Trip days: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8-9 | 10-12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20
After a quick shower I broke camp and headed north from Copper Break State Park to highway 287 heading east through Vernon to Wichita Falls. The terrain takes on a nice low rolling hill sort of theme in central northern Texas, and the surroundings are very green. Once at Wichita Falls I hopped on highway 82 east towards Paris and Texarkana. I stopped just outside of Wichita Falls at one of the abundant "Picnic Areas" on the side of the highway to take advantage of my new found cell phone service in the Wichita Falls area. It seems as though northern Texas has a "Picnic Area" at least every 15 miles on its major highways. They range from a concrete bench on the side of the highway to sites with covered picnic tables, small museums, internet access, and bathrooms off the highway in nice wooded areas. Back on the 82 east I rode through Gainesville, Sherman, and Paris to New Boston just west of Texarkana. This central/eastern portion of north Texas takes on a quite nice lush green character with lots of deciduous trees and many varieties of flowers along the road. It has the the stereotypical look that my minds eye envisions when thinking of Mississippi. As I was nearing New Boston the air began taking on a distinctly humid feel and the sky grayed some from the abundant humidity. It had rained sometime earlier in the day and my surroundings seemed to become much more green and lush. It was quite beautiful with splotches of light casting on the lush green surroundings through the gray cloud clover, and the humid scent of the wet grass and trees. At New Boston I headed south on highway 8 to Jefferson right near Shreveport on the Texas - Louisiana border. I stopped and tried some of the souths famous fried chicken with mashed potatoes and a biscuit. Pretty tasty, and it was only $2.65! Why can't we get affordable good food up in the Pacific Northwest? I had a whole meal for less than half the cost of a typical sandwich up in Washington. After dinner I rode east on highway 143 to the Caddo Lake State Park campground. The campground surrounds the western half of Caddo Lake, which by the looks of it is more of a mangrove swamp. I hurriedly setup camp as the last light of the day was fading. Now here I am lying in my tent sweating to death in an 82 degree, 100% humidity environment, while being forced to listen to some bad country music blaring from some hicks pickup truck further down in the campground. There is also a constant buzz from the local insect populous and peridically some racket coming from the lake that sounds like hundreds of people banging on blocks of wood. I think the banging is actually from some flock of birds... weird. Hopefully it will cool off because if it doesn't I won't be able to get any sleep. I hope it's not so hot and muggy in the Appalachias up Tennessee way because if this keeps up I may just keel over never to be heard from again.
Total Mileage for Day: 434 |
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©2003 John Meloy <jam@nas.com>