The Ride of a Lifetime Continued: Day 27 (Kirbyville, TX to Oberlin, LA)

One day short of two weeks, that's how long it took us to ride across Texas. This morning at 9AM we crossed the Sabine River and the border of Louisiana. The ride was extremely flat today, I don't believe the Garmin,s reported -2 ft.elevation low, maybe closer to 20 ft. We passed a lot of tree farms and cattle ranches today, not many homes as spectacular as the Texas ranch homes. It is also surprising how many of the Texas properties have a large stonework entry at the fence, and Louisiana has gates, nothing fancy, just gates.

The breeze was nice today, about 5 to 10 mph and in our faces all day. We pushed all the way to Oberlin, although it has no motels or services. Then father brought us back to DeRidder where there is a nice motel (the Stagecoach Inn) which we will call home until Saturday morning. Then father will take us back to Oberlin and we will be on our way again.

We had heard from other cyclists the the road east out of Kirbyville was pretty nasty, with no shoulders and lots of logging truck traffic. While I have to say that those two assessments are accurate, the ride was not at all bad. The truckers gave us a lot of room, slowing for us and taking the other lane, waving, and generally courteous. While there was no shoulder, we rode just inside of the white line on good pavement with no problems. Rick and Dee's two wheel trailer might take up a little more space, but I don't see a real big deal. And that is only a short section about 17 miles along highway 363.

Tonight's dinner was at the Chinese Buffet. The restaurant is located about a mile north of 190 on 171, as are many restaurants and Skipper's motel (highly recommended by Jeff Skinner, our most recent westbound traveler). Dinner was $34 for 3 people, not bad for all you can eat .

So now there is a rest day for laundry, shopping, and resting our tired and sore rear ends. A couple of photos today.