Day 46: Kirbyville to Kountze: ACA picks up the fumble and runs for a touchdown!

February 19, 2014

Spring is coming to Texas. These magnolias were blooming in Debbie's yard

Today's road was good, except for the noisy traffic, cleverly omitted from this shot

The Grampies are well known for cycling into a region, an ecosystem, or a situation withoout being aware of here they really are until it slowly dawns on them. Similarly, we cycle into places that are entirely new and novel to us, but which have a long history are are very well known to a lot of people, including readers of the blog.

Often people write their recollections about places we are passing through in the Guestbook. We thought we would "reprint" one that just arrived, here:

Hello Grampies,
This is another grampie and warmshower host in the TN Appalachian Mts. I cycled the ST (Galveston, TX - Jekyll Island, GA a couple years back. Certainly am reliving the memories of that ride through your tour.

But mostly I wanted to say 'Thanks for the "Memories' of LA. You see I was born in the Atchafalaya swamps and grew up in Oberlin in the 50's. We fished and swam the Calcasieu River. Oberlin was a boom town then. You could buy anything from Karems grocery on credit and pay them back when you sold your fish. Yep... the good 'ole days. Now it's a ghost town. The decades have moved on and time has not been good to small town Americana. Now everyone wants to live next to a Walmart. Sad.

I'd like to write again to get your opinion on camping now. So much has changed over the decades since my first TransAm tour in '78. And not for the better, as far as how bicyclists are treated, that is. But I've already made this a novel already.

Wishing you good folks safety on the road!!! Be well and have a wonderful ride.

Admiral

Yesterday we rode through two towns that really are no more: Bon Weir and Fawil. These do not appear on our AAA map, though Bon Weir did make it to the ACA map. After reading Admiral's message, it seems fitting to at least post the historical markers we read, with a peek at one or two of the buildings.

We had figured out earlier that Kountze was the logical place to stop, after Kirbyville. Even though Debbie's warm shower was 10km past Kirbyville, Kountze still hung on as the target. Basically the whole way was on a wide shoulder protected by a rumble strip with the adjoining road being a four lane similar to an Interstate. Except for the continual noise and the heavy trucks, it was good riding. We stopped at McDonalds in Silsbee, because I argued that my finely tuned body could not operate properly on the four mini yogurts that Dodie had liberated from a Continental Breakfast some days earlier.So, she was forced to throw a burger in to keep me going.

At McDonalds we met Lillian and Clarence Hebert. The thing is, they had chatted at length with George and Charlotte, the cyclists with the tandem and Bob trailer we ourselves had met the day before. So this network of readers on Crazyguy, cyclists on the route and Warmshowers hosts also includes locals who just interact with and remember various cyclists they run in to. George and Charlotte - Lillian and Clarence say Hi, and keep having fun!

As we cycle this region of west Louisiana and east Texas we continue to not find gorgeous landscapes to photograph.We feel a little guilty about it, since there is beauty and interest in all of nature. Maybe we have to look harder. Anyway, here is a token landscape photo, this of the Neches River at Evadale. The Neches meanders down from Steinhagen Lake and runs through the Big Thicket. The Big Thicket is a hardwood and pine forest that once covered more than a million acres. No doubt it accounts for all the log trucks and chip trucks that roared past us today. The forest also hid people who were dodging joining the army during the Civil War. Those sent in to flush them out were known as "bushwackers".

The Neches, runs through the Big Thicket

Kountze. All we saw, though, was a 2 km strip of small businesses

For a long time we searched for a lightweight can opener. We found this one, and then for a year could not figure out how to use it. Now, desperate for any vegetable, we bought a can of peas. But we could not remember anymore how to use the opener!

Got it! Now we cn fend off scurvy for another day.

Now, about ACA. Yesterday we reported our terrible disappointment with ACA's failure to help us out with their safer route to and through upcoming Austin. We also wrote to them separately about it, as did some others. Today, to their great credit, ACA came through - expediting the revised map to the post office in Anderson. Anderson is on the route about 200 km from where we are now, and prior to the changed route. It's a little tricky, because the post office will be closed Saturday afternoon and Sunday, just the time when we might naturally be rolling by. So, we will have to step on it a bit, and make it to Anderson before the office closes at 10 am Saturday.That means two big (well, ...bigger) days coming up for us. It's ok, we need some challenge on this so easy Southern Tier!

Here is part of one of the messages from ACA:

Steve:It is always difficult to hear we have disappointed a traveling cyclist. I'm sorry about our response to you.The recent 160-mile Southern Tier reroute on section 4 allowed us to avoid one particularly challenging stretch of narrow, winding road entering and leaving Wimberley, Texas. This was the only part of the route where we believed safety to be an issue. The reroute also allowed us to generally improve the route through Austin by using more segments of a bike path.In our history, this is only the second time we have made a reroute of such a distance due to safety concerns. Unfortunately in this instance, there was a miscommunication between departments of how it should be handled. We apologize and hope you will allow us to fix the situation.We would like to provide you with a new map ASAP. This can be done by mail or we can prepare and email you a pdf document if you prefer.Tomorrow morning a blog entry will be posted alerting other cyclists to the situation and reiterating our map replacement policy.Again, we apologize for the situation. We will continue to strive to improve our internal processes and our responses to avoid this happening in the future.Sincerely,Carla MajernikRoutes & mapping Program Director800/755-2453150 E. Pine St., Missoula MT 59802

Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 2,688 km (1,669 miles)

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