Sorry guys I'm running behind on the blog. That's what happens when your always on the move and dead tired at night. give me a few days to finish 18 - 19. Thanks.
September 17
Woke up and as we was getting some much needed water from a spicket outside the fire station, a fireman pulled up, he told us there was some cold water inside and let us in and gave us some water bottles. I just about drank an entire bottle I was
so thirsty. We thanked him, took a picture with him, and headed down to the town of strong were we met allot of people interested in our trip and why we don't have a really good reason of doing our trip other than just get out of the house and not even
carrying any weapons. A little bit up the road we decided to take some pictures of our strong, muscular backs. Might as well show off what we have worked hard for. After that we all took showers behind a church that had a hose. Sure enough James
was able to find a pear tree were we all at two pears apiece and grabbed three for the road. Oh, i forgot to mention the water was really cold. Now here is the shocking part. El dorado was the biggest city on highway 82 next texarkana, and we just went
right by it. Yeah we was really tired and just wanted a place to sleep so we slept right beside a HUGE water tower that said El Dorado on it. It was so big that at night when i went to grab something from my bike and looked up at it a fear of heights shot through
me.
September 18
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to James son. He turned 1 today. James was disappointed that he couldn't be there for his sons first birthday but he loves him anyway and happy birthday.
started sprinkling this morning so we put the tarps on the the tents. Me and James fell back asleep but Dad woke us up 5 minutes after falling asleep and forced us to get up. Felt like 6:20 or so when we got up. Thankfully there was a gas station right up the street from where we was and the ladies at the gas station was so nice that they gave us some free chicken strips and potato wedges. It started to rain a little bit but stopped after about a minute or so. After that the next thing we did was head into the next town were we went to a grocery store and got some lunch. Sure enough, right across the street was a holiday inn express where the manager was so kind enough to let us sit in the lobby and use the wi-fi and even let us drink the rest of the morning coffee. After catching up with the blog and posting some new pictures, we said good-bye to the manager and headed down the road. unfortunately nothing else happened today. But it was a nice day so we cant complain. Found shelter under a abandoned trucker factory or something in the woods. Good thing we did because it started to rain after we laid down.
September 19
Not allot happened today. Seen the red river which was almost dried up. After that we stopped by a church to grab some water and when we was getting our bottles to put under the spicket a white truck comes out. A man in a red truck steps out and starts asking where we've come from and where we was headed. After telling him about what we was doing he told us that his name was told and asked if wanted to take a break for a little while. Sure, we said. He then opened up up a building behind the church and told us we could relax inside here for as long as we wanted. It had a shower, air conditioning, air hockey table and even a stage with drums and guitars. AWESOME! Todd couldn't stick around because he had jury duty. We stayed in there and played air hockey, I played the guitar and we all took showers. We stayed and relaxed in the A/C for 3 hours or so and then headed back out unto the open road. Later that day we finally reached Texas. But we went through heck to get into it. We had to pass through texarkana, which was not a fun place if your riding a bike. Lets just say that we don't wanna go through that place again. After getting into Texas we found a church and slept right on the front porch steps. We cooked some bacon and eggs for dinner and lets just say we slept good that night
September 20
Dumb crickets woke me up twice last night by hoping on my head. Dad cooked some coffee on the church steps. Unfortunately the creamer was rock hard and the sugar was spoiled. It wasn't to bad though. We ran into allot of abandoned houses and warehouses today.
We could have went inside each one of them and explored. We did explore one house were Dad found a ladies garden hat. He fell in love with that hat and took many pictures of him wearing it. He said it was his stetson cowboy hat. No matter how much we pointed and laughed
at him and told him to just put it back in the house he kept it. He thinks he's a movie star in that stetson cowboy hat. The next town of Avery we met our new best Friend Derrick at a small convenience store were we grabbed some corn dogs and burritos for lunch. When we got outside
after eating we took pictures of the nice lady and gentlemen who were running the store. After that we met Derrick outside. He was really curious about us and even got a picture with us. After that nothing happened except looking at how all creeks and ponds are dried up thanks 83 days
of 100+ degree temperatures and 63 days with out rain. They said that the last time a drought like this occur ed in 1980. They even said they don't expect any really heavy rain until winter time. Yeah they are in bad shape. That night we found a big ranch all to ourselves called
Arrow head land. So If any of you are reading this, live in Texas and see arrow head land ranch, we slept there. Beautiful night too. James saw the milky way for the first time in his life tonight.
September 21
coyotes howled all night. Headed into the town of clarksville were we found a dollar general. The cashier(her name was Monica) Thought our trip was so cool that she even wanted our autographs. That's a first. Even gave our website info to the clarksville times
newspaper. The lady there would have got our photographs but the battery was dead and she was about to leave. After that we found some monkey apples on the road. Good thing we didn't eat them. Then we headed into Detroit were we sat outside the sigma art gallery, bought some eggs at the grocery,
boiled them and ate them. Sure enough our good Friend Derrick pulled up and payed us a visit. He looked happy to see us again. He must have heard Dad asking one of the locals where the beer was around here. Derrick told Dad that he would have beer waiting for us in three miles.
James took off like a rocket to make sure he got there first. Derrick bought the beer and dad bought a liter of sprite. Then we went across the street and sat underneath a huge Texas oak. There we talked about life. Him and his family loved water and he even owned a
Volkswagen van and took his family around the country and home schooled his kids the same time. he was an avid swimmer and was in really good shape. We talked for an hour or so and got pictures together and then he had to go back home which was still a four hour drive.
We decided to let today be a relax day so we stuck around, found a abandoned shop full of engines, an old boat and a football. We grabbed the foot ball and threw outside for 30 minutes or so and then headed out to paris. Went through paris and reached the other side of the city were we slept in Field.
September 22
Horrible day today. Saw rain clouds rolling in this afternoon and we rushed to find shelter. Of course we found the biggest mud hole in north Texas. After the rain was gone we rolled our bikes through so much mud we had to take sticks and try to get some of the mud out of our forks, brakes, tires and spokes. It was bad. We had to go at least 6 miles to get to a church and wash our bikes off. After that we stopped on the side of the road were they had a harley sportster for sale. James really liked the bike and realized what it might be like to have a harley like that for himself. He liked the idea. Finally we hit the town of Bonham were we bought some dinner and fruit. Met the manager who gave us each a pack of gum to chew on. then we went over to MacDonald's. there we stayed for around 4 hours and15 minutes. We met a girl named Celesy who worked there and we gave her our blog info, took her picture and even became Friends on facebook. Before we was about to leave a guy came in and asked if we were biking to the coast. we told him no we were heading west. Then we headed out of MMacDonald's and into a field right next it. There we slept for the night.
September 23
Woke up feeling good, coffee ready at MacDonald's. But after mickey D's it was blistering hot and wind in our face. We stopped by a fireworks store and stayed out of the sun behind it. I worked on the blog here until we ran out of water. Then we rushed to the next town of Sherman were we grabbed some ice cream at a dollar general. Then found a feild outside Sherman were we layed down for the night. We only got 32 miles today, but its better than nothing.
September 24
got lucky this morning, There was a MacDonald's waiting for us, and before that there was a field full of donkeys and ponies to feed and pet. Today was such a bad day though. Winds blowing in your face keeping us around 10 miles an hour on straight ground. took a break at an abandoned store for 30 minutes before deciding to check out a western gift shop down the street. When we got there we put our bikes around the corner and when I walked around to go inside Dad was standing on the top of a ladder and drilling in a giant O into the top of the building. The guy who was supposed to do it didn't exactly understand how to get the O in the right way so Dad asked to help, sure enough he got it and the guy(William) payed him back by bringing him 3 corona's. one for each of us. After enjoying those we took baths in the water hose behind the store. Then we kept going to the next town we stopped at a store and got a big ole steak and 2 bags of instant mashed potatoes and chowed down like starving dogs we went maybe 2 more miles and set up camp and went to sleep
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