From Texas, With Love

Carthage – Rusk, TX

Just a plain old nice day of biking. 

After yesterday’s ugly busy roads we didn’t get distracted with Gators and Friends or anything like that . . . We just followed the biking directions all the way here – and we ended up on beautiful lonely roads. 

It was a long day of riding but with the early start we didn’t bake too long in the afternoon sun. And after some mid-day re-shuffling of our packs we were able to bike together a lot more in the afternoon – which really helps make for better riding all around. 

As the day wore on Texas started to become more Texas-like. More open. More beef cattle. More Texas longhorns. And, really, nicer. Still some crazy yards filled with junk, but the houses and yards are generally more well-kept. My interpretation is that the constant influx of oil money helps buoy the whole economy. Which, by the way, might also explain why almost all the roads seem to be paved. Oil money and, as I understand it, asphalt is basically made of petroleum products – so why not? 

Diana figured out (correctly) that once we left Carthage, we would not go by any grocery stores all day. So we headed to the Brookshire in Carthage and picked up provisions for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow morning. Chicken barbecue skewers (frozen – ended up thawed perfectly by dinner time tonight – and the frozen-ness had the added bonus of keeping everything in the freezer bag cold for the day), along with asparagus, bag salad and rice pilaf. 

When we arrived at the campground we quickly figured out that there is a big Russian “festival” type thing happening here. Great for us. A Russian restaurant was here selling big plates of plov – an Uzbekistani rice dish. For $8 we had enough plov to forego cooking our own rice – which is fine – easy to save for later. 

The plov was amazing. Still made the chicken, asparagus and salad – improvising a “grill” where necessary . . . We continue to find firewood super easily – and everything is so dry it is all one-match fires . . . Very satisfying!

Now we’re sitting here in the perfect evening weather enjoying an amazing Russian band that is playing for the festival. Can’t understand any of the lyrics – despite my three years of Russian in high school. But, who cares? Can’t understand most English language bands either . . .

A little challenging to figure out a landing spot for tomorrow. Texas is so big that there seem to be some significant gaps without much there. Our tentative plan is to ride about 80 miles – probably our biggest day yet – in order to land at SJ’s RV Park. Probably not paradise – but what can you do? (There are no hotels, and the only other option seems to be Coleman Camping – which is basically a place where you rent old RVs and stay in them . . .)

If we can make SJs work we think we’ll land at College Station on Monday. Home of Texas A&M and the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library. Was, of course, not a huge fan of H.W. at the time, but after the Clinton Library we’re kind of into presidential libraries generally. And compared to the current brand of Republicans H.W. really does seem kind of quaint . . .

Late update . . . We went over to watch the bands a bit. I guess that was just the first of four or five bands. The guy we talked to said that he hopes the bands keep playing until 3 a.m. 

Who knew that Diana and I would be far more hip – going to concerts two times in one week, albeit in Shreveport and at a KOA in East Texas – than we ever are in Minneapolis? 

Oh, and by the way, in case you’re wondering, these Russians – who seem to have come from all over the U.S. – are apparently opposed to the war in Ukraine. The leader of the last band was wearing a shirt that said “We Stand With Ukraine,” and he was draped in a Ukrainian flag. 

Who knows? We might be partying with Thailanders tomorrow night at SJs? What should we pick up at the grocery store to complement Massaman Curry? On a serious note, any knowledge or research on College Station appreciated.