Alright, the second leg of this trek. Sunday I was up with the sun, pretty normal for me when overnighting somewhere solo. Packed up and headed out.
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It looked nice outside, but pretty chilly. I pushed the bike away from the motel to fire it up/warm it up. I thought about the duck hunters shivering somewhere out there. How stupid to deliberately go out and subject one’s self to that.
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I rode off into the elements on my bike, shivering and headed down roads that were going to take me longer to get home. Clearly a fully realized enlightened human being.
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In typical enlightened fashion, I didn’t have the best of warm clothes and didn’t even bring my cold weather gloves. It was 45 degrees and I was wearing Dirt Paw MX gloves!! I stopped a few times, put the gloves next to the motor and warmed my hands on the exhaust. No big deal….but I probably should have splurged on my packing allowances for the better gloves in the morning
. Despite the chill, it was really a pretty morning. I knew this cold thing was just temporary….even though it ended up being a thing for about 3 hours since I started rolling so early.
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Staying with the new to me route concept, I rolled north and west to see some different territory compared to my trek down here. Tried a section of dirt, denied passage, stupid water authority/dam. No big deal, back to the pavement, rolled over the Guadalupe River, steam was coming off.
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I was thinking a café would be cool, catch some grub and warm up someplace. Passing through Tivoli, saw this place and did a u-turn. Et some grub and downed some tea. That’s right, no more Dr. Pepper for me. I haven’t had a soda, leaded or unleaded, in over two months. I won’t go so far as to say it is going well, but it is going. I do like being off my typical Dr. Pepper/Zero and I’m no longer putting any kind of sweetener in my tea. Bwdmax said my taste buds would adjust. They did, took about 4 weeks before I was no longer pissed off at the bland taste of unsweet tea and black coffee. Still wouldn’t call this enjoyable, but it is tolerable. And this tweak is here to stay, part of my long term enlightenment preservation plan. Now if I can lay off the Coors Light, that would be progress. Shut your mouths, baby steps. And yall said it is like water anyway, so shut up twice.
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Rolling these straight backroads was better than going through Victoria. Snagged another section of dirt going through an open range ranch. Something about the early morning in isolated places, the deer were taking notice of me as I was taking notice of them. Too far away for pics, but there were a lot of them, some with mesquite like looking trees on their heads. I only got a pic of the moo deer.
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Stitched in some more pavement, actually got excited when there were some road signs indicating a curve….seems all the paved roads down in this part of the world are straight as an arrow
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As I travel, I stop at some historical markers, some I skip. Just kind of a feel thing. The schools and grave sites are kind of boring. I like the bloody massacre murder type ones, they are uplifting. I was bout to cross Perdido Creek and this one caught my mind, I bet this will be a good one? So I pulled in. It was. A battle took place here in 1817 between the Spanish and a Texas Republican army headed up by two veteran officers of the Battle of New Orleans. Americans were out numbered 3 to 1, a hard fight took place and the American officers refused to surrender even when the opposition offered it up. Said they would rather die. And they did. The town of Fannin is close by as well….more history from 1836 after the fall of the Alamo. I didn’t see that monument, will save that lesson for another time.
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Back on some FM road, this oak tree sure was pretty, with it’s sheer size and Spanish moss hanging. It’s almost 10am at this point and I am still fighting the cold some. Dadgum it.
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Eventually hit a road I heard about on someone else’s ride in these parts, Fox Crossing. Pretty cool section of dirt.
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And again demonstrates just how splendid a morning this was. I got off my bike and walked around some at a little creek crossing. Just listening to the sounds. Maybe Fifteen Mile Creek? Whatever it is, it dumps into Coleto Creek. Which dumps into the Guadalupe…which dumps into the gulf toilet bowl.
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More dirt out there.
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Next up, downtown Meyersville. There was no traffic. Cool old building, said 1917 at the top. It was just missing a couple old dudes playing chess.
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Next zone, got into that Yorktown-Nixon-Smiley area, quite a bit of decent dirt in these parts.
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Needed another history lesson for the day. Have you ever wondered why Smiley was called smiley? Me neither. Settlers began moving to the area in the 1840s attracted to water from a long natural lake along the main San Antonio-Indianola (by Port LaVaca where I went yesterday, that’s cool!) trade route. Jim Smiley was the first known to use the lake as a campground. The surrounding prairie grass was great for cattle and horses. As sufficient numbers were amassed, the animals were driven to Belmont to join herds headed north on a branch of the Chisholm Trail. In 1879 George Calley from Georgia settled permanently on the bank of the Old Smiley Lake and built a horse powered cotton gin and saw mill. I’ve grown up in this general area, High School in La Vernia, later lived in and around Seguin/Belmont, had a great grandmother that lived in the Smiley area at one time. I’ve never heard of anyone bragging about a lake in Smiley, have you?
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I read that about a mile south of present town is the original Old Smiley Lake townsite, historical marker half mile south of town. Looking at Google Earth a mile out….I don’t see no lake people. I read a small reference that said the lake is no more, water is provided to the town via two wells. I guess it is another situation of “progress”. Elm Creek runs through that general area a mile south of town, I’m guessing it use to fan out in a wide spot when the water table was higher. While not intense history, it was still interesting and better than anything y’all have learned me lately! Except for
@triman, he gets a pass.
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All of this area is familiar stomping grounds at this point but it is still nice floating around remote country side and thinking about days gone by.
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I was cruising on dirt about to come up to Hwy 87 and stumbled on these funky signs. They don’t look like state historical signs. But pretty cool to stumble onto them out here…..and tie back into the Indianola history, again.
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Onward, rolling through the Leesville area. And some more history trying to grab me before the ride is done.
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Native American raids were a major concern for the DeWitt Colonist that settled this area. In 1835 a party of 13 French and Mexican traders in route from Natchitoches Louisiana to Mexico were camped on Sandies Creek. A large group of Comanche attacked the party and after several hours of battle, killed all 13 men. I sat for a bit at the below spot on Sandies Creek with my engine off and tried to imagine fighting for my life here. Strange feeling and not a location I would envision taking my last breath.
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Ok, no more history today, for real this time. I’m on the home stretch at this point. Dirt is about to run out.
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This old house looked cool, leaning pretty hard. Wish it could talk. I would have climbed the fence to look at it closer, but there was signage asking for that not to happen. I don’t think this guy will be standing for too many more years. If it was my property, I would shore it up just good enough to at least last my lifetime. I like the vibe.
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Not a bad ride, better than nothing? Snagged a couple more pics of the typical grey forest this time of year up here. Live Oaks predominantly replaced with Post Oak, Blackjack and Hickory….smells cool anyway. Until I drift again….smell ya later.
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