Southern Tier across the USA Part 5 - Coldspring TX to Gonzales LA

Thursday 29^th May

Another long day with little of interest on the way. The rain held off, but it was very humid and storms seemed to be imminent for most of the day; fortunately they did't happen. The route, on minor roads all day, led past many large modern churches like this one:

This was clearly serious Bible Belt country, which became even more apparent when, at the end of a hundred mile ride, I arrived in Kirbyville and, when I asked for a beer at the local restaurant, was informed that I was now in a dry county. Well the occasional alcohol-free day won't do me any harm I guess.
Distance today 100.5 miles, total so far 1962.5 miles

Friday 30^th May

About 20 miles from Kirbyville I crossed the Sabine River and entered Louisiana:

The next town, DeRidder, had an impressive old courthouse and a well preserved main street:

After 2 consecutive 100 mile days I decided to call it a day when I reached Oberlin, a very unremarkable town which had nothing to offer except a convenient motel:

Distance today 78.5 miles, total so far 2041 miles

Saturday 31^st May

Continuing east from Oberlin along small, quiet roads, the next town, Mamou, has a reputation as the cajun music capital. This very unprepossessing building, Fred's Lounge, is a renowned centre for cajun and zydeco music, and when I went past there were some fine sounds emanating from it, even at 10am.

Plenty of huge, modern churches continued to be dotted along these minor roads:

After Mamou I took a detour from the recommended Adventure Cycling route that I'd hitherto been following. The route heads slightly north east and bypasses Baton Rouge and New Orleans, both places I wanted to visit. So I headed south east along state route 104 to Opelousas, a former state capital during the Civil War, where there were some fine old antebellum houses, then east along US 190, a busy road which did have a wide shoulder for most of the way, apart from a 4 mile section of floodway across the Atchafalaya river where there was no shoulder at all; this isn't a recommended cycling route:

But the rest of the road, despite being mainly across swamp, is quite safe for cycling:

I arrived at Port Allen, just across the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge, around 9pm and found accommodation in a motel there:

Distance today 103 miles, total so far 2144 miles

Sunday 1^st June

Crossing the Mississippi via the Horace Wilkinson Bridge was a bit intimidating, owing to a very narrow shoulder and lots of fast-moving traffic; this is a section of Interstate 90:

Once across the wide river, I was in the centre of Baton Rouge, state capital of Louisiana. There were some good historic buildings, including the old post office:

The old State Capitol:

And the superb current state Capitol, the tallest in the entire US:

From the top of the 450' building there are great views to be had:

Inside the Capitol there is a beautiful marble entrance hall:

The assassination of Huey Long, the State Governor under whose orders the Capitol was constructed, took place within it, and there's a plaque to mark where the incident occurred; a marble pillar still bears damage from a stray bullet:

And there's a statue of Long outside, in the beautifully-landscaped gardens:

I had a very nice lunch at a downtown restaurant then set off for New Orleans, along US61, reaching Gonzales in the early evening, where I decided to stay for the night.

Distance today 31.7 miles, total so far 2175.7 miles

Southern Tier across the USA Part 4 - Del Rio TX to Coldspring TX

Monday 19^th May

The route continued east on Route 90 from Del Rio as far as Brackettville, a nondescript small town where I had lunch. From here it branched off along minor roads into the Texas Hill country – this is what the elevation profile looks like:

There were no further services for about 50 miles after Brackettville, so it was a case of having to get down to some hard pedalling through this fairly challenging terrain, with little time to stop and admire the scenery or take photographs. The only photo I took all day was this one crossing the Nueces River

It was around 8pm by the time I arrived in Camp Wood, a little town which had a comfortable motel:

Distance today 81 miles, total so far 1455.4 miles


Tuesday 20^th May

Another day spent battling the hills, with few opportunities to stop for refreshments along the way. From Camp Wood there was a big climb:

followed by a steep descent towards Leakey, a touristy sort of place evidently very popular with motorcyclists. I had a nice lunch at a Mexican restaurant there. This cactus-covered car was an ornamental feature in the main street:

There followed several more big climbs:

At the top of one peak I met these 4 cyclists who were also doing the Southern Tier ride, but in the opposite direction. The oldest of them was 77!

There was plenty of good scenery along today's route:

I decided to keep on riding as far as Kerrville, where there were plenty of motels, but it did mean quite a late finish, around 9pm.


Distance today 87.5 miles, total so far 1542.9 miles


Wednesday 21^st May

There was one more fairly big climb out of Kerrville, then it was pretty much downhill all the way today, but unfortunately the headwind had returned so progress wasn't that swift. I had a brief stop in Fredericksburg, an attractive town with a lot of boutique shops selling German style food and other goods.

I arrived in Johnson City around 4pm and decided to stop there as it was another 40 miles to the next accommodation, in Austin.

Distance today 60.3 miles, total so far 1603.2 miles

Thursday 22^nd May

From Johnson City the route became hilly again, as it passed through the Pedernales State Park. There were no services until I reached the outskirts of Austin, where, after crossing the Colorado River, I rode into the city along the Lance Armstrong Bikeway:

Austin is a pleasant, lively city which seems to be very cycle-friendly. It's the home of Lance Armstrong and I visited the bike shop he owns, Mellow Johnny's, to have my chain replaced, having now done over 1600 miles. This was done quickly there, at a very reasonable cost. It's an excellent cycle shop and I could have spent ages there looking at all the fancy bikes and accessories.

The name Mellow Johnny is a tongue in cheek reference to Maillot Jaune, in case you hadn't realised.

I had a ride around the city centre, and saw the State Capitol Building which is very impressive. It's taller than the Capitol in Washington DC.

There's a memorial nearby to the heroes of the Alamo:

Austin has its own cycle hire scheme:

I visited the popular Easy Tiger bar, which had a fantastic selection of beers, including many from Texas:

And enjoyed a good meal at the Texas Chilli Parlour, a renowned local institution:

Distance today 50.1 miles, total so far 1653.3 miles.

Friday 23^rd and Saturday 24^th May

It was time for a break from cycling, having ridden for 23 days out of the last 24. Also I have now reached the half way point of the ride, so felt justified in taking a couple of days off to visit Houston, about 160 miles away, and well off the cycling route. I took the Greyhound bus there, it's a 3 hour journey each way.
I met up with my friends John Adams and Helena Cheng and we took a ride up the Chase Tower, Houston's tallest building, to view the skyline:

There's an interesting sculpture by Joan Miro outside:

Another Chase Bank building nearby had a beautiful Art Deco interior, one of the few original buildings left in this very modern city:

It was time for a drink in the Flying Saucer, another excellent bar serving a huge selection of beers:

Then we headed to the Crowne Plaza Hotel at Brookhollow, about 10 miles north west of the city centre, to attend an enjoyable and interesting weekend of events hosted by Gulf Coast Mensa as part of their Annual Regional Gathering.

Sunday 25^th May

I caught the 1145am bus back to Austin and by about 3.30pm I was reunited with my bike, which I'd left there over the weekend. Setting off again I rode through the eastern suburbs of Austin, then through Montopolis. The route soon returned to narrow, quiet country roads through rolling farmland, and by the time I reached Bastrop it was getting dark so I decided to stop there, in the Tropicana Motel:

Bastrop's town centre is better preserved than most US historic towns, and there were some good buildings there:

Distance today 38.7 miles, having got off to a very late start. Total so far 1692 miles.

Monday 26^th May

Having enjoyed dry weather, and mostly clear blue skies throughout the trip so far, the dark clouds that greeted me this morning were a clear indication that rain was finally on the way. From just outside Bastrop the route went about 10 miles through the dense pine forests of Bastrop and Buescher state parks, large areas of which were devastated by fire in 2011 but are now starting to recover:

Shortly afterwards the rain started, and by the time I reached the small town of Winchester, about 25 miles from Bastrop, it was raining so heavily that I was forced to seek shelter. Unfortunately it was a public holiday and the town's only store was closed. At least there was a verandah with a canopy to shelter underneath, but it would have been nicer to get inside and have some food and drink! The thunderstorm persisted for about 3 hours and by the time it ended it was around 4pm. I rode another 15 miles into the next town, La Grange and found accommodation in the Oak Motel, which had a special register for all the Southern Tier cyclists who had stayed there; it was clearly a popular stopping place on the route, and indeed the owner was very friendly and welcoming.

La Grange is a pleasant little town with plenty of fine old buildings and an imposing city hall dominating the town square:

Distance today 40 miles, total so far 1732 miles

Tuesday 27^th May

The forecast was for more rain, and there were thunderstorms throughout the night. It was raining when I awoke at 6.30am, so I went back to sleep and woke up an hour later; the torrential rain continued. It was still raining another hour later so I decided to stay another day at the motel. This proved to be a good decision, because the thunderstorms continued well into the evening. It was frustrating to be stuck in a small town with little to do, but still better than being out on the road and getting soaking wet, in an area with fairly big distances between motels or other accommodation.

Wednesday 28^th May

The sky was very overcast and gloomy at 6.30 and it seemed certain that there was more rain to come, but I decided to press on nevertheless. I was now somewhat behind schedule, having covered only 78 miles in the last 5 days.

The weather improved gradually through the morning and it turned out to be quite sunny for much of the day; at least the rain held off all day apart from a couple of very light, brief showers; the terrain was reasonably flat, there wasn't much of a headwind, and I was able to make good progress.
Round Top, 20 miles into today's route, was a pretty little village:

Later on, the small town Independence had this interesting mural:

Around 2pm I reached Navasota, (pop 7500) which had a busy railway line running alongside the main street:

There's a monument to Rene de la Salle, one of the pioneering explorers of the Mississippi River:

Navasota also had a working cinema, which seems to be rare in US small towns:

From Navasota the route followed SR 90 which had a good surface and a wide shoulder. 10 miles further on, at Anderson. I saw this street sign which I would have liked to add to my collection:

It was getting towards dusk by the time I crossed the long bridge over Lake Conroe:

But there were no motels until Coldspring, another 30 miles away, so I had to keep going. Fortunately there were service stations every 15 miles or so along the route so there was plenty of refreshments available to keep me going. I eventually reached the motel at Coldspring after dark, around 9.15pm after a pretty long day's ride.


Distance today 130 miles, total so far 1862 miles