Day 20: Merryville, LA to Kountze, TX

Daily Miles: 63.1 Total Miles: 1071.2

4 states down!!

Helloooooooo Texas!! Today was a good one. We were able to sleep in a bit today since the rain was still forecasted to be coming down until about 10am. We both woke up feeling good, had a decent breakfast at our hotel, and then drove back to Merryville. We pulled in to get my bike down at the same shop we stopped at yesterday. The guys working there remembered us, and had a lot of questions about the trip and encouraging words about the quality of Texas roads. Just as I was hopping on my bike to head off, one of the guys came back out and gave us a few calendars as mementos from Merryville. It was really nice, and one of the multiple examples of great encounters we've had with the people on this route. When I finally headed out it was about 10:30am and I knew I had a ways to go.

Texas better not mess with Mary!

At the 3.5 mile mark, we hit the Texas border, and we stopped and had our obligatory photo shoot. This is going to be our last state line for a long while, so we made the most of it. After that I really had to get rolling. For the first part of the ride the roads were almost empty and it felt like I was riding through a water-world. Everything was flooded, usually all the way up to (or actually over) the road, and it looked really serene and beautiful. And then that serenity came to a screeching halt,

Riding through a water-world

when I got onto a Farm Road 363 and spent the next ~18 miles trying not to get run over by any of the hundreds of logging trucks that were flying past me as I teetered along the shoulderless road. It was extremely stressful, and I was glad to make it to Kirbyville, get off that road, meet up with Mary, and have some Subway lunch. It was relatively cold today, so it was a little hard getting started after lunch, but I finally got in the groove of things and pressed on another ~27 miles on

Finally the clear skies made their return

US 96 to meet up with Mary again in Silsbee. US 96 was a much more comfortable ride, since it had a huge shoulder. The ride was still a little stressful, because there was a ton of traffic and the speed limit was 70MPH, so the amount of road noise was out of control. After resting again with Mom in Silsbee, I had less than 15 miles to go to Kountze. The dark clouds finally went away and I was able to spend the last part of the day riding in beautiful conditions. I finished up the ride and we made it to our hotel around 6pm. We just finished cleaning up and are heading out to dinner soon. It feels good to be in Texas!