I can't believe that we are still in Texas. We've been riding here for over a thousand miles and we are both ready for a new state, but it won't come today. The last days have been more ordeal-like than idyllic, cold, headwinds and my aching knee torturing me. At breakfast things began to turn around. Our waitress was charming, the breakfast scrumptious and the weather beautiful. People in the diner asked us about our trip. This was the Texas I had come to love before Austin. Along the way we mentioned to someone that we liked this part of Texas and the part before Austin but not around Austin.
\"That figures\" she snapped back, \"no one there is from Texas, they're all rude.\" After breakfast we rode through the \"Big Thicket.\" The first time Andy told me that was the name of the area I misheard him, I thought he had said the \"Big Brisket.\" Couldn't imagine why they'd name a forest after a cut of beef, but this is Texas. The Thicket was big, we rode through it most of the day and the brush and trees shaded us from the strong cross winds that blew throughout the day. The sun beamed down on us, Andy even took off his shirt in a futile attempt to even out his tan.
Before we knew it we'd knocked down over 40 miles and arrived in a highway junction/town called, of all things, Thicket. The whole route was dotted with general stores like the ones we lunched in. The most interesting one was after lunch in a place known as Honey Landing. They'd seen a lot of cyclists there and were ready to offer advice. First, the route that the map proposed was preposterous; it would take us miles out of our way. They suggested that we take a different road that would shave off 19 or 20 miles, which was hard to fathom because our map predicted 20 miles until Silsbee.
Andrew and I both contemplated stealing a stuffed armadillo that was on the shelf at the store. Instead we posed for photos with it. We opted to skip the shortcut and steamed into Silsbee. A quick stop at a Dollar Store yielded one of my first up-close-and-personal white trash experiences. I watched a drunken b\*\*\*\* berate the African-American clerk for supposedly overcharging her on some item. After doing our laundry we dressed and went for dinner to a steak buffet. The waiters were careful to keep their distance as we ate for fear they might lose an appendage in the fray.
We waddled back to our Motel, updated the website and crashed.