the King William District of San Antonio

Brittany has not slowed me down.  Rather, the bike trip has changed character with the changing cast.  While it was just me and Ross, we were known to bike 70 lies in a day sometimes.  We even did 50 miles before noon one day.  Thats unheard of.  Bert (as she prefers to be called) and I are often seen at about the 5 mile mark around that time of day.

As for the changing cast, Ross has been traveling parallel to us, in another bike touring dimension, if you will.  He is in the same state, often the same town as we are, but having his own trip, different from our own.  He prefers to eat up the miles a little more than Bert and I do.  He is known as the Lance Armstrong of the extreme Northeast to the southerners.

Napoleon's Death Mask

My bit of philosophy for this post will be brief, but highly applicable, as usual.  I am currently reading John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, a great book about his own travels with his dog across these United States.  He said "you don't take a trip. A trip takes you".  Our adventures, as much as we try to plan and shape, usually end up planning and shaping us.  They change with the personnel, the scenery, the weather.  

Remember the Alamo

The same landscape is so vastly different on a sunny day than it is in a cloudy headwind, and rightly so.  We so often hear the advice from locals or other travelers: go here, avoid there, this was great, that was the worst thing ever.  But different people's experiences in the same places frequently contradict each other.  Our experience with the Texans was great: they were open and gracious and inviting; some fellow travelers found them private and suspicious.

The famous BikeSnake of the Austin Bike Zoo

My lesson has been this: go into every situation with as open a mind as possible.  Every place and people has the opportunity to be positive or negative and it often has mostly to do with what we bring to the table ourselves.

The mighty Pecos River

The last month has seen some of the most diverse and incredible landscape of the trip so far.  30 days ago, we woke up in the northern reaches of the Chihuahuan Desert, and headed for Big Bend National Park, nearly the last National Park we'll see on this trip.  After a stop in the "ghost town" of Terlingua (there sure was a lot going on for a supposedly dead hamlet), we braved the park.  

Stoopin' it in Terlingua

The weather was against us, as it should have been.  T'would not have been fair to Brittany to begin with sunny weather and tailwinds.  Instead, it was cold and the wind seemed to find our faces whichever way we turned.  A brief warming up in the Hot Springs by the Rio Grande was all that got us through.

The next 10 days saw no improvement as we worked our was towards San Antonio.  No actual rain, but enough dewey mornings leading into cloudy, cold days to make us think it might never warm up.  The desert high and dry gave way to lower, moister regions and the return of trees.  I hadn't really seen a forest in a loooong time, and it was much appreciated.

They told us not to climb fences in Texas

We poked around the Alamo, so now I can Remember it, the Alamo that is.  Pee Wee was a much better man than I, but I saw no sign of a bike shop there.  Great hosts from WarmShowers and CouchSurfing transformed our view of the area as we made our way towards Austin.  Austin itself left us wanting, though we were severely sun deprived.  I estimate we'd had roughly 12 hours of sunshine the 2 weeks getting to Austin.  We saw a Gospel band play a Christmas brunch, made some new friends, and fixed Brit's bike, and then we were on our way.

Ross was here...

From Austin, we headed for the coast.  The scenery changed even more and we found our sandy feet in the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston, TX.  It is a really beautiful city when its above sea level, but tropical weather has left its mark on the island over the years.  Hurricane Ike in 2008 had many residents still recovering and the island with a suspicious lack of big trees.  High water marks in downtown told of 12 feet of seawater engulfing the entire island.  Woof.

Coast to Coast, Freeport, TX

A chain of convenience stores in SE Texas

Biking on the Beach

Nearing the end of our Texas Odyssey, we made for Louisiana, only to find Ike had taken our highway from us.  We had to go around, through the Oz of southeast Texas, Port Arthur.  Having recently struck oil here, the city is inundated with factories and horrible smells and bad drinking water.  We camped behind Wal-Mart for the second time in a month and left early the next morning.

Louisiana had been a long time coming.  Over a month and 1200 miles in Texas and we were ready to leave.  The promise of Cajun culture was a sweet one and it has been incredible.  We spent some great days with great hosts taking in the sights, but mostly eating and drinking.  Catfsh, crawfish, redfish, speckled trout, boudin, couvillion, meat pies and more.  The cuisine is amazing.  Tomorrow we need to try the Drive Thru Daiquiri's:  "as long as they don't put the straw in it, it's not an open container".

Can't Wait

We'll be in New Orleans in 2 days to meet my Momma (The Waterboy references never stop down here) and my brother, Christine and Julia (if they can convince someone to drive them out) and probably Ross again.  We asked for some suggestions on places to eat and were given a list 2 pages long.  But we are diligent and we'll work through it.

Good old Ally Gator

I don't have another address for General Delivery yet, but I will figure one out when I get a chance to catch my breath in the Big Easy.  My photos are officially updated, so peruse them at your leisure.

The Cypress Swamps of Acadiana

At least for now, au revoirs.

Bayou Sunset