Day 50: To Refugio

April 15, 2012

Just before leaving Yorktown I took a few minutes to trim the orange flag I picked up yesterday on the side of the road. I attached it to the back of the seat with four zip ties. The orange mesh is probably more visible than the once-vivid but now faded reflective material on the rear panniers that I shipped home.

In Yorktown I trimmed the orange flag and attached it to the back of the seat with 4 zip ties.

I expect today to be a boring flat day with a strong headwind. I started by going south out of Yorktown on low-traffic highway 119. Quite nice.

I took this picture while in motion. They always run away if I stop.

After 15 miles it merges with US 183/77A which has much more traffic but also a wide shoulder. Many oil and gas trucks on the road. The terrain is still gently rolling hills, sometimes forested and sometimes open pastures.

Coming into Goliad it seemed to be a typical down-and-out small ranching town. I had lunch at the Subway at the main highway intersection. Heading south out of town I noticed a courthouse spire 4 blocks to the right, so I turned that direction. The downtown courthouse plaza was worth the detour. It's surely the most charming courthouse plaza I've seen on this trip.

The courthouse has been recently renovated. It seems unusually large for a rural county.

Huge live oak trees surround the courthouse. One is the "hanging tree", site of many public executions.

Half a mile past downtown I saw an impressive white church on the right, so I turned into Mission Esperitu Santo State Historical Park. I walked across the lawn to avoid paying the entry fee on the road. The mission was built starting in 1749 and restored in 1936-1939.

Mission Nuestra Señora del Esperitu Santo de Zúñiga (Our Lady of the Holy Spirit of Zuniga).

During the 18th century Spain established 3 major colonial settlements in present-day Texas: Goliad, Nacogdoches, and San Antonio. They still exist today but only San Antonio grew into a major city.

Just past the mission the highway crosses the tiny San Antonio river. After the tour I will see the river again in downtown San Antonio, not far from its headwater springs.

The San Antonio river separates the Mission and the Presidio.

Just past the river on the left is the most famous historic site in the area. The Presidio La Bahia was also built starting in 1749 and was the main military headquarters for this region of New Spain. Later it was the site of significant battles for Mexican independence and Texas independence.

Presidio Nuestra Señora de Loreto de la Bahía (Fortress of Our Lady of Loreto on the Bay).And the most impressive flowering Agave plants that I saw during the tour.

Presidio La Bahía. Built by Spain in 1749. Wall restored in the 1960's.

My last stop in Goliad was at twin historic monuments south of the Presidio. Closest to the highway is the monument to General Ignacio Zaragoza who led a Mexican army to defeat a French expeditionary force in Puebla, Mexico on May 5, 1862. This strange battle (long after Mexico gained independence from Spain) is the origin of Cinco de Mayo which is celebrated much more in the U.S. than in Mexico. I'm not sure why the statue is in Goliad.

General Ignacio Zaragoza's army defeated a French expeditionary force at the Battle of Puebla on Cinco de Mayo, 1862.

Farther back from the highway is the final memorial, commonly known as the Fannin Memorial. It's the site of a mass grave of 400 Texian soldiers who captured the Presidio from Mexican forces in 1835, but were subsequently defeated by a large army led by General Santa Ana. After holding them captive for a few days, the general ordered the traitors to be executed on Palm Sunday, 1836. The Texian leader, Colonel Fannin, was the final man executed after witnessing his men being executed one at a time.

Grave with names of the 400 captured Texian rebels executed by order of General Santa Ana on Palm Sunday, 1836.

The Texas revolution is a textbook example of how the winner gets to write history. The revolution was fought by men who had only recently emigrated from the U.S. to Mexico. Here's a rhetorical question.

If you emigrate to a foreign country and find that you don't like it, should you:

A. Reluctantly adapt to the rules and customs of your new country.
B. Go back home.
C. Overthrow the government.

The American and Mexican revolutions were just causes to overthrow exploitive colonial rule. The Texas revolution overthrew a legitimate local government to install a less competent and unsustainable government. Less than 10 years later the Republic of Texas literally gave itself to the United States in exchange for the U.S. government paying Texas' huge debts.

The Texians had several grievances with Mexican rule. One was that everyone was required to be Roman Catholic. Perhaps their biggest grievance was that Mexico was in the final stages of banning slavery.

Despite the gruesome history, Goliad turned out to be a wonderful discovery. I hadn't known about the charming courthouse plaza, mission, or Presidio. The Texian defeat at the Alamo is very well-known. But the defeat at Goliad is not so well known even though it had more casualties. Similarly, the missions in San Antonio are well-known, but missions elsewhere in Texas are not well-known.

South of Goliad I was finally in the flat coastal plain. With a 20 mph south wind and few trees to block the wind. Mosquitoes were bad despite the wind. I stopped in the sun on gravel areas because it was too buggy in shade or in the grass.

I'm not accustomed to the mosquitoes because where I live the weather isn't hot long enough to breed large mosquito populations. And I'm not accustomed to hot humid weather. Where I live the humidity is low when the weather is hot. It's only humid during the winter rainy season. Hot, humid, buggy weather is literally foreign to me and I don't like it!

I live near the Pacific coast, where coastal areas are wetter than inland areas because all the rain comes from the Pacific ocean. The Gulf Coast is different because much of the rain comes from the north. To me it's strange that the number of trees decreases as I approach the coast.

The eastern and western parts of the Gulf of Mexico have different rainfall patterns. Annual rainfall decreases as you go south in the western portion (Texas), but annual rainfall increases as you go south in the eastern portion (Florida). Brownsville, Texas gets 27 inches of annual rainfall while Fort Myers, Florida gets a whopping 54 inches of annual rainfall.

I passed through more oil and gas activity. Several newly built drill pads. A huge pipeline is under construction in the area, presumably to get oil (or "wet" gas) to Corpus Christi's refineries and port. It's strange to see little industrial islands scattered throughout the ranches.

I saw and heard many compressor stations near the highway.

This morning my front tire was soft and I simply pumped up the tire. 15 miles north of Refugio my front tire suddenly went flat. I stopped on the roadside and found two punctures. A big thorn caused the sudden fast leak, and a tiny wire caused the slow leak. The tube already had 4 patches, so I was reluctant to put two more patches on it. I replaced the tube and quickly got back on the road.

I arrived in Refugio at 4:45 PM. It was 88F and about 100% humidity, tolerable with a strong wind. I got my reserved room at the only motel in town.

19th century cattle baron's mansion in Refugio.

In the evening a huge storm came in. The temperature dropped 25 degrees. Heavy rain for hours, with a strong north wind and continuous lightning, about one flash per second. Spectacular to watch from the comfort and safety of a motel room.

Distance: 56.3 mi. (90 km)

Climbing: 735 ft. (223 m)

Average Speed: 9.7 mph (15.5 km/h)

Today's ride: 56 miles (90 km)
Total: 2,695 miles (4,337 km)

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