U-TURNS

May 1 - Cleveland to Silsbee, TX - 70 miles

The mileage added up as we did a couple of U-turns at the end of the day. Sigh. As a driver in a car, Rusty has been known as "The U-Turn King" in the past. He is a great navigator and has a fantastic sense of direction and with a few quick turns we're on our way. U-Turns on the bike take on a different meaning when you've ridden six miles out of the way and have to go back. Let's see, at 12mph that's an extra hour of riding. We had intended to ride only to Kountze but a young man at the grocery store in that town gave us a really short estimation of mileage to the nearest motel which resulted in a U-Turn and a good decision. We decided to go on to Silsbee since we knew for sure there was a motel there. It's interesting how you get your mind set to do a certain amount of miles and then when you have to do more than that it takes some real mental coaxing.
It was a good day of riding, however we did share the road a lot with logging trucks. But no significant hills, overcast skies, and not much wind. Rusty says that days like this can be harder because you keep pedaling and don't have the excuse to get off the bike as much.
The motel we stayed in...the first one we came to...gave Georgia an eerie feeling. It was under major remodeling and the only other people there appeared to be construction workers. It wasn't quite The Bates Hotel but really odd. The extra mileage at the end of the day brought some tired muscles and we had a good nights sleep.

Side note: Along the way to Kountze we were stopped by a flagger for road construction. We chatted and after answering the usual question of how far we had ridden and the young man responded "Fifty miles! I don't want to go fifty miles in a car.!"
Another side note: After visiting with one of the construction workers at the motel in Silsbee and answering his questions about our ride he said: "I'll bet you don't smoke." He's right, of course.