Day One: Bikes, Ferries, and Automobiles

Start: Dave Weber's apartment in Houston, Texas
Lunch: Papa's Pizza in Galveston, Texas
Dinner: Al-T's Seafood & Steakhouse in Winnie, Texas
End: Gulfway Motel in High Island, Texas
Today's biking distance: 88* miles (if they would have done it in an hour, you would have seen some serious ______)
Total biking distance: 88 miles

*side note: Today, Brennan and Jason rode by a DeLorean multiple times. The first time, they texted me. 10 minutes after that text, I received another from my frined Jay back in Indy. It was a picture of...you guessed it...a DeLorean. I suspect it was the same one, and there is some sort of Indiana/Texas time travel taking place

mint trays in Texas are weird

Let's start with the night before Day One. Twas eventful. Twas, I say! Brennan's bicycle, which he checked as luggage when flying from Denver to Houston, was temporarily lost. Jokes were made that my flight, which for some inexplicable reason was stopping in Baltimore, would make it to Houston before Brennan's bike.

It did not. And sadly, the TSA took Brennan's CO2 cartridges, so he was in quite a pickle. And when they tracked down a bike shop, it was 2 hours after closing time. Luckily, the staff at Houston Bicycle Company were willing to open up shop, and even donated some CO2 cartridges without charge. Thanks, guys!

Instead, as we were minutes away from leaving Baltimore on time, the AC in the plane went out, we deboarded the place, were given our boarding passes back (in a scene resembling 2nd graders getting their bag of valentine's as the teacher calls each name out amid a hovering crowd), and just as the final person got their boarding pass back, the plane was fixed, we got back on the plane (I was proud to still get my trusty seat, 7A) and I got into Houston around 12:30 am. Brennan and Jason were sound asleep in our friend Dave's bed, which is where we shipped off from this morning.

the start of the trip

Departure time was 6:30am for Brennan and Jason, 8:00am for me. As I was cruising down a major highway (45 South), ditching the guys and their county road approach, Jason was quickly getting a flat tire around mile 6 (he would later wreck, making the flat tire seem like a mere hiccup). About 50 miles into the day, I had to pick up the guys, as the only way to cross into Galveston is to take said major highway (45 South). But rest assured, they demanded to be let out of the car as soon as possible so not to jeopardize the integrity of the trip.

Speaking of integrity, at our lunch stop in Galveston Bay, Brennan rubbed Jesus' moustache:

While eating lunch, we watched the 2nd half of the USA/Brazil World Cup match, but had to leave before the "GREATEST ENDING EVER!!!!" (I'm quoting every single person in my Twitter feed the 20 minutes after we stopped watching the game). From Galveston, we boarded the ferry, complete with flock of seagulls.....not that flock.....this flock:




From there, it was relatively smooth sailing (though the heat really started to take its toll). As always, I scoped out our stop for the evening, the Gulfway Motel, which instantly reminded me of the motel* that the crew from Bottle Rocket stop to hide out.

*not so fun fact: The motel where they filmed Bottle Rocket is in danger of being destroyed. This would be tragic. 

We took a dip in the motel's pool-sized jacuzzi (did I mention it's hot here....94 degrees, people!) and headed to a taxedermy/restaurant in Winnie, Texas.

Cajun Cuisine was consumed. Random pictures were taken. Plans for tomorrow were made. Stay tuned for that...

For more pics, check out the Flickr Photostream

nothing cures exhaustion like upward dog!

not sure which dog pose this one is

Al-T's had a wall of fame...could someone please tell us who this guy is?! Obviously, we love his 'stache.

Support Vehicle Music:

The Lemonheads - It's a Shame About Ray
The Rentals - Return of the Rentals
The Rentals - Seven More Minutes
LMFAO - Sorry For Party Rocking
William Shatner - Has Been
Vampire Weekend - Contra
Wilco - Wilco (the album)