Day 43
Navasota to New Waverly
I’m enjoying some Jim Beam in my tent and writing this post. Not the real Jim Beam, the one I made myself by combining expensive bourbons into a travel flask to make a so-so bourbon. I will drink it just the same.
Much of my writing is dictated by the words that I know how to spell. I start out with a nice word, spell check tells me it’s spelled wrong, so instead of looking it up I choose a simpler word, i.e., one that is easier to spell. This could mean I’m lazy, or it could be the bourbon making me lazy.
Not every day needs to be, or can be, exciting. Today was one of those days that was not particularly exciting. It was still good. Riding through the Sam Houston National Forest was nirvana. At one point I pulled off the road to chat with the Assistant Director of Tours for the ACA. (While I was on the phone, a park ranger drove past me and gave me a wave and a thumbs-up for pulling off the road to talk on the phone.) The conversation with the Assistant Tours Directory went very nicely. He wanted to know all about why I’m no long on tour with the group. I explained clearly that they failed the group with their too-lenient food policy, and also they had failed me by not releasing me from the ride back in San Diego when I made that request. He was sympathetic. He confessed at the end of our call that they have had this issue with their longer tours for almost five years now. He said they were working on revising their “accommodations” policy. I hope so. I also hope I gave him some good feedback that will move them along in that direction. This issue has now been put to rest as far as I’m concerned.
Tomorrow I plan to skip ahead and do two itinerary stops in one day. It will be about 70 miles, perhaps a bit more. My rationale is that it will give me an extra day in Chicot State Park in Louisiana. I’ve heard this is a beautiful place, with deluxe cabins for rent. I went on line to reserve one and there is a three night minimum stay - thus my jumping ahead one day tomorrow.
When the weather is nice, like it has been for the last two days, there really is nothing like tent camping, it can be very enjoyable with the right equipment. One thing about tent camping that I don’t enjoy, is camping in a pine forest and having pine cones drop out of the tree onto your tent. That is happening right now, coincidentally. Tonight for dinner I made mac-and-cheese with bacon, chicken and a spicy buffalo sauce. Pretty good stuff at the end of a long day of cycling. Ya, no salad, but maybe I’ll have one with my lunch tomorrow, or maybe not. I’m not going to die if I don’t get salad every day. My new camp stove is a blow-torch. The MSR gas stoves have one temperature setting, full-on blast furnace. You have to be on top of whatever it is you are cooking every second. The stove will boil four cups of water in less than two minutes.
All of a sudden, I can’t get pictures off my Nikon camera any more. I really hate to be negative, but I’ll just say this: If you want to buy Nikon, don’t go entry level. Get a more expensive model that has built-in WiFi so you don’t have to rely on a crappy vendor provided IOS app to get pictures from the camera to you iPhone or iPad. It looks like I am back to square one when it comes to taking photos. (Recall that the camera in my phone is broken.) I do not want to buy a new phone, but it is beginning to look like that is my best option. I’m probably a thousand miles away from a camera store that would allow me to trade my brand new D3500 for a better camera with WiFi.
Miles: 54
Passed through the Sam Houston National Forest.
