Day 18: Houston, TX

Published on January 24, 2007 in photos and travel. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

January 20, 2007

Gerri made a delicious blueberry smoothie this morning. She has a blender with 3 horsepower. You could probably turn it upside down and use it to mow the lawn.

After breakfast, we hit the town. She took me to a couple cool coffee shops and showed me a really nice section of Houston. We went to one place that was part local farmer’s market, part art gallery, and part coffee shop to sit around and talk. As lunch time rolled around we decided to get pizza for lunch. I told Gerri to order for us, so she got a salad with roasted walnut, sun-dried tomatoes, and gorgonzola cheese to start. We finished with a garlic, tomato, and spinach pizza. It was my favorite meal of the entire trip so far.

At 2 pm we went back to her place. She took a nap while I cleaned my bike and installed a few new parts — it was filthy from the previous two days’ riding in bad weather. When I finished, it sparkled.

For dinner we had planned to go to her favorite Indian restaurant, only to find that it was (permanently) closed. So she suggested that we go to an Ethiopian place instead. On the way to the restaurant she played a Talk Talk album from 1991 that was nothing like their 80’s synthpop. Incredible. Her boyfriend showed up a few minutes later… she jokes that he’s on Indian Standard Time, which means he’s always running late.

Dharm suggested that we order everything group-style so the food comes on one big platter. So we did. I forget what we ordered, but it was similar to Indian food only not as spicy. On the side was a bread-like substance called Injer, which is made from the Keff grain. You break off little pieces and use it to scoop up the food. Incredibly, I got full and couldn’t eat anymore, so we made Dharm finish the plate.

I was too tired (and full) after dinner to go out and do anything, so we decided to rent a movie. Gerri wanted us to see “Whale Rider”. And I’m glad we did. It was fantastic! Definitely recommended for anyone… just make sure you have a box of kleenex handy.

Dharm, Gerri, and Me

Dharm and Gerri

Dharm and Gerri

Day 17: Beaumont, TX to Houston, TX

Published on January 24, 2007 in photos and travel. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

January 19, 2007

Anya and I ate breakfast at the Early Bird Cafe. We couldn’t locate it at first, but a woman at a gas station knew where it was and told us to follow her (truck). At the cafe, I ordered an omelet with everything, and Anya got the veggie version of the same. We inhaled several cups of coffee too.

Ten miles down the road, Anya had some serious knee pain and told me to go on without her; she could hitch a ride to Houston. So I did. Getting to Houston took forever. It was at least 85 miles to downtown (I hit 1,000 miles there) and another 20 or so to the west side, where I was staying. 110 miles from Beaumont, and at 8:30 pm I finally got to Gerri’s house.

She welcomed me inside, showed me where I could put my things, introduced me to her cats, and sent me off to the shower. Once I was clean and presentable, we went out to eat Thai food. Both of us ended up ordering the chu-chee curry, but I got it with shrimp and she had tofu. Yum!

Gerri is so amazing. She’s an internet tech guru by day, musician by night, and a weekend adventurer. Loves to read, has an impressive music collection, owns PSB speakers, and her computer is a Powerbook. Like peas and carrots, her boyfriend Dharm is an electrical and computer engineer who designed the new 1 pixel camera sensor. He’s also completely hilarious. Needless to say, we all got along quite well.

Me and Jamie R

1,000 Miles at Houston, TX

Day 16: Lake Charles, LA to Beaumont, TX

Published on January 24, 2007 in photos and travel. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

January 18, 2007

Riding with Anya was a blast and made the miles go by faster. She’s such a minimalist… her backpack is 1/3 the size of my stuff, but then again she’s not camping either or going west of Austin into the cold cold desert.

We ate breakfast at some trucker type restaurant in Starks, LA called the Silver Dollar. It was dark inside (tinted windows) and had mirrors on all of the walls. Pink neon signs hung over the bathrooms and the main seating area. I couldn’t decide if I was in a strip club or 1982 again. Or both. The breakfast was good (mmm… grits, bacon, eggs, sausage, biscuit) and we were both totally recharged for the final haul into Texas.

Crossing over the state line, we couldn’t resist the temptation to take a few pictures.

Anya and I arrived at Jamie’s around mid afternoon. Jamie showed us around and told us to make ourselves at home, then she went back to work for a couple hours. She’s a reporter for the local Beaumont paper.

I brought my gear upstairs to the 2nd floor apartment. It’s really cute and old (early 20th century), with most of the original sinks, fixtures, hardwood floors, etc. Jamie’s co-worker, Jennifer, lives in the adjacent apartment and that’s where Anya is sleeping.

After unpacking my things, I checked my email, took a shower, and relaxed. Anya went next door and took a nap. Jamie soon came home from work with food and a plan. The three of us cooked dinner: a roasted vegetable salad with homemade dressing, and sauteed veggies over pasta. Jamie’s other co-workers, Ryan and Becky, also joined us for dinner.

Anya at the Texas State Line

Me at the Texas State Line

Anya and Me at Texas
Not long after we finished eating, I was fast asleep on the couch.

Day 15: Elton, LA to Lake Charles, LA

Published on January 18, 2007 in travel. 1 Comment Tags: , .

January 17, 2007

There were a lot of strange metal towers (more like 3 story high rectangles) sandwiched between the road and the railroad tracks on Hwy 190. I don’t know what they are, but I think they’re something to do with agriculture. Maybe they store grain there, and load it onto the trains as they pass by.

Despite how unhealthy it probably was, I stopped at McDonald’s for an early lunch. $3 and three double cheeseburgers later I thought, If I wasn’t about to burn this off it’d probably kill me. But damn it was good.

I made great time to Lake Charles. Jacob picked me up in his truck (yeah, I was at Burger King eating Whoppers again). That’s where I met Anya, another biker going across the country. She’s from Brooklyn and is a professional stilt performer. Awesome. Jacob set us up in an RV camper thing in his yard and even gave us a laptop to use for email and such.

When Jacob returned from class, we ate dinner at McAllister’s cafe, got some beers, and went back to the camper to share travel stories. Anya is really interesting. She has been biking and hitchhiking her way from NYC to Austin, TX since November, including a 3-week stay in New Orleans where she helped gut houses in the lower 9th ward.

Anya’s originally from Moscow, but moved to the U.S. when she was 10. She’s got tons of interesting stories to tell, both from the last 2 months on the road, and from her life in general. Plus she has six tattoos, including one of a bike, a hammer, a finger moustache, and a needle and thread. Her bike is a Trek 720, but she doped it up with deer antlers on the handlebars and fake fur on the frame tubes. Hilarious.

We’re biking together to Beaumont, TX tomorrow and staying at couchsurfer Jamie’s place. It will be nice to share the road with someone else for a day.

Day 14: Port Barre, LA to Elton, LA

Published on January 18, 2007 in travel. 0 Comments Tags: , .

January 16, 2007

It didn’t rain much today like the weather report had forecasted. I stopped at a corner store to get out of the rain and talked to a hunter about my trip. He said wants to drive to Colorado this summer, but his wife hates driving, so he doesn’t know what he’s going to do (but I can guess).

At this point I was out of spare tubes, but luckily Wal-Mart was 3 miles down the road. I bought 4 spares. Thanks Wal-Mart. And thank you Burger King for my unlimited coupons for free Whoppers.

When I passed through Basile, LA I stopped at a gas station to take a break. The cashier was the town mayor and she said “baby” a lot. Such as “Your parents think you’re crazy, don’t they, baby?” and “It’s gonna be cold tonight, baby, you’re gonna freeze.” She gave me a free cup of hot chocolate. Yum.

One crazy thing I saw today was a huge flock of black birds flying in formation. There must have been at least 300 of them, making all kinds of patterns and waves in the sky, like perfect choreography. Then I remembered seeing the same thing on the news, except it was about California. The tag line said “SIGNS OF BIRD FLU?”

I camped in an empty lot behind a burned down house. Wrote lots of postcards, and since the post office was a block up the road, I mailed them the next morning.