Day 1- The hardest day (I hope)

Day 1

Origin: Cowtown, Fort Wort

Destination: Waco Area

Weather: Excellent temperature, high southerly winds (28km-20km)

Distance ridden: 81 miles (130km)

This is it... Dallas (Fort Worth is pretty much same city) to New Orleans. After so much talk, finally time to bite the bullet and get moving. Always before one is about to undertake a long journey,  they ask themselves ‘I think I’ve got everything, right?’. This has been constantly played over in my head, the mental checklist revised and revised. However sometimes you can never be fully prepared, as I was about to find out during this first performance.

After a mustering all my belongings and arranging them in my various packs, I sat down to find out where my launching pad should be. I guess since I’m in Dallas it should be quintessentially Dallas (Dallasian, Dallite, Dali don’t know what word they use). So what better place than the massive rodeo area and stockyards? After a top brekkie (slang for breakfast) cooked by Michael, we loaded up the Landcruiser and drove out the Tenny’s driveway. This is it (for the second time I realised, it growing even stronger)...

I was to be taken to Michael’s work, where Art was going to take me where I needed to set sail, southward bound. So after plugging the address into the GPS we were taken to a proper Texan place. Samantha (a lady who posted a review on google) describes it as a place where there are “A lot of animals to see and the show was very entertaining”. Correct and correct, we didn’t even go to the rodeo but there was a meet, with pickups and their cattle trailers causing a bank up down the road that could be seen in LA during peak hour. All going down to sell their stock. Police wearing Cowboy hats were directing the traffic as we tried to get through we were stopped by one custodian of a specific stretch of road. His drawl was loooooonnnnnnnggggg. “What you here for?”, he asked. Art told him we were ‘just traveling through to other side’. No budging whatsoever. I had another place in mind, the old stockyards...

It was getting late in the day and with this new location, I had no google maps to guide me through. But my impatient side told me just get going you will figure it out. Setting an old school Garmin GPS which drew a straight line to a place that looked as though I would rendezevous with my original google map, I set it to direction me with the general south east-ish direction of Crowley. I started pedalling, finally!

The first 10 minutes involved my mind playing a lot of tricks. Some of the path was cobbled and the bags certainly magnified this. Are these bags suitable? The front bag especially could be deemed as flimsy, with it not really receiving the best of reviews for its’ design. Online shopping, cost-effective but unproved. The next came over a massive pothole where the tire, jolted and I immediately became paranoid about a flat of some description. The way downtown was slightly uphill and my legs untrained in carrying this added weight up hills and just generally untrained (Lance’s program didn’t work for me), were immediately tested. Not to mention I was already starting to sweat and had not drunk enough water. Time to suck it up Nick and deal with it.

Navigating my way through down town, I knew I needed to generally head eastward of town or face backtracking due to the interstate and various urban highways that cater for the motor-mad Dallas folk. Heading east I looked at one of google maps I intended to use, that left from downtown. There was a few streets I could potentially run into... I did in fact. Linking back onto this it successfully took me through an underpass and onto the eastside. Eastside is not the best side, with a fair few people just ‘hangin out’. I overshot the mark on one street going too far. After trying to reconnect with it, going too far west, and east I decided to try and rediscover this side in the township of Crowley. All this confusion and stopping and starting was wasting valuable sunlight.

I soon discovered why these area is deemed as such a sprawl, passing the endless run-down Mexican places, what appeared as a squatter-house that served up a $3.95 buffet (I was so tempted) and the shoddy car dealers (like I said they love their cars). I kept riding amongst the traffic and those souls ‘hangin out’, the blank expression on their faces. Once more out of the burbs I was hit with that cruel Texas wind. As Dave from Ranchward’s Steakhouse said, you can either get it north or south. Meaning life can be such a breeze (pardon the pun) or an absolute battle. Today it was a battle, as much as I tried to keep that 20 average as soon as an incline was encountered I was pushed back to 16kmph . Did I mention a battle?

Getting into Crowley, it was not the quaint place I expected. Fast food reigned and any other commerce was few and far between. I wanted to find what it offered pulling up to duck donuts, the sign was lit as being open. In fact it was cleared out. I dismissed the idea of finding a hidden gem in Crowley, turning my focus to rehydrating and finding my road prescribed by google (south freeway). I asked a cop pulled up that was looking to clock in any speeders. Apparently the bridge was down for the direct route, so I had to listen intently to the turns and landmarks. I set out, once again going too far down the road before realising I would have to go back north. Going north was fantastic, I cruised down at 35kmph effortlessly before hitting the interstate. A rude realisation hit me, he didn’t mean south i-35. I crossed the overpass, but there was no indication of an old highway west of i-35. Going back I though I will take this service road. Bingo, I was back on my way.

A quick Wendy’s crispy chicken (99c) and a bit of stupid attitude (long way to Waco) from some a teenager sporting a moustache that looked as though he had glued on hairs to his lip, I was on track. The interstate was providing me with some proper pollution and the service road heavy with traffic, but to my right I was treated to some incredible RV parks, antique places and all other things Texan. Also those who tell me Texas is flat, are not fully informed. Sure comparatively to Colorado or other states but it still has its dips and rises, in combination with that direct S wind, hard yakka.

Time was essence and I had lost my fair share, as I rolled up and down Burlison Rd (i-35 frontage). I knew the navigation difficulty in Crowley and Fort Worth would come back and bite me, as I well and truly realised later on.

To be continued (currently 11am in Waco I got to find a light (story about lights soon to come) and hit the road otherwise face darkness like yesterday)

   Stay tuned