25th July, 2016.
Day 3.
I was up very early in the morning, well before sun up and wasted no time loading up the bike. I skipped breakfast. Opting to pick up something along the way instead. Time was of the essence now.
I still had a long way to go.
Texas is a very large state and from experience, having been through here multiple times on previous trips, I knew that from where I was it would take me at least 8 hours to get where I was going.
I logged my ride statistics for the previous day, noting that I had travelled 604 mi (966 km) yesterday.
A good riding day in most respects.
The Honda ST makes easy, comfortable work of really laying down some serious daily mileage with minimal riding fatigue!
And so at 6:00 a.m. sharp I instructed the GPS to follow TX 59 heading towards Corpus.
It was a lovely, relatively cool morning and soon after 7 in the morning, I found myself passing by a lovely meadow.
I just had to stop and take some photos.
1 of the photos I took here ended up being labeled as “my photo of the trip”.
This leg of the journey was otherwise pretty uneventful except for the oppressive heat beginning to build up along the way.
I made sure to stop every hour to rehydrate, drinking a bottle of Gatorade for every 3rd stop with water at each of the other stops, purposely to replenish my electrolytes. This helped a lot and I found that I coped with the heat a little better than I had been able to, over the 2 days prior.
I really needed to make up some time now. I was in Texas.
The highways are long and drawn out and the legal speed limit relatively higher than the congested highways of the seriously overcrowded states of the midwest.
So I “kicked the ST in the ribs”. She picked up her haunches, smiled and did “her thing”!
Carthage - 99 mi (158 km) …… whoosh!
Nacogdoches - 51mi (82 km) ……whoosh!
Lufkin - 20 mi (32 km) ……whoosh!
Diboll - 11 mi (17 km) ……whoosh!
Livingston - 35 mi (56 km) ……whoosh!
The state highway merged into the interstate - Interstate 69.
Houston, 74 mi (118 km) away, was now in striking distance!
And as I approached the city limits, limits of one of the largest cities in this country, I decided to make a quick potty and rehydration break before entering the maze of highways and density of this city.
The last thing I wanted was to have the need to answer the call of nature - whatever form it may take - whilst meshed in the business of navigating through a large city such as this! It might take a little while to cut through.
So I ducked into a station just before “hitting” the outer city loop, fueled up the bike, took a potty-break, purchased some more water that I was now running out of and a bottle of Gatorade.
I found some shade outdoors and spent a few minutes enjoying the light breeze which I could now feel.
My eyes caught what seemed to be a card of some sort on the pavement. Upon closer inspection it was someone’s driving license - still valid. How it got here I do not know, but one thing I was certain of, someone was or would be looking for it desperately.
I went back into the store and promptly returned it to the manager on duty.
At this point, I suited back up into my full riding gear. God forbid if I were to have a mishap, I wanted to have whatever protection I could on my being, and joined the line of cars lined up on the access road.
(I’d rather endure the heat than have road-rash, leaving my skin all over the pavement/asphalt).
Passing through the intersection, the on-ramp to the interstate “sucked” me up. I had no choice now but to find my space on the road at a speed dictated by the general flow of traffic.
I did not mind much because I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that I could out-accelerate and/or out-pace any of the vehicles on the road if need be. My only concern was to stay safe.
Flow of traffic was good. Changing lanes when I had to was safe all because of great courtesy extended by all. I was appreciative.
I wormed my way through the spaghetti-like maze and entanglement of the highways downtown Houston, occasionally stealing a glimpse of the city skyline when I could.
The buildings all looming over the city, dwarfing all we vehicles in size, making me really feel minuscule.
The architectural engineering of the city, the massive maze of concrete and asphalt is truly a marvel of human engineering!
The GPS performed flawlessly and routed me through easily and without a hitch.
This is where the strengths of this GPS unit shine.
My Garmin Zumo 590LM, designed specifically for and by motorcyclists input, is my unit of choice, purposefully because of the very specific voice-guidance programming. (Read more about my impressions of it in further detail in another section of this journal).
At the southern part of Houston where the interstate continues its southerly path, cutting across the outer loop of the city, Interstate 69 turned back into TX 59 and from here would be a straight southwesterly run directly into Victoria, TX and beyond - some of my old “stomping/riding” grounds.
So I settled in for the last long haul of this 3 day journey.
From here, it was 208 mi (333 km) to Corpus Christi.
Sugar Land, Rosenberg, Wharton, El Campo, Ganado and into Victoria.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! - All blips on my radar screen!
Refugio, Sinton, Odem ……………. and finally - Corpus Christi!
My home away from home!
The smell of sea breeze and the not-so-healthy refineries (up wind of which I lived in all the years I spent there)!
I pulled into my daughters’ driveway right around 4:30 p.m. local time. It was 98’F (37’C) and with 42,962 mi on “the clock”, I had completed this leg of my journey after having barreled my way through 5 states and a distance of 1583 mi (2532 km) over 3 riding days, it felt good to be indoors in the cool and out of the summer heat. I reached for water!
More importantly it was good to see my children, grandkids and wife (She had flown ahead a month earlier).
It was now family time.
My first order of business was a long-awaited dinner date with my granddaughters Sophs and Penny and a tour through “Soph’s Valley of Toys”!
It doesn't get any better than this!