June 24, 2010
Start: Luling, Tx
Finish: The Woodlands, Tx
Distance: 46 miles
Ascent: 400
Got a decent start out of Luling at about 7:00am on our way to Sealy. We got about 20 miles away and we saw lots of dark clouds which we've been seeing for a few days but i saw the weather was supposed to get bad at around noon. We were about 6 miles from the town of Flatonia and i got a flat on my back tire that has had a slow leak all week. I took off the tire and noticed there were a few bad slits in it. I put a tube in it and it blew right away, so i checked the tire and cleaned it all out. Then put a patch on the inside so it wouldn't get through the slit as easy and puncture the tube. I put another tube in and sealed it well, we lost about 45 minutes in the whole ordeal though. We saw the dark clouds moving in now and tried to get to the town as fast as possible. When we were about 100 yards from the cafe and buildings it started pouring, so we crank it our for a few hundred feet and made it under a awning to stay dry. We weighed our options and headed over to a little cafe while the rain let up. I texted my friend Nic in Houston and he said there was a storm coming and he could drive to pick us up. We decided to meet him at the next town of Schulenburg about 12 miles up, it would be a good decision since we were planning on taking a rest day when we got to his house. So he got us from the small town and we made the trip into The Woodlands which is a nice community outside of Houston. We got a nice shower, some rest, and great home made dinner with the Walts family. They are also from Huntington Beach and moved here last year, and are getting a custom home built across the way. Overly nice family with a cute little 6 month old lab that we have been playing with all day! Tomorrow we will sleep in, get some breakfast, take our bikes to the shop to get some stuff tuned up, and finally get my Chipotle I've been craving for 3 weeks!
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Day 23
June 25, 2010
Rest day in The Woodlands, Tx
We are having a great rest day in Texas with our friends Nick and his mother, been shopping around, and finally got Chipotle. First time in about a month, also got to the bike store to clean up our bikes and get a new back tire on mine. Also got some supplies including co2's, new tubes, and some more power bars. But it was an awesome day because i got to hang with some friends my age and go to the mall, played some frisbee golf, went in the pool, and played some n64 007 haha very fun stuff. Weather is looking good for the next few days, so going in to Louisiana will be nice. So well be getting some food and good nights rest and head out tomorrow!
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Day 24
June 26, 2010
Start: The Woodlands, Tx
Finish: Beaumont, Tx
Distance: 100 miles
Ascent: 580 ft
Today was a tough one, we had about 60 miles to the town of Liberty and then another 40 to Beaumont. I thought it would be best to try and make it the 100 so the next few days wouldn't be so hard. We left at around 6:15 am and said by to our new family friends that definitely gave us the best hospitality you can ask for. After riding about 12 mile or so out of the woods and near the highway we got breakfast at IHOP. Then we got down to the 1960 and took it east out of Houston, it was a good road because it hoped through a few small towns so we had some scenery. We then crossed Lake Houston on a very large bridge that was awesome, lots of water everywhere. We stayed on the 1960 all the way into Liberty where we got lunch at McDonald's. That's where my day went downhill, after leaving i didn't feel very good at all, just stomach ache, headache, and lose of energy. I usually am in front of my mom with her following me but i dropped back and just felt horrible. We just took the pace slower and stopped when we could every 10 miles or so. Its hard to have a perfect day while riding across the country, haha, there are always so many factors against you. Thank god we didn't have any bike problems because i would have not been in the mood to fix anything. We slowly but surely got to the town of Beaumont around 6:00pm, so a very long day for us. As we got into the hotel we showered up order some pizza and feel right to sleep. Today we slept in because we were both exhausted from the day before, but we are going to make the 60 mile ride out of Texas into Louisiana and to Lake Charles.
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Day 25
June 27, 2010
Start: Beaumont, Tx
Finish: Lake Charles, La
Distance: 68 miles
Ascent: 205 ft
Today we slept in till around 8:00am or so because yesterday the weather just took it out o us, and my mom had a very bad headache while waking up. So we got some breakfast and chilled for a bit longer and left around 10:00am headed for Lake Charles Louisiana. that we were just riding and as soon as we stop it starts and we didn't get wet at all. Just a few miles before the border we got off the 10 at a rest stop not even 2 minutes after we stopped it started raining, and then just stopped again about 10 minutes later. We thought it was quite funny At around mile 25 we crossed the border into Louisiana, we were very excited and felt a big accomplishment feeling to get Texas out of the way. We took some pictures and made our way down the road but pulled over at tourist info stop. The ladies inside were awesome and gave us some info and maps of Louisiana, then we went down the road to get Subway, since we hadn't ate in awhile. Leaving Subway we had another 34 miles or so to get to Lake Charles, we got off the 10 and took the 90 for a bit to a small town about 8 miles from Lake Charles and got a slurpee and some fresh ice and water. When we got into Lake Charles we ran into a little problem, a very large bridge going over the lake so boats can get under(picture include). As we were about to go over it a truck stopped us on the side of the road and told us it was illegal and we could possibly get a ticket. Probably a good idea since there was no shoulder and only a small curb about 20 inches wide, that we would of had to ride on. So we got our bikes in the back and took the ride over the lake, the bridge probably was about 100 foot at the top and then came back down, he dropped us off on the other side and we were good to go again. Lake Charles is a good size lake that looks quite fun, we rode around it a few miles till we headed east towards out hotel.
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Day 26
June 28, 2010
Start: Lake Charles, La
Finish: Lafayette, La
Distance: 79 miles
Ascent: 285 ft
Today we left Lake Charles at around 8:15am and got onto the 90, which stays about 1 to 2 miles south of the 10, it is very handy because it doesn't have much traffic and you get to see the small towns of all the states. So we got about 20 miles in before stopping in the town of Welsh to get some ice and cool off. We always seem to run into or meet very interesting people at liquor stores, usually the owners themselves. This man had lived everywhere LA, San Francisco, Fresno, Alaska, Georgia, New York, and just had lots of cool stories from all of them. After that we made our way another 15 miles or so to the town of Jennings and had lunch at Wendy's. I could see on the weather reports and just in the sky a storm was coming so about 20 minutes after getting into Wendy's it rained for a bit. But here it just rains for about 15 or 20 minutes and stops, so we weren't to worried. The rest of the day was awesome just a bit warm and still very humid, On our way we came a cross a few good size rivers and also more cattle haha. We got into Lafayette at around 5:00pm or so, and then the rain hit hard again, we had to ride in the rain and wind for the last 4 miles to our hotel. We weren't worried at all it was kinda relaxing after being hot and sweaty all day, and for dinner we got one of our favorites, Outback Steakhouse!
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Day 27
June 29, 2010
Start: Lafayette, La
Finish: Morgan City, La
Distance: 75 miles
Ascent: 370 ft
Today was one of our more interesting days we have had so far, lots of rain and flats. We left Lafayette around 7:30am and hoped on the 90 east, as we got about 20 or so miles down the road we stopped off at Sonic to get a early lunch. We rode another hour or so and going through the town of Jeanerette I noticed I had lost a bolt off my rack that holds my bags on. The rack has two bolts on the frame one on each side, plus a bracket that mounts around the seat post, not very many bolts but when all of them are on it is very sturdy. So I stopped by a few auto part stores that didn't have it until I got to a hardware store and found the right bolt. As we were talking to the owners of the store it just started pouring outside. So we waited it out and had nice stories with everyone in the store, as it calmed down and stopped raining, we hit the road headed for Morgan City. We got about 30 minutes out of town and it started pouring again, so we just kept ridding, we had about 30 miles to go. We got to about 20 miles away and my mom's tire just blew out, so i changed the tube and filled it with air but, pop, it just went flat again. Once again I put another tube in there and flat, also this whole time it is just pouring rain on us. So now for the third tube Ive put in, this time I took my time and tried not to pinch anything, finally it worked and we were on our way again about 16 miles from our hotel. About 30 minutes later pop my mom's bike and same tire got a flat, but it ended up being a large drywall nail that got stuck in her tire. So I wasn't to mad since it wasn't just a dumb like poke from a staple, but once again I had to fix it up. Now about 10 miles from our hotel we were just over it and had an overall long day, but out of the corner of my eye i saw something i had really wanted to find on this trip! An armadillo, there were two of them just on the side of the road grazing like a cow, my mom didn't even notice so I yelled "mom stop". As she came back and held my bike I got the video camera and got some videos of them and a few pictures. They were very funny and just walked around and ate grass as I was about five feet away. They then figured out I was there and got very curious, but ended up hoping away into the bushes, it made my day a whole lot better though. So we get into town and to our hotel, but as we got in there was no rooms available. A lot of the cities down here are where people cleaning up oil have to come up and stay, so just about every hotel in town is full. But as we were walking out the lady was like oh mam I believe were going to help you out, so she did and hooked us up with a perfect room. For some reason some how or some way everything has ended up working out for us, and everyone has been awful nice.
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Day 28
June 30, 2010
Start: Morgan City, La
Finish: New Orleans, La
Distance: 58 miles
Ascent: 320 ft
We started out on the 182 south today headed towards Gray, it was supposed to rain just about all day but ended up just sprinkling for the first few hours. We did not stop to much today because it we wanted to try and get as far as possible before the rain hit. About 28 miles in we stopped at a little gas station in Gibson, La we met a very humorous women there and was telling her all about our trip. She was very excited for us, and couldn't believe what we were doing. As we got on our way we went another 15 miles until my mom's back tire got its third flat in 2 days! As we were changing it a big rig pulled over and a nice man got out and asked if we needed any help and offered us a ride as far as he was going in our direction. We really don't like getting rides but we also don't like giving them up because its just good karma. But we did take the ride for about 15 miles and it did pay off because as we went over the Mississippi River, which is a huge bridge. There was no possible way for us to ride over it due to the construction they are doing on the bridge. So it was nice to get out of the rain for a half hour or so, he dropped us off and we went on our way. We had another 17 miles to our hotel and it was just pouring as we were going through the busy traffic of the outskirts of New Orleans.We went right by the New Orleans airport and right into downtown where we got a hotel at the JW Marriott over looking the Mississippi River. It was a good day because we got a lot of mileage in as well as getting in early enough to relax and do some laundry.
Check out Week 5!
