Day 282
Texas
Tom and I realised that the miles we are doing, in this heat and headwind, as we approached Texas, even the hills were starting to take their toll on us. Mark and Judy offered us a bed for a second night and a day watching the Oscars, but a tail wind and quieter roads on a Sunday combined for us to decide to do a short ride. We had a lazy morning, I used their phone to call home and speak to my mum as it’s Mother’s Day in the UK and Tom called his parents too.
Then off we went. Tom had spotted a wild camp spot in about 33 miles so that was our plan. We shopped at Piggly Wiggly for lunch. Which makes me think of a drunken party game that my dear friend All-Terrain-Lorraine loves. No, I don’t know the rules as you need to be drunk to play it! The staff at PW were fantastic, asking about our trip, screaming with awe and laughter as only girls from Louisiana can!
The short day was much appreciated but mentally we prepare for the mileage we do, so it still felt like a full day.
The highlight was entering Texas! Mark had prepared us. Just think of each State as a different country and you will be fine. With the new State came the hills. Rolling, but definitely hills, quite a shock after 1,500 or so completely flat miles so far in the USA. Everything seemed slightly unfamiliar. We rode past ranches, more fenced off property. People waved though, and many stopped for a chat, not so different after all. 33 miles in the bag, wild camp spot perfect, we stopped for the night
We clearly had been laughing too much with the Piggly Wiggly girls and hadn’t really sorted breakfast, so we headed for downtown Marshall to find a local diner to fuel up in.
Marshall, in Harrison County, is a city of 23,000 people, and has an interesting history. First settled in 1839, soon after Peter Wheatstone had given some of his property to build a courthouse, school and church. If folklore is to be believed he sounds quite a character. Rumour has it that during negotiations to ensure that Marshall became the seat of government for the County, a bottle of moonshine he provided the officials may have helped sweeten the deal! Marshall was also a confederacy stronghold during the Civil War, but for me I prefer its fame to be that it was the first town to have a telegraph service in Texas. For Tom and I though, Marshall will be long remembered in our hearts as the home of the Texas Tea Rooms 2. We had left the main road and ridden into the town centre in the hope of finding a local diner. As soon as we entered the tea rooms we were treated like royalty. We ate a hearty breakfast whilst entertaining the owners with tales of our trip and laughing at the language barrier. They were the most kindest of people you could ever hope to meet.
We left, warmed by their kindness, and rode along on very quiet and bumpy back roads, up and down hill after hill, warmed by the sun but fuelled by their generosity. Texas, you’re some State, and there is a lot of you still to come!
