13 April 2014
Navasota to Coldspring, TX
65 miles (Total Miles = 1,790)

There’s nothing like the threat of afternoon thunderstorms to get us moving in the morning, and move we did. We actually saw Marlin more than once today – usually he’s just the blur that passes by when we’re an hour or less into our ride, never to be seen again – and we have a photo to prove it:

Okay, so this was only the third and the last time we saw him before camp, and he offered for us to ride in with him because he and JB were going to go “slow”, but I’m pretty convinced that Marlin’s definition of “slow” and our definition of “slow” are two entirely different things, so we hung back and finished our gas station cheeseburger. Well, technically, Gina finished it. In fact, come to think of it, she pretty much ate the whole thing. But that didn’t slow her down much after we hit the road again, with 20 miles to go and rain still threatening. We don’t like to bike in the rain, in case we haven’t made that abundantly clear. And rain that is heralded in by thunder and lightning? Forget about it. My bike can be a lightning rod on top of the van should that come to pass. Which, luckily, today it did not.

Instead, we were treated to a beautifully forested ride with only a few spatters of drops. I am still amazed by how we seemed to go from brown Texas to green Texas with the flip of a switch. The same seems to have happened with the humidity, teaching us that even if the rain starts to fall, there’s really no reason to put on your rain gear, for you will be just as wet inside as out. In case you’re wondering how that feels, grab your Gore-Tex, jump into the community pool, and then go stand in the sauna. I think that might be pretty close to the real thing, especially if on your walk to the hot house, a little chafing occurs.