Day 39: Silsbee, Tx to Merryville, LA
52.5 miles 611 feet climb
The Red Cloud RV Park in Silsbee, TX , where we spent our last of 20 night in Texas, was adjacent to HW92, a very busy divided highway. Given our past experiences with busy divided highways, we weren’t thrilled to have to ride 30 miles on this one.
The RV park itself was very nice, the proprietress, Rita, gave us a batch of cookies and brownies. We also had access to a covered space to set up our meals and eat and were able to do laundry and play pool in the clubhouse.
Our fears about the highway were unfounded. There was a wide, smooth, relatively debris free shoulder and best of all, it was flat. The landscape was also changing. We had left the forest and it was opening up to more open spaces. We began to see swampy patches along the road.
James and I stopped at the Donut Palace in Buna, TX where I had a sausage kolache. I’ve never seen as many places that have kolaches as I have in East Texas. I know Denise’s grandparents immigrated from what was then Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) to Texas before moving to Iowa. I really don’t know how many Czechs immigrated to Texas. The lady who ran the donut place said that the week before she had a group of 30 bicyclists stop at the store at the same time along with the van supporting them. (They were not an Adventure Cycling group.) I also thought that it was odd they were all riding together. We all bike at different rates and set our own pace for the day. I don’t know any more than that.
The first thirty miles along the highway were a dream to ride. Flat, sunny, cool temperature, and only a light breeze. We averaged between 14 and 16 mph on this stretch. However, once we turned off of the highway, we were back to little or no shoulder and too many trucks, some of which passed us way too close for comfort. When see eventually turned onto a state road again, we at least had about a three foot shoulder.
I was expecting a grand bridge over the mighty Mississippi River for our crossing into Louisiana, but instead we had a typical bridge over the Sabine River that serves as the border between Texas and Louisiana. Oh, well.
Merryville is a nice little town with a museum and grounds which is where we will spend the night. The Historical Society was a great host and even fed us a lot of great food! Check out the Mayhaw Jam! In the wild, mayhaw berries look similar to cranberries or small crabapples. They vary in taste, but the berries are usually both fruity and tart. They are generally considered too tart to eat straight from the tree.
They routinely allow bicyclists to camp on the grounds and tonight there are four other bicyclists joining us here. I talked with two of them, Wendell and Vaughn from Pennsylvania who started their Southern Tier trip in San Diego on March 2nd. Vaughn is riding a 1980 Schwinn and Wendell is riding a vintage Diamondback and pulling a trailer. Their bikes are They have also had problems with log hauling trucks and dogs. Vaughn uses an air horn like mine that he said works. We’ll see what the next dog encounter will be like. We also met two women who were traveling together, Hanna from Lancaster PA and Corrine from Boston. They are traveling from New Orleans to Austin.
Here are Wendell and Vaughn's vintage bikes. Keep in mind they are self contained. Hanna and Corrine are on the right.
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