Category: United States

We had more hills on this section and we had alternating head and side winds all day, along with our usual really high heat and humidity. We had one short and somewhat steep, but pretty, bridge to cross, and lots of crops along the way, especially the closer we got to Palacios (puh-lash-us).

Our first rest stop was across the street from a nuclear power plant – those matching round towers are sure distinctive! We were fascinated with the high levee we saw surrounding the plant as we cycled on by.
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We hit hills on this stretch! Granted they weren’t too big, but I was so shocked I couldn’t quite process it at first. We did climb steadily the whole ride, along with the few real hills. We had awful heat and humidity and headwinds again, and despite the boost we’d gotten from Bill and Sheila, we decided to stop at Wadsworth. Matagorda, our original destination, was another twenty-five miles down the road, and we knew we’d never make it, as the headwinds were really fierce by that time.

We stopped outside Guffy’s, a small local store, to ask about a place to put up our tent. We quickly met a local construction company owner, Mr. Talasek (I’ve forgotten his first name) who said we could put up a tent at his house. We took off following him but a block away he stopped at a large open space with several trailers and asked if we’d mind staying there.
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It’s amazing how fast our luck turned when we left Angleton. Rather than head down the road immediately, we backtracked to a Wal-Mart, figuring our food money would go a lot farther, and we’d have better choices than in convenience stores. Our decision added about three hours or more to our day, and added at least six long hot miles, but we felt great doing it.

At Wal-Mart we had a pickup truck pull up next to us, with the driver really interested in what we are doing. By the time we finished chatting, we had his phone number and a strong urging to call him if we needed any help at all, if we were within 40 miles of Angleton. How cool is that!
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We can’t be right all the time, I guess, and Chelsea and I do have a very good percentage of being right on assessing people. Our big mistake in going to Angleton was not listening to ourselves when we heard our little internal voices talking to us.

We spent a full eight days honoring our part of the bargain, but we realized by late Sunday night that things weren’t working out at all for us, and that we needed to move on.
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As delighted as we were to have a space to stay, it was obvious immediately that Frankie and Allie, our hosts, had started celebrating Friday night before we arrived. It was not their first glasses of wine or rum and coke. We had great fun though; they were as nice as could be, asking questions about our trip, offering us a shower, and telling us about Surfside.

Allie

Allie is living in the small apartment downstairs, no bigger than a large bedroom with a kitchen sink and microwave added, along with a very small bathroom. One large bed in a beautiful iron bedstead is covered in large comfy quilts and soft fluffy pillows; it dominates the room, centered in the middle of the room space. Two small chairs are right in the entryway, positioned perfectly to give a view out the only windows, and set to watch TV and drink early morning coffee.
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Though we’re now in a nice air conditioned home with a beautiful wooded area out back, settled in for maybe a week or two so I can finish the book, we’ve had a few crazy days since we last wrote.

Leaving West Galveston

By the time we packed, washed the sheets and towels, made in the beds in the condo, and said our good-byes to Claire, it was after 9:30 in the morning before we hit the road. The good news was that we had a strong tailwind, a wind that actually felt cool, so the riding was easy.
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Just as Chelsea was proofreading the posted blog yesterday, Claire came out of the back office heading towards us. We hurriedly started logging off, knowing that the office closed in less than thirty minutes and that we needed to be on our way.

To our shock and total delight, Claire had another plan for us. She and her sister Anne, whom we had met first out in the parking lot (the two sisters and their mother own the real estate business), had decided that they were worried about us, and didn’t want us out in the rain. Anne came up with an empty condo, one of their stock of rentals, and they both decided to put us up there instead of having us go to the closed Galveston State Park.
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We worked on Sunday many hours writing blogs and catching up on things, not finishing until nearly 10 pm. After talking to John for another bit of time, it was close to 1 a.m. by the time we got to sleep. Awakening at 5:30 was pretty brutal. John’s car was in for repair, so we needed to take a bus downtown to the car rental agency first thing Monday so he could pick up his rental.

We were on time with catching the first bus, but ended up with a long wait on the bus benches downtown waiting for our transfer. The next bus took us in the complete opposite direction before we headed out to where John needed to be. He was definitely feeling some stress from the delay, but it gave us the chance to get an unplanned tour of parts of Galveston we hadn’t seen.
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We felt awkward arriving so late, but our new host, also named John, was very gracious. His home near the ferry was under three feet of water after Ike, but he’s already ripped out the flooring and replaced it, along with the sheetrock and other water damage.

He lost his job because of the downturn in the economy, and he’s taken a job in Houston temporarily. The commute is nearly two hours each way, on top of working a nine-hour day, so it doesn’t leave him much time to do the rest of the repairs. He’s also not wanting to stay in Galveston if he’s working in Houston, so he’s got his house up for sale.
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In transition

We had to leave Jason and Kristle’s house by 8 a.m. and wouldn’t be at our host’s house until lunchtime, so we looked for a “hanging out” kind of spot where we could park the bikes and trailers, keep an eye on them, and still be out of the sun.

We found ourselves ensconced in the outdoor patio of Starbucks, right across from the Galveston wharf and cruise ship terminal, enjoying a gourmet snack of Jaimie Snoddy’s venison and chicken jerky, accompanied by melba toast and Power Bar harvest grain bars.
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