Daily Miles: 43.6
Total Miles: 1323.1
Max: 29.4
Avg: 12.3
Time on the Bike: 03:32:40
I had a really great time at my friends house in Humble, near Houston. I got the royal treatment with beers and burgers after a long day of riding, complete with a super comfortable bed and a shower and laundry. Just what I needed after spending a few days without any emenities cycling about. Thanks Lyall and Miriam, you guys are the best!
I hit the road around 1:30 from where I had coffe with Herman. The headwind was strong and I instantly knew the 43 miles to the campground was going to be tough. On top of the headwind the hills started to form. Up and down and up and down. A precursor for what will now be ahead of me. Long are the days of very flat roads.
The scenery is 100% better. I’m in the Sam Houston National forest now. It is a real forest that makes me feel I’m actually in the woods. Tall pine trees coat the woods and hover over the road. They smell like woods and sap and the feeling you get being here is of nature and not farmland or suburbia or small rural towns.
I was nervous I wasn’t going to make the miles before dark. The riding was a lot harder than what it has been the whole trip, mostly because of the insane headwind. My average was very slow and the hills were a slog. The downhills required pedaling so you didn’t really get to have a break after exerting yourself getting up a hill.
I couldn’t really take a break because I needed to keep pedaling to get to where I was going. If I had water for dinner I could have stopped anywhere in the National Forest but unfortunately I didn’t.
I rolled into Crag Recreational Area around 5:30 and saw a “campsite full” sign. No problem.
I went into the campsite. It was all RVs. Big ones and little ones and pop-up ones. Ones with decks and ones with lights. Ones with music and all of them with a fire going. I pedaled around and tried to find the camp host. I located their RV and knocked on the door. No response. There was a guy sitting alone by his fire in the adjacent RV.
“Hey, how are you doing?” I asked after approaching the fire. “Have you seen the camp hosts?”
“No, haven’t seen them today or last night.”
“Ah…” I replied. “I’m just cycling through and need a place to camp tonight. Do you think I could pitch my tent just over there?” I pointed to some trees near his campsite. “The campground is full and it doesn’t look like there’s anywhere else for me to go.”
“Yeah, sure. No problem,” he said. “I’m Renee and I’m here with my boyfriend Rick. We’re trying to escape the craziness of the Super Bowl in Houston. It’s starting to get really bad there.” He laughed shortly.
“Thanks a lot Renee, I’m Domonick.”
I walked over to the spot I had pointed at and put my tent up and unpacked my things. Everything was like clockwork now with my tent and gear. It took some getting used to with the panniers and everything.
I hung around by the fire and talked with Renee a little while as I cooked dinner. The fire was warm and toasty, and it felt good to take the cold edge away for a little while. I looked up at the sky and for the first time during the trip I saw a sea of bright and vibrant stars. They dotted the dark expanse of the universe above me, twinkling and dancing with the moon.
Stars make me feel small and insignificant. Especially when they are too numerous to count. You can see your place here on earth as just a blip in the cosmos; an insignificant flicker of time that is so short it resembles but a grain of sand on the beach.
Time is a strange thing. It’s the only currency we have that can’t be gained. We lose a bit of it everyday, every hour, every minute and every second. It’s the one thing that you can’t afford to waste; and it’s the one thing everyone wishes they had more of.
Time is the master. And that’s pretty much it.
