I headed down 332 toward Surfside at a slow and careful pace. I wanted to take my time to get used to the way Miss America handled loaded up. After a few miles I looked ahead and saw another cyclist stopped on the shoulder. I pulled up beside the guy and introduced myself and met a guy named Richard.... and this guy must've been wearing and sitting on at least $5 grand in gear.... First of all, he's one of those distinguished CEO looking guys that has the face of a 50 year old guy and a body of a 25 year old. I take one look at this guy and I'm thinking "Succesful". He was wearing a beautiful, snug fitting black and red set of bicycle clothes complete with the booties that fit over your shoes (something I need) and sitting on a Fuji Kestral Time Trial Bike. This thing looked like a work of art with the swept back aerodynamic tubing.... I mean it looked like you could get on this thing.... tuck down in a time trial position and haul A... so I finished talking to Richard and he took off toward Surfside bridge and so did I.
I was thinking.... which I do a lot of while I'm riding.... which is one of the reasons I like to ride.... I was going through a few things in my mind and realized I had not brought the Backpack Attachment for my Ortlieb Bike Packer Plus Panniers. Ortlieb calls it the Pannier Carry System.... so I called my wife and asked her to bring it to me.... I figured I needed one more thing on the bike.
My wife passed me while I was at the top of the Surfside Bridge taking this pic and we met at the bottom of the bridge at the Valero Store.
One of the things I realized real quick after going over the Surfside Bridge was that I needed lower gearing for Miss America. I suspected I would and even called one of the bike shops in Houston and talked with a guy there and explained what I was planning on doing and where I was going and how much I would be hauling and this guy told me "Naaa.... you got 3 sprockets on front.... and a 9-speed.... that'll be plenty".
Well, I don't know what this guy was thinking, cause with the gear I had and the A I was hauling, I needed about 3 more gears....so I'll be likely going from the 11-25 cassette to an 11-32 or 11-34 cassette. I'll likely just buy an upgraded (maybe higher spoke rear rim) and have the new cassette mounted on it so I have a spare rim with the "road" gears on it.
I turned left on what we locals call "Blue Water Highway" - it's FM 3005 - and pieces of it had been washed out by Hurricane Ike so I was anxious to see what it looked like.
I still saw signs of Ike.....
and continued construction...
It was a pretty day and before I knew it I was at San Luis Pass... I wasn't in a big hurry so I decided to stop in at the Bright Lite. I ended up meeting Deborah inside the store and putting up a Discovering America on 2 Wheels flyer in the front window and then spent about an hour talking to the owner Don Bright.
Don talked about many things including the many steps he had taken recently to improve his health and lifestyle including going to a doctor in Lake Jackson who put him through a "blood / DNA" analysis through a lab in Houston that comes back with a report that tells you exactly what your body is deficient in.... the whole process costs about $300 and told Don many vitamins and minerals he needed to supplement.
Don also told me about an experience he had several months ago when a guy roading a motorcycle crashed on the curve coming off the San Luis Bridge in front of his store. Don rushed to the guy and saw real quick the guy was in bad shape.... blood coming out of his ears.... couldn't find a pulse.... called 9-1-1 and Don started doing CPR.... the guy's DOA - I mean he's done the whole Death - Body Function thing, but Don keeps working on him... 'bout that time 2 black women who were obviously Christians arrived on the scene and started praying for the guy.... laying hands on the guy.... and beseeching the Lord to intervene.... the Life Flite helicopter is circling.... and Don's pumping on this guy.... and these 2 black ladies are doing the "GOD PLEASE SAVE THIS MAN" thing and Don says this guy suddenly lets out a huge exhale and his eyes pop open and he says "What happened?"
Don says he jumped back about 5' and the EMTs show up.... long story longer.... they fly this guy to Herman... he's got 7 fractures in his skull but no dain bramage...
By this time, I got goose bumps all over me.... and I ask Don again if this really happened and he swears it did.... and I'm thinking.... "Damn - there's that God thing again".
Everytime I hit the road, that Guy speaks to me.... this time through Don Bright.... and I listen.
I left the Bright Lite and headed over the San Luis Pass Bridge.
Stopped and took this pic of a Brown Pelican....
Rolled onto the west end of Galveston Island and saw this beautiful display of fish mounts and stopped and talked to David Heard who's obviously quite an artist.... We talked about his business a minute and I continued on down FM 3005 thinking that there was another guy with a talent and a passion who was making a living doing what he loves....
I was also thinking I was hungry so I stopped in and ordered a foot long Spicy Italian from Bobby at the Jamaica Beach Subway.
I left the Subway and was shortly at the entrance to my day's destination - Galveston Island State Park
I pulled up the Park HQ and thought it odd that it was in a temporary building... I didn't think any more about it at the time but found out later from one of the Park Employees... guy named Chad... that basically half the park had been wiped out by Hurricane Ike including the HQ building..... they lost 300' of beach, the park HQ and half the campsites and are still trying to recover....
Talked to a guy named Wacharra (I'm sure this is not the right spelling but that's how you pronounce it)... he is a software engineer who enjoys cycling and wants to begin touring.
I went in and met Linda and got site and trail maps and ended up selecting.....
Campsite #31 - a water only site - right across from the Restrooms / Showers at the west end of the campground.
I pulled the Ortlieb Panniers and Rack Pack off my bag and locked them up at the campsite and took off to the Bay side of the park to the trailhead of the Clapper Rail Trail... a trail that takes you through the marsh / wetlands of GISP...
I made a 1-minute video about the park that I posted on YouTube.... here's the link to it:
I also did a video on the Pannier Carry System I was taking advantage of:
Let me just take a minute here to talk about the Ortlieb Panniers and Equipment I bought from
I already remarked in another video my first impression of how well-made they are.... and as I assembled / adjusted them and worked with them more I realized this German-made system was really well-engineered and well thought out.... the features, characteristics and functions at first seem complex but once you see how it all works together, you realize how simple and functional everything is.... it's that German Engineering thing again....
Back to GISP.... I hiked around through the trails for a couple of hours and returned to the Observation Deck on the Clapper Rail Trail and was rewarded with a beautiful sunset over West Galveston Bay.... another rewarding day spent with Mother Nature...
As I was riding back to my campsite, I had to stop and take this picture... I guess everybody has their own way of experiencing the outdoors..... it's kinda hard to make out.... but the pic is through the back of a large RV.... a guy is kicked back watching a flat screen TV.....
Not my cup of tea, but I guess everybody has to experience the Great Outdoors in their own way...
So that was the end of Day 1 of my Southeast Texas Loop and my continuing adventure of
Discovering America on 2 Wheels
Sorry you can't keep up the daily summaries--it is a much nicer reac--but I understand your frustration. Maybe later you can find a way to automate the compilation so it isn't so hard. RJ
ReplyDeleteRJ,
ReplyDeleteWhat you suggest and want is much harder than you think. To do what you suggest I have to do the following:
- First I have to stop and take the picture (I do that anyway) but...
- Then I have to take notes in a pocket notebook of my thoughts and impressions of the image and scene I have just taken so I don't forget why I took the picture in the first place.
- Then I have to continue riding to my destination that day.... which usually results in me being relatively tired.
- Then I have to set up camp.
- Pull out the Netbook and see if I have a good enough wireless signal to even do anything over the Internet, i.e. access the blog. Many times I have a signal on the road all day long allowing the cell phone pic msgs to the blog but then I get to my destination and I don't have a good enough signal to do anything with the Netbook. If that's the case, then the readers will likely get nothing for that day, because I won't have time to go back and "fill in the gap".... then if I do the days and events will be out of order... which seems stupid as hell to me.
- Now it's after dark... and this is still winter... so it's cold... so I have to work by headlight with numb fingers because I can't wear gloves and type at the same time.
- Now comes the fun part.
- I have to pull the tiny micro SD card from my cell phone without dropping it on the ground (with the cold numb fingers).
- Then I have to get out the USB Zip drive for the micro SD card and insert it into the USB port of the computer.
- Create a folder in "My Pictures" and copy the pics from the cell phone Micro SD card to the folder on the hard drive of the Netbook.
- Then I have to open the copy of each photo in Microsoft Office Picture Manager and "Auto Correct" it - this step is not necessary but since I've gone to this point I might as well do this to make the pics look as good as possible.
- Then I have to make copies of each photo I want to upload because I want to keep the original high resolution image as a backup to the one on the cell phone micro SD card.
- Then I have to compress the photo to a "Web" or "Document" resolution image. Otherwise it would take 3 times as long to upload each photo.
- I then have to repeat the process of download, Auto Correct and Compress for all photos I take on my Canon Powershot... sometimes I don't take any with this camera, but usually take a few "backups" and images that require a zoom lens.
- Then I have to open the blog, open a "New Post" and upload each image one by one.... even with the compressed images, this usually takes at least a minute per image.
- Then I have to transfer my handwritten notes to typed commentary to go with the image.
- I do this "Upload Image / Add Commentary" cycle to create a chronology of the day.
Continued on next comment...
Continued from above comment...
ReplyDeleteDepending on the conditions (temperature, lighting, Wireless speed (it varies by location relative to the "network")),for say 10 - 20 images, it takes a minimum of 2 hours and up to 4 hours to do what I just described.
Now remember, this is occurring at the end of the day, usually at night... so basically, even if I get started at 8:00 pm, I may be up to midnight creating a "summary" post for the day's activities.
Everything I just described (in reference to the cell phone pics which is usually 90% of the pics I upload) is done automatically for me when I post from my cell phone with the text / commentary at the time of the event.
I literally can't do what you are asking... and I guess I have to say.... with all due respect to your opinion... while I recognize and appreciate the "better reading" of a single post, I really don't see the problem of reading 10 - 15 posts with a pic and text on each one as opposed to a "monster" 2 - 4 page end of day summary post at the end of the day which cuts out 2 - 4 hours of my sleep / recovery time when I do it.
Please send me a link to a blog or a website tha does what you are describing because I've read quite a few of them and none of them do it... unless they're only going like 15 - 20 miles a day and not doing anything at their destination when they get there.
What I provide is a fast-paced virtual tour of my tour whether it's on the bicycle or on foot.
You asked me once if I was trying to tailor this blog to my readers or to me and my family.... and my initial reaction was that I really want it to be for the readers, but I have to draw a line somewhere - what I'm doing (cycling 50 - 80 miles a day with a fully loaded bicycle) is hard enough already.... so when I'm being asked to do something that ruins the quality of my trip and stresses me out by requiring me to work to the wee hours of the morning in sometimes freezing temps, then I guess I have to say....
Sorry Readers - I'm not going to do that...
Keep the new suggestions coming, but I think I've addressed this one enough....
William