Saturday, June 4, 2011 \u2013 Boerne, TX<\/p>\n
Wow!\u00a0 What a send off!!\u00a0 I left Gulf Coast Kids House in Pensacola yesterday mid-morning; Bill Eddins, State Attorney, David Morgan, Escambia County Sheriff, representatives of Gulf Coast Kids House, the Hadji Shriners, Ronald McDonald House, and Habitat for Humanity joined some of my old friends and many new ones.\u00a0 Sue Straughn with WEAR TV3 was there, as well as several other news groups.<\/p>\n
I got there early, and before the crowd gathered I was talking in the hall with Stacey Kostevicki, the Executive Director of GCKH.\u00a0 She looked over my shoulder and motioned me to step into her office; an adult walked by with a young girl whose whole being reflected a fear and pain that I\u2019ve seen on other young faces.\u00a0 With her head low, as though she might then be able to disappear, that young woman reminded me of one of the reasons I\u2019m making this 4 corner run \u2013 to support Child Advocacy Centers where it\u2019s safe and OK to tell.<\/p>\n
Out in the parking lot after a few comments, lots of picture-taking, well-wishing, and laughing, I rode off, feeling a bit like a mother duck with a string of about 10 motorcycles behind (bikers have big hearts \u2013 especially when it comes to kids \u2013 they love a parade and any excuse will justify a ride. So a few of my friends from the Sand Dollar Motorcycle Club and several bikers from the Pensacola branch of the Christian Motorcyclist Club were happily in tow) Everybody was clapping and laughing as we pulled out of the parking lot. I looked up at the TV camera and all I could think was \u201cMan, this would NOT be a good time to drop my bike.\u201d<\/p>\n
And so I led the \u201cparade\u201d west on Interstate 10, and we all stopped in Alabama at the last exit before Mobile Bay.\u00a0 More kidding, typical biker talk like, \u201cWe followed you to be sure you didn\u2019t turn around and go back.\u201d\u00a0 Good company, good fun.\u00a0 And too soon, they headed east and I turned west.<\/p>\n
I knew it would be hot, but frankly I was surprised at how HARD hot can be.\u00a0 It was in the high 90\u2019s all day.\u00a0 I stopped every 100 miles to fill me up with Gatorade, but as the day ground on, sometimes I could only make 80 miles.\u00a0 After a little over 400 miles, I stopped to visit dear friends in Thibodaux, La.\u00a0 OK, I know Thibodaux is SW of New Orleans and NOT on the way to California.\u00a0 My bike doesn\u2019t know how to go in a straight line, so they\u2019ll be lots of jogs and bends in the road.<\/p>\n
It was good to get off The Slab (aka, the Interstate).\u00a0 Louisiana is beautiful in its own unique way — lots of water in various forms \u2013 rivers, marshes, swamps, bayous, and bays\u2026 I saw miles of sugar cane, of course; it\u2019s only waist high so I guess it\u2019s still early in their season.\u00a0 I passed one sugar cane field that had recently been plowed under; it had a unique sweet\/sour smell.\u00a0 Many of the cypress and oak trees are huge and are often draped in Spanish moss.\u00a0 They commercially farm crayfish in flooded fields; the crayfish pots look something like biggie-sized funnels with an orange lid sticking a couple of inches above water.\u00a0 Crayfish connoisseurs can tell you whether a crayfish came from a farm or a swamp; I can\u2019t.<\/p>\n
After a wonderful visit that included great time with a soon-to-be-one year old, I left Thibodaux this AM, enjoyed the too-short ride up to I-10 and headed west.\u00a0 The weather was just as hot up on I-20, and I really don\u2019t like going through Dallas\/Ft. Worth, so I decided to just \u201cdo it\u201d and cross Texas on I-10.\u00a0 There\u2019s 880 miles of I-10, running east\/west through Texas!!\u00a0 Though the Interstate is in good repair, it is also flat and boring.\u00a0 Again, I was surprised how much it took out of me to ride in the heat.<\/p>\n
Eastern Texas looks much like Louisiana \u2013 they even farm crayfish.\u00a0 But before long, the trees were not as stout, then some of the riverbeds didn\u2019t have rivers in them, and the trees were less plentiful. I stopped for the night west of San Antonio, at the edge of the \u201cHill Country,\u201d and the ground has begun to swell up slightly.\u00a0 Tomorrow, the geography will change dramatically.<\/p>\n
Using logic that defies reason, I decided two days of Very hot riding across Texas was better than three days of the same.\u00a0 So now I sit in Boerne, TX \u2013 west of San Antonio \u2013 and 928 miles from Pensacola.\u00a0 The high-pitched sound you hear in the background is me, whining about the hot ride on an Interstate.<\/p>\n
I haven\u2019t downloaded pictures yet \u2013 hopefully tomorrow I\u2019ll get some posted.\u00a0 Hopefully tomorrow won\u2019t be as hot.<\/p>\n
Thank you for your support \u2013 the Comments you\u2019ve posted have echoed in my head, reminding me to \u201cbe safe\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saturday, June 4, 2011 \u2013 Boerne, TX Wow!\u00a0 What a send off!!\u00a0 I left Gulf Coast Kids House in Pensacola yesterday mid-morning; Bill Eddins, State Attorney, David Morgan, Escambia County Sheriff, representatives of Gulf Coast Kids House, the Hadji Shriners, … Continue reading