Back to the Rat Race

After last night's violent winds, lightning, and rain, I was worried that today would be problematic. It dawned gray but the rain held off. Today I had plenty of time to get to my destination, the Hyatt House in Houston. I set off first to the Texas A&M campus to fulfill one small obligation.

Take that, Matt Woodruff!

I battled fairly heavy traffic eastward to Highway 30, which turned southeast toward Houston. Every mile I got a little farther from the potential nasty weather up north, and sun began to appear intermittently between the clouds. The wet weather of the last few days had left the creeks and rivers high and in places pastures were covered in shallow ponds with large oak trees rising from them.

I took highways 30, 244, 1774, and 249. As it turns out, this route was very popular with motorcyclists, except that all of them were going the opposite direction that I was. So I did a lot of waving. Not may sportbikes; mostly "baggers" (heavily bedecked cruisers with fairings, cases, and such) and some outlaw cruisers ridden by guys who were too badass to wave back, at least in their own minds. I think that there were more motorcycles than all other vehicles put together along that route.

I was lollygagging. If I got to Houston  too soon I wouldn't be able to check in to the hotel yet. So I poked along mostly well under the speed limit. There were two-lane roads with lots of no-passing zones and lots of oncoming traffic. As a courtesy, now and then I would pull to the shoulder to let some speedier driver go by and do you know what? I never once got a wave. In California I give, and get, waves to acknowledge the courtesy involved. So do most Californians. I guess it's a different deal in Texas.

Well, it was just beautiful all the way from College Station to about Magnolia. I took this phone photo (my better camera was destroyed two days ago, remember) just outside Anderson.

And later on I got an inkling of why this species of bird (the little white dots, there) is called Cattle Egret.

This was the view in the other direction from the Cattle Egret spot.

After Magnolia, road construction and occasional urban ugliness pockmarked the beauty. The land had transitioned from a forest of almost all oaks to one of mixed oak and pine.

Before leaving I had carefully made notes of the convoluted route necessary to avoid the use of freeways. I mostly got it right, but there were a couple of wrong turns, one closure of a three-mile stretch of 249, and some pretty awful sewer construction delays when I got within a few miles of the hotel.

I checked in, unpacked a little, put on my bathing suit and went to the deserted swimming pool. The water was colder than I expected (although not as cold as that damned ride from El Paso to Carlsbad.) Then I went shopping at a nearby store for some new clothes in which I could look presentable at the office. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them at the end of the week; I don't have room to pack them all on the motorcycle. Mail them back to myself, maybe. I'm here through Thursday night at least, working full-time, and I might add Friday if I don't get enough done.

I picked up some soda and beer for the refrigerator in the fully furnished kitchen that comes with the hotel room. I ate dinner at Chipotle, came back to the room (it's a very nice room) and threw all of my clothes in a bag and started a load in the laundromat downstairs. I did some bookkeeping for work. Soon the dryer will be finished and I'll be all set for the coming week. Meanwhile, dramatic skies appear out the window and a thunderstorm lashes the building. A little more work and it'll be time for a good night's sleep before making my debut at the office.