(January 5th)

Day 11 - Richards to Brenham Texas

"I waited too long"

 

 The "thank you" wall in the small kitchen cabin at The Checkpoint where I stayed last night. Looking at this is when I realized that bike tourists often had cards printed with info about themselves and their journal of the trek. Ernie and Doris (proprietors of The Checkpoint) are well loved!

 

Up and down these rollercoaster hills ALL day. Dozens of these things...and they are kind of steep. For those of you familiar with Cavalier Hill, it averages about a 5-6% slope and gets up to around 7%. All of these are in the 5-6% range and one got up to 8% slope. I found today...despite being only 47 miles...to be pretty darn challenging.

Amaya + Eric. Met these two just outside Brenham Texas. I've written more about them in today's post, but suffice to say they are some AMAZING bike tourists!

My first actual "tourist" activity...well, as a regular ol' tourist: I visited the Blue Bell Ice Cream Creamery Visitor Center and Ice Cream Parlor. Two scoops of ice cream for 1$ each :)

 

Dinner at the Mobius Cafe near downtown Brenham. The gentleman in this picture caused me to do a serious doubletake (zoom in on the pic to see what I mean) 

 I never expected to find some seriously good Chicago-style deepdish pizza in Brenham Texas of all places. But, wowza was it good!

As I was leaving the Blue Bell Ice Cream Parlor, well-stuffed with a scoop of Homemade Vanilla and one of Rocky Road an older gentleman approached me and asked "I saw your map...looks like you are riding the Southern Tier" Obviously, the man knew quite a lot of bike touring, which was immediately confirmed as he continued: "You know I always wanted to go on one (by which he meant a coast-to-coast bike tour). I bought all the maps...I have the Southern Tier set in fact...and bought all the gear. But I waited to long. I kept working...didn't retire until I was 69. By then I was too old. Now and I'm 79 and I wish I'd gone."

I can't tell you how hard that hit me. I realized then and there that regardless of why I started on this trek or why I'll finish it, one thing that will remain true forever is that I didn't wait too long. I was so sad for him. However, I didn't let it stop there and told him that bike touring can be as easy as you want it to be. I told him he doesn't have to be able to ride 100 miles a day or anything crazy. I encouraged him to simply ride 5 miles a day; whatever he can do. But I told him that he just needs to start. Get his gear out, dust off his maps and start. Its as simple as that.

And yet I could see in his eyes he'd convinced himself he was too old. So, with that truth evident I realized he HAD waited too long. It was a chilling thought. Not because I'd waited to long to go on a grand tour, but rather what else had I waited to long to do? What will I look back later and wonder about? I don't have an immediate answer to that, but damn if I'm not going to spend a lot of miles over the next few weeks trying to find that out from inside my head.

Now, contrast that with Amaya and Eric, who I met riding East just as I was rolling toward Brenham. This time I waved and immediately rode to their side of the road. I could sense they didn't want to chat all that much, which surprised me. Well, until I learned their story.

Turns out Amaya and Eric have been bike touring OVER TEN YEARS continuously. Their quest is to cycle every country on the planet. So when I say that seeing yet ANOTHER rookie bike tourist (who wouldn't be a rookie to these two?) was probably not nearly as exciting to them as having only my second encounter with fellow tribespeople was to me. For more of their story you can check out worldbiking on Facebook. There is some amazing photography on that page!!!!

But, back to my encounter. I asked them the usual questions like "where did you come from," etc. and swiftly learned I was speaking with bike touring legends. I also swiftly learned that they could tell how much of a rookie I was because all my gear was brand new and my bike was totally clean. Their gear and bikes, however, looked like they'd been shelled by artillery. Not surprising given the life they've chosen. I also learned that they are doing things quite differently than I am in that they never stay anywhere where they have to pay. From city parks to fire stations to just the side of the road, they camp each night. So, no state parks. No RV parks. No KOA campgrounds. Nope, only free spots of ground. And, they are big fans of an organization called WarmShowers.org. Not necessarily camping, it IS free however as long as you arrange things ahead of time with the host. They heartily recommended I begin trying that. Not for the accomodations...which are usually just fine they say..., but rather just to meet the interesting hosts. I promised them I'd definitely look into it, and I will.
And so, as we parted, they got a few more digs in...good-naturedly!.. about how brand-spanking-new all my gear was and looked slightly disappointed at hearing I stayed in hotels...but, hey, I'll allow them the moral high-ground because, let's face it, they are doing something utterly and completely amazing.

And to think that all the way over to Brenham things had been completely unremarkable and I was already trying to decide how I could possibly find something interesting to write about today. Just proves that a ride isn't over until it is over, and today the universe saved the very best for last.

P.S. At one point today I reached the mythical "zen state" of bike touring. My mind was so completely lost in thought that when I "snapped out of it" I realized I had no idea how far I'd ridden or where I was. That was a totally awesome feeling. I've been on "autopilot" plenty of times while driving a car, but this was my first "autopilot" experience while riding a bike!!