Day 20 - May 14 - The Tip of Texas

"God I wish my state had a flag people could be proud of"

Some Odds and Ends

My mom asked me where the quotes come from. Some, like today's, were said by others, on my trip, in private, or, as in the case here, on Facebook, referencing a picture I post (this particular quote is about the flag of Texas, which is flown here everywhere). Some quotes are just short one-liners I come up with on the road. I'm heavily inspired by Sherwin's book "The World is a Heartbreaker," a collection of almost-haikus that can sometimes summarize a lot of sense in very little nonsense. I also sometimes bastardize lines from movies, song lyrics, or other pop-culture catch phrases. The only real pattern is that on rainy days, I put up lyrics of a song with the word "rain" in it. I've been thinking of making a playlist of these songs, but they really don't go well together.

There's some new things I've discovered too. I learned that a teabag in my water bottle brews a light tea through the day, giving a bit of a taste to the water I drink, and adds some caffeine. Inspired by Isaac, I've also gained a new appreciation for ice cream sandwiches. They are in every gas station, and cool you off nicely from the inside. Great treat after a long bike ride. I've also learned how amazing podcasts are for biking.

Today I was on the road at 9:30, which is very late for me. Yet I still managed to finish 120km by around 6:00pm, largely because of how fast time flies when you're listening to people talking, or talking to Sarah on the road. I've been listening to The Last Podcast on the Left (Thanks Jen!), which is a podcast about cults, conspiracy theories, and the paranormal. As a follower and believer in all of these things, it makes time fly so fast. I barely felt the ride today!

Meat and Garbage

Vegetarian food is rare here. I've walked into restaurants where there were no vegetarian dishes, and the kitchen could not modify things to be vegetarian. In other places, the vegetarian dishes are mostly cheese. Yet somehow, the food is very cheap.

I've pretty much given up on avoiding meat. Sure, I can stave off hunger by eating granola bars, and cold tortillas with tomatoes, cheese, and cucumbers. But if I want a warm meal at a restaurant, or food served on a plate, or anything that's been cooked in any way, meat is my only option. I still try to make substitutions, but I've stopped trying as hard. It's just a part of the culture here, and, frankly, this is a reasonable excuse for me right now.

I still miss vegetables, though. I haven't had cooked broccoli in so long.

Motel breakfasts, while vegetarian, are always served in disposable, plastic of styrofoam cups, cutlery, and plates. Gas station food is always wrapped in something, sometimes many layers, and recycling bins are rare. Most towns don't even have them.

In this situation, do we "do as the Romans do"? In the past three weeks, I have created more garbage than I created in a full year at home. I've heard so many arguments about this. Some say recycling isn't even that efficient, and that most of it goes to the garbage. I've also heard that recycling processing can take up more energy, and produce more pollution than just throwing things away. I don't know what to believe, and I don't care, because I was raised to recycle, and it still feels like the right thing to be doing.

The Image Gallery

I took this picture to show the change of geography.

I took this picture to show a cool forest.

I saw a pack of deer near Lufkin, but they scurried off before I got a nice picture.

Check out those antlers though

Crawfish holes. Don't ask me what a crawfish is, or what these holes are for.

I oftentimes look down on my leg, and see what looks like blood and scuff. But it's actually GRAD. GRAD stands for grease, rust, and dirt, and it's the stuff that's on my chain and gears. Every time I stop, and the bike leans to the right, my leg touches the chain and gears area, getting GRAD all over.

The Map

Standard biking day. Nothing too special, but some nice forests.

Thanks for reading! See you tomorrow!

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