Day 147 Kountze, TX

I made it into Texas yesterday and I’m glad to be out of Louisiana for the moment. I liked being in New Orleans and Baton Rouge and the people I met in other small places along the way, but the roads were mostly crap and the oil stuff bummed me out.

I left my glasses on my trailer last Tuesday and they fell off and most surely broke, but I didn’t realize this until I was another 50 miles down the road. Grrrrrr. The glass clinking sound was my glasses falling not the glass clicking sound I heard all day while traveling amongst all kinds of crap on the side of the road.

Today I was able to get contacts and it is so much easier to read road signs and see road hazards now. Now I only have one pair of sunglasses left to keep track of, but can I do it?

I met Leo Flood at Walmart and he walked right up to me and started chatting me up and said I should stop by his house in Kountze once I was done getting my vision problem sorted out. Walmart didn’t have a doctor, but I was able to get in at Texas State Optical! Thank you Dr. Keeney for getting me back in focus. In between I had a fine Mexican lunch courtesy of Philis and her two daughters Michaela and Magan. It was a fast conversation, but I really enjoyed talking to all of them. Both Michaela and Magan are on the drill team at their high school. Of course being the bicycle advocate I am I tried to get them all to promise me to get on a bicycle sometime in the near future

Philis said she used to be a rider, but it’s been a while and she’s not sure she can do it.  Yes you can I say!

Michaela and I came to an agreement. If I go to her drill practice and join in, she will ride her bicycle to school. I was very, very tempted to stick around and do it, but felt I needed to keep moving. She told me she is in the 11th grade so I still have an entire year to get back to Silsbee to make it happen.

I’m writing this as I’m comfortably set-up in Leo’s camper after a really enjoyable time conversing. More details to come.

Tomorrow I get to meet the horses before I get back on the road.

What a great introduction to Texas!