We had a pretty nice stay at the Super 8 in Navasota. There was plenty to eat at their continental breakfast. By 8:00 am we were off to Anderson (10 mi.) and Richards (20 mi.). We had a nice “second breakfast” at a cafe in Richards then headed for New Waverley (43 mi.) On the way we met another young couple traveling in the other direction. They had started in New York I think and were going to San Francisco by way of New Orleans. They were very interesting and still energetic after 60+ days on the road. I attribute this to the fact that they are not part of a group with a set schedule and have been free to stop wherever for as long as they wanted. They’d spent four days in New Orleans. After snacks in New Waverly we grocery shopped for tomorrows breakfast/lunch. We had already decided to eat dinner at a BBQ restaurant just outside that park entrance as it had come highly recommended by the young couple we had talked with earlier. The route description from last year’s tour guide indicated that the road between New Waverley and Pumpkin had no shoulders to ride on and had “harrowing” logging truck traffic. We did not experience any of this. There were shoulders in all but a few short places and the traffic was fine. All the drivers we encountered were very courteous and gave us plenty of room. We arrived in Coldspring about 2:30 pm so we made excellent time during the day and the riding was very pleasant. After refreshments at the Shell gas/convenience store in Coldspring we rode the last couple of miles to our camp site. After setting up camp and showering we rode back out of the park to the BBQ restaurant and had a “most excellent” BBQ dinner topped off with chocolate pie. Then it was back to camp.
While I was setting up my tent I turned on my cell phone
that had been off all day. I had a message from Susi indicating that she was at
the hospital having a CAT scan. When I talked to her the night before she
indicated she had stomach pains but went to work on Tuesday anyway but was taking
Wednesday off. It turned out to be her appendix had already burst. Given this
and the fact that she is also on blood thinner which complicates the surgery
part, I made the decision to terminate my trip and return home as quickly as
possible. Susi has a cousin Barbara who lives in Houston which was only about
an hour away from Coldspring. Barbara most graciously agreed to pick me up and
take me to Houston so I could catch a flight back to Des Moines. I returned to
camp (in the dark with a Petzl head lamp – only got lost once) and packed up my
stuff and loaded up my bike. After bidding everyone a regretful and sad
farewell I rode back to Coldspring to the Shell station to wait for Barbara. Thanks
RJ for riding with me back to the park entrance and saying goodbye. That meant
a lot. Once at the Shell station I had time to remove all my fenders and racks
so the bike was ready for a Houston local bike shop to disassemble and box for
Barbara to ship with the rest of my gear. We arrived at Barbara’s house around
midnight. My daughter Jennifer was able to research flight arrangements and
booked me on a return flight tomorrow afternoon. My other daughter Jessica did
a great job of keeping me informed of mom’s status.
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