State 42 of 50  

 

 

    Texas

 

Capital: Austin

Population: 20,851,000 (ranked 2nd of 50 states)

Area: 696,000 kmē (ranked 2nd of 50 states)

 

 

 

 

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Ride Report

This state: 779 kms     Journey to date: 22,641 kms

Scroll down below the route map for this state's ride report and photos

 

 

Ride Report

I made it to Texas before Hurricane Ike and that was that goal achieved. Texas also meant the second of two scheduled services on the bike in Dallas. The last was years ago it seems in Milwaukee.

I rode across Texas firstly on the inter-state getting from the border of Louisiana to Dallas. Riding into Dallas during rush hour morning commuter traffic was a nightmare and I'll be happy to admit I was completely out of my comfort zone. I slipped into the HOV lane, this time signposted for motorcycles, but what I didn't realise was that once in this lane (hard up against the inner median with 7 other lanes outside you) you can't get out. It is a 'managed HOV lane' and you can't just ping off at any exit as normal. In fact there are barriers to stop you exiting this lane. That meant my GPS threw a hissy fit as I kept ignoring it's pleas to take exits. "Do it yourself then" it seemed to say and stopped working.

That afternoon I was happy to finally get out of Dallas but that was no easy feat either. The rush hour seems to start at 2:00pm.

The panhandle of Texas offered up some roadkill variations photos of which naturally feature below. Warning: don't view the photos until you're dinner's gone down. The weather, while not Ike-ish, was overcast and moody. I camped in a forest park but in Texas forests mean trees a metre in height so it was like camping in a rose garden.

They say that Texans go on holiday to Colorado and Coloradans do not go on holiday to Texas. I can now sort of understand why.

I was riding through Olney. Olney is a town in north Texas famous for its owls. In fact Olney comes from 'olnus' the latin for owl. Their claim to fame is that they have the last remaining owl in the nearly extinct species called the Texan Yellow-Eyed Owl. Suddenly there was a bump and a shower of feathers. The unfortunate results are shown below.