Day three: Lufkin to Jacksonville
Today we woke up about 6am and got on the road around 7am, with the initial destination being Rusk but with a goal of reaching Jacksonville in order to increase the mileage from 44 up to about 60 miles. After a nights rest in a bed, plus an actual dinner, I think we were both feeling better rested. The skies were grey, and the temperature surprisingly pleasant and even cool. We moved pretty smoothly and quickly northwards on 69. Of concern early on was Laurel's back brake, which was not stopping properly. Another concern is the strange cyclic clicking that my bike is making every time I pedal.
In any case, we found ourselves enjoying the morning segment of our ride, and very grateful for the mild temperatures. At first the road was busy, but eventually quieted down and passes through lush countryside, homes, cows, and horses even it was still a wide major highway. It is also increasingly hilly. The first section had long gradual climbs and about even descents to keep us rolling along. The more we neared Rusk, there were some especially looong climbs (in my opinion) and I was trudging away at the lowest gears, barely inching upwards. But they still felt much better than the day before, when I was running on absolute empty. Although I was undeniably slow up the hills, and they were a struggle, they felt manageable and more under control for me. The downhills were fun, of course. Of note was that I believe we were passing through an area of Caddo (indigenous culture) mounds, which would have been very interesting to stop at if we had seen a sign to turn to them. I will have to add more information on them by looking them up later. There were definitely some very large hills that rose up in this area, green and forested, and it seemed like we came up rather high.
Just as we surmounted another especially long climb, just coming towards the top, Laurel's back tire went flat and we pulled off to the side. There was a small red dirt road into the forest, perhaps a trail or small private road. This was more sheltered from traffic. Here, Laurel removed her gear since it was the back tire, took of the tire, and successfully changed the tube. She had not had a flat on those tires, and so they were quite old tubes, but I was surprised nonetheless by how well the held up for so long. We were only 3.5 miles from Ruskin at this point and set again on our way. We stopped in Ruskin for an actual lunch (subway) and to access their public wifi.
Next we were on our way to Jacksonville. Unfortunately the otherwise reliable and wide shoulder basically disappeared for most of the section from Ruskin to Jacksonville. This was probably the most stressful and frankly frightening part of our journey thus far, clinging desperately to the edge of the roads. At least it was two lanes, and traffic almost always moved over to the left lane for us. We also surprisingly got no angry honks at all (a relief). They traffic was not especially heavy, but there were still semis, and the speed limit was FAST. When we finally came to the bottom of a long hill, reaching the return of the glorious shoulder, we both felt that we had seen our life flash before our eyes (as Laurel described the experience). We headed in to Jacksonville, a rather large town, and for one of the first times in my life went to walmart. We got a bunch of snacks and chocolate milk-- quickly becoming a delicious staple.
Just after eating our snacks and turning out of the parking lot Laurels back tire went flat again. This was very surprising, as she put a whole new tube only some 20 miles previously. It must have just even bad luck. She pumped some air into her tire, as it was loosing air rather slowly, and we started the last 5 miles towards the RV park we would be camping at just outside of Jacksonville. (Twin Pines? Something like this). It has a lot if longer term mobile home residents, and we are the first to ever come through and camp on bikes (that aren't motorcycles). There were foreboding clouds coming in, so we set up the tent quickly in an RV spot to the back. While sitting and eating dinner on small table near a swing set, little kids one by one appeared around us -- curious about us. First a little girl (maybe 6 years old?) ran last to the swing set, then peeked at us from behind a tire swing. Eventually, she said hello. And then came an adorable six year old boy named Hank, who talked to us about all manner of things, and showed of all the tricks he could do and how far he could jump. Next came his brother Kenneth, followed by his 14 year old sister Ann. And then a mom and her young child, Malachie. And then a boy of around fourteen names Evan. We were surrounded by kids, all asking questions about the things we had on the table, like a towel and a tire tube, chatting about airplane movies and spider man, and even getting us to push them on swings. Their mom came out eventually to make sure they weren't bothering us. Quite the contrary, they were very endearing! Their family is living in the RV park and have been for about a month, but will have to relocate soon. They seem to have fallen on tough times, and I wished that I was wealthy and could give them all bikes, as they mentioned theirs had been stolen and they did not have one.
Eventually, we returned to the tent and Laurel tried her best to repair her bike. She struggled valiantly with the brakes, and the frustrating tire tube which kept loosing air. In the meantime, the young boy Evan chatted with us, told us about his guns and bike repairs and atvs, and the national mud race grounds that are just down the road. This seems like such an awesome kid as far as his independence, and his knowledge of all manners of repairs. Such a cool young guy! I biked around with him up the road to a church and back, and while Laurel worked hard on her bike, I conversed with Evan as he did fast turns on his mountain bike. His dad and him live at this RV park during the summer for his dad's work as a welder--hard, hard work, and you can see the mentality of hard work that his son has inherited. He also told me all about hunting rabbits (and various other creatures) and how to eat them-- he can hunt and cook them all on his own! I'm very impressed!!
We then met two youngish men, one from Tennessee, who are here for work. They were really interested and excited about our ride, and wanted to learn more about our motivations. They were super impressed with the trip, and even the distance we've covered from Houston. They also offered their help in the form of tools if we need any, and gave us their advice and their input. Really lovely to meet them! Laurel also had a chance to talk more with the parents of the younger kids after she showered and I was back at the tent repacking after moving the tent-- apparently where we were gets flooded with sewage when it rains. The parents said that there are a lot of people who work on the pipeline construction living here temporarily. Some of whom have to drive up to two hours to work daily. These jobs only last a short time, sometimes weeks. It will be very interesting if we get a chance to hear their experiences!
The next morning, the young boy Evan had woken up at 6am (he had asked when we would wake up that evening) and had made coffee for us! I don't drink coffee but Laurel loves it. It was so kind of him! We had an extra surprise when he biked with us up the road a short ways.