For the rest of the day that led me out of Louisiana, I lagged behind the storm that seemed bent on keeping me from home. It was doing a good job of impeding my progress. I finally made it across the Texas border at Toledo Bend, into Milam, Texas. No sooner than I made it across the border, the downpour started. I wasn't going to ride in rain I couldn't see in; plus, my tires were balding at this point. I parked Pandora on the side of the road and hunkered down under a large pine tree, using my raincoat like an umbrella. I figured I would be there a while, so I pulled the Scotch out of my pack and took it to the tree with me. I had music in my headphones, a little Scotch, cigarettes and was relatively dry with the rain jacket. Life was good! I was getting close to home and when the rain stopped...would the rain ever stop?
Soon a truck stopped and a gentleman invited me to come to a building down the road "where a couple bikers were holed up". I decided to take him up on the offer. I got back on the bike, started it up, and started to ease into the street when my bike slipped out from under me and pinned me underneath. I couldn't move the bike off me, but a trucker and another civilian had seen it and rushed to lift Pandora off my leg.
I had a slight sprain, but the shoes I was wearing saved me from any serious injury. I started the bike and eased it down the road to the shelter which had been offered. I was now soaking wet, had lost my nice wrap-around glasses in the spill, but I was still ok. As I settled down and began to unpack some dry clothes, anoher gentleman pulled up and backed his truck under the carport I was parked under. As it turned out, the gentleman was the nephew of the guy who had build that particular building back in the 40's. Cordray was his name, and he hung out with me there til after dark before heading home. He told me I was welcome to stay under the shelter if I wanted. I thanked him and unpacked the rest of my stuff...I was staying the night as the rain never let up.
The next morning I packed early and headed down the road. Somewhere down from Milam I stopped at a Shell truck stop for morning coffee and to charge all of my geek tools...phone, mp3 player, laptop etc. Special thanks to that Shell station attendant for letting me charge all of my tools for the road. That polish sausage sandwich was a nice breakfast also! I would certainly make it home to Houston today!
While the tools charged and I ate that sausage sandwich, I watched in amazement as a group of dragonflies had a "dogfight" in the air above the laundry. The zoomed around each other with amazing speed and agility. I thought of our war planes, and all of the money and engineering talent that went into them, how proud we were of those war planes like the F-16, and yet, these dragonflies could easily outmaneuver an F-16 or any other plane we pited against them. I was highly amused...Glory be to The Creator! It looked like the rain might have passed finally! I was rested, fed, and all of my geek tools were charged up. I headed on down the road ahead, still exhilirated by the ride, but getting slightly road weary.
The road between Milam and Lufkin was a nice rolling 2-lane with few cars, mostly trucks at that hour. I was still taking it easy, as the roads had the last vestiges of moisture from the rain on them, and I was aware that my rear tire was quite slick...a fact driven home by my first spill the night before and the slight pain in my left ankle from the bike landing on it. I was so blessed to have made it this far. I was just a "geek with a bike" as I told people, not even a real biker. At this point however, I was beginning to feel like a biker...in fact, I may have started to look like one. What do you think?
Up the road a piece I had the feeling that I was supposed to stop at this little convenience store on the right. Not sure why I stopped other than that feeling...I didn't need gas or the restroom and had stopped like 20 miles prior. Did I mention I was trying to let "the path" unfold in front of me? The whole spiritual aspect of the journey would take me too long to describe here on the blog, so anyone interested in that side of my thinking and experience on the ride will just have to read the book. Stay tuned for more on the book in a few weeks...Still writing that.
At any rate, while seated on the curb drinking some coffee (yes, I drank A LOT of coffee on the trip) a nice gentleman named in a truck stopped to ask if I was ok or just taking a break. I want to take a brief moment to thank all of the people I met this way on the trip. Probably 20 or more people I met on the trip were people who pulled up when I had stopped to ask if everything was ok...bikers, car riders, truck drivers...people really care. It was refreshing.
After I told the guy my "elevator pitch" about the ride, he said, "If you are riding for charity, you should meet the folks from Brother's Keepers Church, the perfect church for those who aren't, and the guys who run Cycle Heaven in Lufkin." I said, "Sure, I'd love to" He started giving me directions from there, and I must have had that lost look in my eyes, because he asked if I'd like to follow him over there. I agreed and he took my coffee in his truck and I followed him through Lufkin to Cycle Heaven where I met the Brother's Keepers motorcycle club with church affiliation. Very interesting. I should also mention that I met a large number of Christian bikers while on this trip.
Billie and his friends at Cycle Heaven all had interesting stories, which I won't share right now, as I need to ask them first. Let's say that they have all been down some winding roads before they found Christ.
I had some flash images of Jesus on a motorcycle, riding happy with his hair flowing behind him. I know...I'm weird. Get on a bike and ride 6000 miles with your heart and mind open and you might get a little "weird" too :)
One of the guys at Cycle Heaven came busting into the shop, having run an errand and caught in some rain on the way back to the shop. I asked him where he came in from and he said north and that it was coming this way. I quickly finished my last story for the guys and said I needed to make tracks southward before the rain caught up with me...I was determined that the rain was NOT going to keep me from home. I had less than 2 hours riding left!
I left Lufkin feeling like I had just had yet another "experience" that had significance beyond my understanding. The way the events played out unexpectedly. Perhaps it was as simple as the source of inspiraton for the Twiter message I sent out upon leaving Cycle Heaven using the above picture of their patch...
"Am I my Brother's Keeper? Are you? Prove it!! Donate to the charities we support with the 4500 Mile Ride for Charity!"I gased up for the second to last time outside of Lufkin and ran down 59S towards Houston. I was being cautious as the store owner warned me that there would be alot of police out that day on 59S. I thanked him and the old lady who was admiring Pandora when I went outside and took off. Somewhere along 59S I saw a sign for Livingston and Huntsville. I thought that would be perfect...ride by Lake Livingston and cut over to Huntsville on 45S and make it home. Pandora was now running like a horse to water, eager to get to the house. I have to admit I was growing weary of riding myself. It had been 2 months since I had been home.
I soon reached Lake Livingston and stopped to take some pictures along the way. I thought about visiting y friend Terry Westcott at Lake Livingston who had just returned from Iraq, but I was in a hurry to get home, and wasn't particularly presentable, having been "living on the road" for the past 4 days or so. I decided to ride through.
While leaving this lake and riding down the road, it was sunny and beautiful! Birds flew by, buterflies were out, and then a bee flew down my shirt while I was riding and stung my back. I tried not to react while riding, having heard a story alon the road about a guy who had a bee fly into his helmet and while he reacted to it he crashed into he abutment of a bridge and died. I wasn't going to be a casualty! I pulled the Pandora over and ripped my shirt off! Motorists passing by honked their horns!
the bee sting turned out to be minimal, so I checked the shirt for bees, pu it back on and re-mounted Pandora and rode throught the woods to I-45. Once on 45 I took my last two breaks, one at a rest stop so I could cool Pandora off a bit. It was a HOT Texas day at this point, and I had been running pretty hard down 45. After my last cup of Joe on the road, I rode the last hour home and unpacked immediately, spreading everything out on the driveway to air it out. Much of my gear contained moisture from the previous two days of rain. I had stopped to get a couple cold Shiner Bock beers, which I slowly enjoyed as I picked through my belongings and surveyed the damage that happens when you leave your home for 2 months. Next I would begin the process of checking the mail, the bills and trying to figure out what was next. I backed up all of the data from the trip to a separate storage device, and unloaded the remaining 300 or so pictures from my camera and phone.
Standing in my driveway, drinking a Shiner Bock and surveying the stuff I had been living with for the past 2 months I felt rather surreal. I had been living a fairly humble existence on the road for 2 months and now I was back in my nice, quiet, suburban neighborhood. I was back to run Winchester Research, or get a job? Whatever I would do, I would write a book, a book to tell about the adventure...a book to share the spiritual experiences I had on the second leg of the rip...a book to share the social media fundraising experiment and hopefully motivate others to do similar projects. This blog is the beginning of that book.
