WEEK 1

Rough Starts & Smooth Ends

Hello, all! This is my first weekly summary of my first bicycle tour as the Epic Bearded Biker! Some of you may not know me, so an introduction is in order.

My name is Nathan Watts. I'm currently 22 years old, and I grew up in the suburbs of Houston, TX. Although I'm now in the midst of a self-supported, solo bicycle tour covering thousands of miles, I didn't have a previous interest in cycling until I decided earlier this year to take a break from college and travel while I could. After all, when else in my life will I have as little holding me down in one place as I do now?

So, here I am! After (only) months of preparation and training, I'm now following the Southern Tier bicycle route established by the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA). The whole route stretches from California to Florida, but I just hopped on the route north of Houston near Shepherd, TX, and then headed east. My first day, however, I had to plan my own route, so let me tell you about that.

DAY 1 – MON, 9/26/11

I started my 1st bicycle tour, dubbed "The Epic Southeast Loop," from Kingwood, TX with warm weather and a self-mapped route to follow. I was nervous, anxious, and excited all at once, and the only thing I could do about it was get on the road!
 

(Note: Click on any picture in my blog to view the full-sized image!)

Using Google maps, I planned my route to avoid highways and instead take farm-to-market and country roads. For the most past, this worked great. I was rewarded with scenic views while riding on well-paved roads with little traffic. For example, FM 1010 took me north while giving me partial shade and a shoulder to ride on.
 

Country Road 2201, however, was a different story. It started out paved, fooling me into thinking it was a good route. After awhile, though, it turned into gravel. And after that – SAND. Deep, dry, shifty sand.
 

Yup, that deep, weaving trail you see is mine, made by my loaded touring bicycle and 145 pounds of my own unhelpful mass. I somehow managed to grind through it all at a grueling pace around 5mph. The lesson learned from this experience is to always make sure I KNOW the pavement conditions of the roads I plan to take!

That evening, I stayed the night at Shepherd Sanctuary, a campsite that was marked on my ACA maps and charged very little for a place to pitch a tent along with full access to their kitchen and (best of all) awesome shower!!
 

Even though it was only my first day, riding through a road of sand made me really thankful for that shower. I was even treated to an amazing home-cooked meal of chicken & rice with gravy, cheese, and a salad!
 

The facilities themselves were amazing, too. The barn that I set my tent next to was filled with odd decorations everywhere I looked!
(Note: These next two pictures were taken the next morning.)
 

Most eye-catching, though, were the piles of Halloween decorations strewn about outside the barn as if they had just been dragged out of graveyards and ghost stories.
 

Some of them were eerily life-like.
 

I had a great experience at Shepherd Sanctuary, and was very happy to meet Peach, Connie, and Laurie, who work/live there. Peach runs the place for the most part, and I got a chance to ask her some questions about the place. They originally started the place as a family camp, but after seeing a lot of cyclists pass through the area, Peach eventually asked and found out that the ACA Southern Tier route goes right by their place. So she contacted ACA, and that got Shepherd Sanctuary marked on the maps! Obviously, they've had many more bicycle tourists come stay with them since then.

DAILY TOTALS:
Distance: 51.9 miles

Average Speed: 12.8 miles per hour
Riding Time: 4 hours 2 minutes

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DAY 2 – TUE, 9/27/11

My new alarm clock, the sun, woke me up nice and early the next morning. However, I took my time that morning to carefully double-check all my gear, give my bike a good cleaning, and eat a nice breakfast. I probably took too long with all that, as I actually didn't leave Shepherd Sanctuary until around noon, but I was still learning just how to pack everything effectively, so it was fine for my second day.
 

Getting on the road again, today was much easier then my first day since I was now following the official Adventure Cycling Association route. All I had to do was follow directions and I knew I'd be taken through nice scenery on nice roads!
 

My second day had me passing through small towns with small churches.
 

Sometimes the road signs would confuse me, but as long as I followed my map, I was fine.
 

The highlight of the day, though, came riding to me! While I was sitting at the intersection of 787 & 146, I hear someone shout, “Hey!” and look up to see another bicycle tourist coming up to meet me! He had me follow him across the street to Lona's Cookie Jar Cafe, where he had been eating a meal and spotted me.

His name is Josh, and he's on a bicycle tour heading out from Columbus, OH. Just like me, he's riding a Surly Long Haul Trucker! Looks like he's not as loaded down with gear as I am, though; lucky guy.

The other part of this story that just makes it more awesome is that two separate people had bought him meals before I arrived! Since he couldn't eat both, he graciously gave me the other one. Yum!

Josh's beard is quite more epic then mine! But, hey, I'm just starting out here! The longer the journey, the longer the beard...

Anyway, best of luck to you, Josh! Check out his blog: http://joshuahispsher.blogspot.com

As the day drew to an end, I was trying to figure out where I would stay for the night. The answer came when a came up to a house with a large yard and saw a few people out front working on a (motor)bike. I decided I should try my luck, went up to them, and asked if I could pitch my tent in their front yard. Not only did I get permission, but they ran an extension cord to my tent and let me use their restroom! Thanks a million to the Kelly's for your kindness!

DAILY TOTALS:

Distance: 32.1 mi

Avg Speed: 12.1 mph
Riding Time: 2 hr 39 min

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DAY 3 – WED, 9/28/11

The next morning allowed me to get a good look around the Kelly's beautiful yard. Although I got up with the sunrise, the entire family was gone to work and school even earlier!

I did get a chance to really meet the dogs, though. And I also got a look and some of the cool antiques and designs around the place.

Thanks again to the Kelly's!

For most of the day, my route took me down SR 1293, a long, straight, level stretch of beauty lined with forests, flowers, and farms.

Before mid-day, I made it to Honey Island, a small little town with a paradise-sounding name (they do sell local honey!).

My route then took my through Kountze, but instead of stopping to eat there, I pushed on to Silsbee, were I got a real American meal. Can you say, a-BIG-MAC??

I had been told that Silsbee isn't a very nice place, but I found it quite welcoming! In fact, a group of elderly people sitting next to me at McDonald's happily asked me questions about my trip and even gave me a little pin to “remember our fine city.”

After Silsbee, I decided to shoot for Kirbyville. I took a few much-needed breaks, but even still, I was exhausted.

Eventually, I made it to Kirbyville, rolled up to the first church I saw with people outside, and immediately got permission to set up camp under their outside pavilion!

After talking with Jason and David at Central Baptist Church, it was clear that they were used to cyclists coming through and staying with them. That's what happens when you're right on an Adventure Cycling Association route! In fact, it became clear that many of the people I was meeting were familiar with bicycle tourists, as the standard first question I'm asked is, “So, where ya from and where ya headed?” My standard answer is: “I'm from north Houston and I'm heading to the East Coast!”

After getting my tent set up and washing some things with a garden hose, I was received a dinner from Jason, who gave me his homemade leftovers of “cowboy stew.”

Thanks to everyone at Central Baptist Church for letting me stay the night!

DAILY TOTALS:
60.4 mi
Avg 13.8 mph
4 hr 21 min

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DAY 4 – THU, 9/29/11

This was my last day in Texas. I quickly turned east in the morning and headed for Louisiana. I crossed the Sabine River and the border before midday

Distance ridden in TX: 165.0 mi.

After that, I quickly made it to Merryville, LA, where I had a greasy lunch of fried chicken and mashed potatoes.

By the time I exited the restaurant, it felt like the temperature outside had risen by at least 10 degrees... Celsius!! Nevertheless, I had to keep going, but it was a long, straight, and very hot stretch of road to DeRidder, where I hoped to find a place to stay for the night.

By the time I made it to DeRidder, it was no longer scorching hot. In fact, half the sky was overcast, blocking the sun. Somehow, it seemed like the combination of a hot afternoon with a cool, dark evening made me very tired and kinda depressed.

Since DeRidder was a relatively large city, I ate at a Wendy's for dinner and got some supplies at a Walgreens. At both places, things moved real slow, whether they were having trouble using my gift card or indulging a coupon-crazy customer by ringing up just a few items at a time. None of this helped my frustration with how things were going.

I mulled over my options for awhile, and eventually made plans to stay at an RV park since it was getting dark quickly. I wasn't really looking forward to it, but I had to do something.

On my way there, I decided to go off route on what I hoped would be a shortcut. While I was trudging along, a white car pulled along side me with its window rolled down. “Hey, there!” came a voice from inside the car, “You have a place to stay tonight?” I looked over to see an older man and a teenaged boy. I told them about my plans to stay at the RV park, and they asked if I'd like to stay inside their church instead. The key word there is “INSIDE.” I accepted the offer, hopped back on the ACA route and covered a few more miles east to reach Friendship Baptist Church. It got dark enough for me to turn my lights on, but the promise of a soft couch to sleep on kept me going! And as I covered those last few miles, I thought about all the little things that allowed this offer to become a reality. If I hadn't been delayed at the Wendy's and Walgreens, or if I had decided to stay on route instead of taking a shortcut, then that white car never would have rolled up to me! Thanks so much to “Brother Joe” Pool and his grandson Cameron for letting me sleep in their church's youth building that night!

(This picture was taken next morning.)

DAILY TOTALS:

52.8 mi
Avg 11.9 mph
4 hrs 25 min

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DAY 5 – FRI, 9/29/11

The next morning, Mr. Pool and his wife treated me to a hearty breakfast at a nearby restaurant. Before I left, I took some pictures of a fun, “Walk Through the Bible” mural inside the church's halls.

Since “Brother Joe” is a Southern Baptist preacher, he gave me his phone number and told me that if I ever had trouble finding a place to stay, I could give him a call and he would pull out his Baptist church directory and make some calls to arrange something! It's an amazing offer that I'll be sure to take advantage of if I ever find myself in a pinch. We then prayed for my journey, took a few pictures, and I was on my way refreshed and energized! Thanks so much to Bro. Joe Pool at Friendship Baptist Church for your incredible kindness! You really are a Godsend!

Getting a late start but with great weather, I hopped right onto Highway 26 and continued heading east.

As I rolled up to a small gas station to refill my ice water supplies, I smiled when I saw two other loaded touring bikes outside the store.

I walked inside and met John & Laura Crawford, a couple touring on “recumbent-styled” bikes along the whole Southern Tier route from FL to CA! They had a very sophisticated set up of gadgets and gizmos, kept running by a trickle of solar energy!

Good luck to John & Laura!
Check out their blog: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/crawford

The rest of the morning and early afternoon was nice as I continued down well-paved roads lined by trees. I passed through a few small towns with practically nothing in them, until I made it to Oberlin, where I refilled my water supplies for the last leg of my journey that day.

It was already almost 4:00pm, but I decided to push on. The next town was Mamou – 26 miles away. That's a long distance to cover in the three hours or less I had before it would start getting dark, but I believed I could do it. In fact, it probably could have been pretty easy, since the entire distance cut through nice, level farmlands. However, the problem I discovered with open farmlands is that there's nothing to stop even a gentle breeze from blowing against you and really slowing you down. I'd never thought I'd miss trees so much.

I found myself a nice side road into a grove of trees where I made up my first freeze-dried meal back to make a dinner of Louisiana Red Beans & Rice! It certainly had Cajan flavoring to it! That fueled me for the final stretch during dusk to make it to Mamou.

Once I arrived in town, it was once again getting dark fast, and I had no idea where I would sleep that night. So, I walked into the Mamou Police Department and asked if there was a safe place I could pitch a tent for the night. Much to my surprise, Rose, the receptionist/dispatcher, responded, “Well, we usually let cyclists stay here in the courtroom. Let me check with the chief, but he always says 'yes.'” And so, the chief said “yes,” Rose buzzed the door open, and I rolled out my sleeping bag to sleep inside the Mamou Police Station. Talk about a safe location!

I finished up the leftovers from my earlier dinner then got some much-needed rest.

DAILY TOTALS:

58.6 mi

Avg 11.9 mph
4 hrs 55 min

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DAY 6 – SAT, 9/30/11

In the morning, I explored the inside of the Police Department some. I discovered a hallway lined with old pictures of past officers and an “Interrogation Room” that's either never used, or employs... unusual methods.

Thanks again to the Mamou Police Dept. for letting me stay the night!

Before heading out, I explored Mamou a little and got some nice pictures of this nice town.

Back on the trail, I passed more farmlands before getting to Ville Platte, where I grabbed an early lunch and McDonald's and made further plans for the day.

The early afternoon took me through Chicot State Park, which was a welcome break from the dull scenery of open fields with no trees the break the headwinds.

After that, though, it was back to open fields with winds blowing against me.

I passed through Bunkie, bought myself a catfish po' boy, and decided to try for Cottonport for the night. I eventually made it there, but it was once again right before things were starting to get dark.

Earlier in the day, I had called ahead to a church in Cottonport to ask if I could pitch my tent in their church yard, but they never called me back. I tried biking around the area to see if I could scout out a good place, but nowhere really looked safe and secluded. I tried the fire station, but no one was there. While I was sitting there deciding what to try next, a patrol car came and stopped in the fire station parking lot. So, I rode up next to him, introduced myself, and asked if he knew a safe place nearby I could pitch my tent for the night. He got kind of a worried look, mumbling, “Hmm... a safe place to pitch a tent...” As we kept talking, another officer rolled up, and they proceeded to tell me that there probably wasn't anywhere in a 20 mile radius that would really be safe.

They had me follow them to the nearby police station, where Officer Scully made some phone calls and Officer Myou [not sure on spelling] ran my driver's license. Although they were already being quite friendly, I noticed that after they determined I wasn't a traveling drug dealer with a warrant, they got just a little bit nicer, started referring to me as “a nice young man,” and then really went out of their way to find me a safe place. Officer Scully even said that if they couldn't find anywhere for me to stay, he'd let me lay a sleeping bag in his office! But if they had arrests that night (which they probably would, according to them), they might have to bring people through there, so they preferred to find me someplace else.

Eventually, I followed Officer Scully across a nearby bridge, where I set up my tent in the back yard of another police officer, Dale. Officer Dale was a kind, soft-spoken man who recently retired his other line of work and then immediately joined the Cottonport Police Department. He and his wife are renovating the 1940's/50's house that they moved into. Dale assured me that I would be safe in his yard, pointing to all the street lights and saying that everyone nearby knows not to mess around on this side of the bridge. I set up my tent, and then Dale let me use his bath! Once again, I was blown away by the kindness of strangers.

Thanks again to the police officers of Cottonport for going out of their way to make sure I was safe for the night!

DAILY TOTALS:

55.2 mi

Avg 10.9 mph

5 hrs 3 min

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DAY 7 – 10/01/11

Even before embarking on my trip, I decided that I would take every Sunday off to attend a church, rest, and write a summary of the week's events. Following the suggestion of Officer Scully from the night before, I attended the Pentecostals of Cottonport church the next morning. Now, I usually don't worry too much about what denomination the church belongs to, but I'll admit that I walked in with the preconception that the service was going to be very, well, Pentecostal. If your not sure what that means, well, I guess I'm not sure either, because I've never pretended to understand Pentecostals.  From my experience so far, though, they're very nice people!

Anyway, the service started with worship, which was lead by a charismatic man who I later learned was a visiting leader from another Pentecostal church. The songs were long and made to inspire movement and shouts of praise and worship.

After a couple of songs, prayer requests were taken by a show of hands. It gave everyone a chance to have their needs heard and prayed for by the whole church, though you were free to provide as much or as little detail as you wanted, from taking a few minutes to explain the situation to simply saying, “unspoken [prayer request].” To close the time of prayer, people were invited to come to the front to be prayed over by the congregation. It was an emotional gathering.

Next, we returned to worship, now lead by the youth of the church, who sang along and provided sign language for more “contemporary Christian” songs – all of which were familiar to me!

Finally, Rev. Douglas Doyle came up to deliver a heartfelt message on raising our children. Speaking from the experience of raising three daughters, he stressed the importance of “bringing our children to Jesus” by teaching them what's right, while at the same time, protecting them from sin by correcting them in love. Many times he pointed out to the congregation what they were doing wrong, making it a hard message to accept. And that's the sign of a good message.

Since Officer Dale had introduced me to the pastor before the service, Rev. Doyle briefly told everyone about me and my bicycle touring a few times during the service (during the meet & greet time and announcements at the end). Because of that, I received many offers to go have lunch with the church members once the service ended. I accepted the first offer I received, and went to have homemade Lousiana gumbo with sausage, budon, and “hog head cheese.” It was all very good! Thanks to Diana & Johny Blaid for the meal!

For the rest of my day off, I intended to return to the Pentecostals of Cottonport church to work on my first weekly summary. Rev. Doyle already invited me to set up my tent on the church grounds that night, and he let me use his church office and WiFi, so I was set. However, I didn't get much done at all since I'm still finding my way around managing all my pictures and video along with writing up a cohesive summary. Also, the constant presence of friendly people from the church kept me involved in conversation about my trip and related topics. I realized that talking to people was more important, so that's what I did for most of the day.

Rev. Doyle let me use the church washing machine, as well, so with clean clothes packed and a rested body and spirit, I snuggled up in my warm sleeping bag for the increasingly colder night. I knew that when I woke up the next morning, I'd be ready to head out from Cottonport and into my second week!

DAILY TOTALS:
- Day of Rest -

WEEKLY TOTALS:
312.5 mi

Avg 12.2 mph

25 hrs 33 min

CUMMULATIVE TOTALS: 

(Same as Weekly Totals for this first week.)