Doctor Bob's Bike Blog: 04/05/11

As usual, all pictures enlarge if clicked.

It was another 72 rural Texas miles from Coldsprings, TX to Navasota. You can see our route for today here.

Coldsprings, population 691, was settled around 1850 where there was a trading post called "Coonskin" and eventually picked up its name from a spring that, one can only imagine, was quite cold. Coldsprings was a bustling county seat town by 1915, but disaster struck March 30, 1915 when the wooden courthouse burned and things were never quite the same. The area was pretty and I'd look forward to coming back in an RV.

Anyway, after a typically crappy night wrestling with my mattress pad, we were up at our usual 4:45am. The tent was stowed, the oatmeal heated and off we went into the darkness. The area became heavily forested and was quite pretty. Near the area of New Waverly, it was pretty much impossible to miss a commanding statue.

Christ of East Texas. Seriously...that's what it says on the base.

This thing was ginormous and made a pretty powerful statement. It turns out that the erection of this statue initially created some serious local controversy with the Texas Department of Transportation even getting involved because of the easement/right of way. You can read all about it here.

Lani sits in repose with Jesus of East of Texas. You wanna know something funny? If you Google "Jesus of East Texas" (in quotation marks) the first four hits are bike blogs with this one being the first! Awesome!

A little past Jesus of East Texas, we entered the town of New Waverly. Lani bought some postage stamps.

Nearly all of these little towns had pretty modern post offices...nearly, but not all.

We took a break from our usual peanut butter/jelly snack and stopped at the nearby Subway.

Lani interrogates the Subway lady

We hit a long stretch of forest...it was cool, nearly deserted, with rolling hills.

Wow...this was looking pretty good: gentle rollers, nice shoulder, green forest. What was this magical place?

This was Texas? I had this image of Texas being desert and ranches with the occasional city.

Lani fades away in the distance as I stay behind to take pictures.

It turns out we had entered the Sam Houston National Forest, 160000+ acres of forest in East Texas. The Sam Houston National Forest is managed under the multiple-use concept. Under this concept, the uses of the forest, such as recreation, fish and wildlife, timber, grazing, soil and water, and minerals, are planned to maintain a balance among the benefits, yet provide for public needs.

Sam Houston was a 19th Century American statesman, politician, and soldier. Houston became a key figure in the history of Texas, and was elected as the first and third President of the Republic of Texas, US Senator for Texas after it joined the United States, and finally as governor of the state. He refused to swear loyalty to the Confederacy when Texas seceded from the Union, and resigned as governor.

Returning to the recurring issue of road kill, they were everywhere...Lani purports to count them, but I can't see how you can possibly keep track. She's been counting about 15 a day, and those are only the ones where she can identify the animal. They all kinda smell alike, with one exception: skunk. As you probably know there are a pair of glands near the skunk anus that contain a few particularly evil-smelling thiols and mercaptans that the human nose can detect in the 10 part per billion range. I have to assume that when smashed, the 15cc of skunk juice just sorta gushes out.

Dead Skunk In The Middle of the Road

I perseverate on the dead skunk issue because of the Loudon Wainwright III classic, Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road, a hit song when I was a senior in high school (1972). You can (should) listen to it here, and follow the lyrics below:

Crossin' the highway late last night
He shoulda looked left and he shoulda looked right
He didn't see the station wagon car
The skunk got squashed and there you are!

You got yer
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
You got yer dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinkin' to high Heaven!

Take a whiff on me, that ain't no rose!
Roll up yer window and hold yer nose
You don't have to look and you don't have to see
'Cause you can feel it in your olfactory

You got yer
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
You got yer dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinkin' to high Heaven!

Yeah you got yer dead cat and you got yer dead dog
On a moonlight night you got yer dead toad frog
Got yer dead rabbit and yer dead raccoon
The blood and the guts they're gonna make you swoon!
You got yer
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
You got yer dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinkin' to high Heaven!

C'mon stink!

You got it!
It's dead, it's in the middle
Dead skunk in the middle!
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinkin' to high heaven!
All over the road, technicolor man!
Oh, you got pollution
It's dead, it's in the middle
And it's stinkin' to high, high Heaven
Copyright: Loudon Wainwright III, 1972

Anyway, with every dead skunk, I sing Loudon's tune. Whatever gets you through the day and 60 miles...right?
We biked across Lake Conroe:

Lake Conroe is a 21000 acre lake with 5000 acres in the Sam Houston National Forest.

It turns out that not only is Lake Conroe a major recreational area - being less than an hour from Houston - it is harbors one of the more upscale residential areas of the state. A pair of golf courses border the lake which also offers up the usual: camping, water activities, RV parks.

Lake Conroe is a popular outdoor destination and also provides a back-up water supply to Houston.

Long stretches of highway through the forest were lined with trees containing multiple spider nests.

This tree, and many along this route, contained multiple spider nests.

Up close, the spider nests looked pretty ominous looked pretty ominous. I was nearly overcome by the urge to stick my hand in but, somehow, held back.

You can clearly see where Shelob has captured poor Frodo.

As with the last several hundred miles, multiple varieties of wildflowers were along the road.

Former First Lady Lady Byrd Johnson had a special interesting in environmentalism and preserving the state's wildflower legacy.

Sadly, you can only go so far into a forest before you start to exit and come out from the other side. I found the forest to be beautiful, my most favorite part of the trip so far. Between the beauty of the forest and my general level of comfort with the terrain, I was, for a long stretch, euphoric.

The Texas Star Winery almost lured me in.

Texas Star Winery has a few unique offerings, including a Prickly Pair Wine.

A little farther along, we entered Richards, Texas, population=296, one of the most visually depressing locales so far on our journey.

Along Main Street in Richards, TX

I don't recall seeing any viable commercial buildings, but word has it that there are still three of them.

While the area was settled in the 1830s, the town was not established until 1907 when members of nearby communities moved in because of a new railroad line. The town peaked in 1936 with a population of 500. After WWII, Richards started a steady decline.

The post office was the best looking building in town. No...Bob didn't take a picture. He doesn't know why.

The highway we were on was the only paved road in the town.

We continued on one of the many farm-to-market roads that connected the small towns and agricultural areas. These routes, designated FM #### (four-digit number), serve as a better quality road allowing farmers and ranchers to transport their products to market towns and/or distribution centers. In Texas, the Farm to Market Road and Ranch to Market Road indicate roadways that are part of the state's system of secondary and connecting routes, built and maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation.