Cow Country, and Surprising Views

Feb 20 (RD19) (AFHD41)

Rain induced shortened riding day. Spent the morning in Classic Rock Coffee House, Navasota, finishing up blogs written last night. Still lightly sprinkling, so drove out of town and started riding when it cleared. Very pleasant route on winding, rough, well used asphalt road. Little or no traffic. Nice “cow country” scenery. Farms and ranches looked industrious, even if not outwardly prosperous.

Very surprised to drive by a Greek Orthodox Monastery and Convent! Haven’t researched it yet. Washington Co, Tx calls itself the “Birthplace of Texas”. Apparently a reference to the establishment of the Texas Republic which lasted from 1836 to 1846. Washington on the Brazos.

Near Independence, found the site of the original Baylor University. Nothing standing there now except 4 tall columns, similar to University of Missouri Campus. There was also a reference to Wm Penn College. Confused about that as Wm Penn College is alive and well in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and has been for more than a hundred years. But then, there may be other Wm Penn colleges around the country as well.

I’ve decided the first 1300 miles of this journey was basically physical “conditioning”. Based on the last two days, the next phase will definitely be physical “strength building”. Full days of riding nearly flat terrain seem to be a thing of the past. The earlier map booklets didn’t even have Elevation profiles.

The rain and cool temps of yesterday and last night have brought the snakes out to warm up on the shoulders and verges of the roads. LOTS of snakes 😦  They weren’t moving as fast as the country dogs, luckily.

Getting close to Austin and looking forward to visiting kin on both sides of this traveling duos families.

Stay tuned. Thanks for coming along.