Day 39 - Shepherd to Silsbee

Pan flat today, and lots of green. Passed through "The Big Thicket" before lunch. The thicket is a very densely forested region in East Texas. I think it would be pretty spooky at night. There's even a ghost road where the spirits of old conquistadors wander about looking for gold, or it could just be car headlights filtering through the trees, decide for yourself, I'm going with conquistadors.

Texans that lives in the Thicket during the civil war refused to fight for the confederacy and we're known as Jayhawkers (like the Kansas Jayhawkers). Although the Thicket Jayhawkers did not fight like the Kansas Jayhawkers. The Thicket Jayhawkers hid in the area around Honey Island because of the bee hives in the area. They would collect the honey and trade it with sympathizers for supplies. The Confederates unsuccessfully tried to burn them out.

Skipped breakfast this morning, but had a really good bacon cheese burger at the general store / restaurant in Honey Island and signed the log book the proprietor keeps for cyclists. I noticed that the three med students we met at the sand dunes in CA passed through here 10 days ago. We better pick up the pace, they're probably done by now.

The rest of the day was easy enough and uneventful. Stopped for a root beer float at another Dairy Queen and rode off to the Red Cloud RV park to camp. Dinner of supermarket roast chicken and broccoli.

During dinner Jerry pulled out his original itinerary, looks like we're about a day ahead of schedule. We made up the day we lost in San Diego and the extra rest day in Scottsdale. Looks like we're doing okay.

Not my favorite camping spot of the trip. The mosquitos are really bad so we retreated to our tents right after dinner. It's also pretty noisy (trains, which are okay, and nearby freeway traffic and music from a club down the street, which are not) and bright (lots of overhead lights). I got lucky when I set up my tent, none if the lights shine directly in my eyes. On the bright side, it gave me a chance to catch up with my blog entries.