Lets talk about day one...on day 3

I'm writing this from Galveston at the Harbor House Hotel.  Since Friday, I've ridden over a thousand miles of mostly coastal roads.  I've lost count of how many towns I've seen and I'm only a third of the way done.

Due to the fact that my phone has let me down in some critical ways, this is the first chance I've had connectivity to post a blog.  I'm going to try and do better about posting these on the same day or at least only 1 day after.  Still, I realized that the trips take a lot longer than I had planned and damn near every hour of the day is filled with some task.  This is okay.  I’m really happy with the way things have worked so far.  It’s just bigger than I thought.  It’s demanding more from me than I expected.

One of the effects is that not all of the pictures will be my own.  Most will and I’ll point out the ones that I’ve shamelessly pulled from Google images.  If you don’t see the citation, it means I took the picture.

Now, onto Day 1:

Day 1: Houston to South Padre Island

’m happy to say that today was pretty uneventful.  I made it from home to South Padre with very few problems.  Took about 9 hours total trip time.  Pretty much what I figured.

There was one scary moment.  I am pretty sure that I rode through a small dust devil.  It was just north of Raymondville.  I was riding along when it felt like a big hand pushed the whole bike toward the gravel shoulder.  The handlebars were unresponsive and all I could see was sand.  It was rough enough to flip the visor of my helmet up (this has never happened before).  I revved the throttle and bent over the tank to get the bike back under control.  I missed the gravel shoulder by inches.  Scared the shit out of me.  I watched the sides of the road for the rest of the trip just in case.

Borrowed Image: This wasn’t the one I rode through.  Mine was probably his younger cousin Pablo”  In any case, the little bastard almost kicked my ass.

This was the longest day I have ever spent on a motorcycle.  Other than being cold as hell this morning, it wasn’t really that much different from a car trip.  Today was the third longest day of the trip.  It’s good to know that this schedule is doable.  You never know until you try.

Regarding the scenery…

There is a certain tyranny to places with pretty highways.  They don’t play fair.  I was thinking of this most of the way down 77 to South Padre.  I’ve been through several towns lately and I catch myself judging the town by the way it looks from the road.  This is kind of ironic because my hometown of Houston (which I love dearly) looks like shit from I-10.  There are some lovely places in Houston.  Tons of public parks and a million things to do.  It’s a very livable city and I don’t plan to ever live anywhere else.

 Highway 77, not Abu Dhabi

So, as I drove the desert like corridor of 77, I thought to myself, what a shithole.  But then, I thought, “No wait, there are ranches all along here.  Those layouts must be amazing.  There is probably some really neat private acreage just off this highway.”  I’ll never see these places but I imagine they exist. So, no more judging towns by their highways.

Also, if you look you can find something cool about every stretch of highway. 

I really like the bigass wind turbines along 77.  They were several miles away but they are so huge that you can see them easily from the highway.  They look so graceful through the haze.  Kind of like big waving giants.  Kind of cool in a titanic way.

The end-game though was South Padre and last few miles of the trip did not disappoint.  I didn’t get any pictures of Padre from a distance but I will say that it looks really impressive as you cross the bay.

The hotel is a hell hole but in a good, honest way.  It’s old.  It’s representative of the time it was built.  It’s like an aging somebody who decided to get right with the wrinkles instead of having a doctor stretch their face into a permanent rictus grin.  I’m old enough to have visited this hotel when she was new and special.  I didn’t, but I can imagine it. This old girl is okay by me.  Still, I wish they would steam clean the carpets because they felt buttered.

I couldn’t stay in the room very long.  Down to the really cool park at the southern-most tip of the island.

I was struck by how much this place looks like Galveston.  The water is the same color (sorry folks, today the water on the beach actually looked browner that what I usually see in Galveston).  Same skanky ass seaweed.  Same wildlife.  Same beauty.  Felt like home.

But we definitely do not have beach Jesus.

You guys know that this is not my thing but the statue was beautiful and the base was made of big blocks of granite.  The blocks had inscriptions of names and people had left flowers and saints candles next to some of the names.  Guess I’m not the only one who feels a spiritual connection to the coast.

Still I prefer the buddy Christ.

  

As beautiful as this park was, it was really the only place I felt like taking pictures.  I really like it here.  The bay is prettier than the one in Galveston.  The water is blue-green and lovely in the sunlight.  I hate to draw comparisons but the two towns are so much like it is unavoidable.  At the end of the day, Galveston with its historic beauty and miles of accessible coastline wins hands down with me.  South Padre just doesn't seem like a town in its own right.  Of course this is one hurried ass day talking.  Given more time my opinion could easily change.  

There is so much more I want to write.  So many thoughts, feelings and ideas that I had along the way.  I think that is going to be a common problem for the next few days.  I'll capture what I can.  Maybe, I’ll do a post ride summary that captures all the incidental stuff.  In any case, that’s a job for May.  Today is April 20 and I need to go ride now.  See you later.