So having completed our last Build day on the tour, we set about the last two days of riding bikes and the first of these took us from Sulphur in Louisiana to Winnie in Texas. Yeehaw!!
The first days ride was for 87 miles from Sulphur, Louisiana to Winnie in Texas and, therefore, crossing our final state boundary.
Mention here for poor Gary Schroeder who had so much misfortune on this tour with flat tyres and a crash which resulted in a gash to his eyebrow and a number of stitches. Today was another day where his ride was cut short so I linked up with his cycling buddy at the first rest stop, Wayne Wilson. Together Wayne and I crushed out the miles at a pretty sound pace. The photo above has Tiffany, myself and Wayne celebrating our transition into Texas with the photo taken by Jim Hartman. We all finally arrived at Cornerstone Church in Winnie for what was going to be my last night on the tour.
So here we were, the following morning setting out on our final bike ride together for this tour for the journey from Winnie to Jamaica Beach, via a ferry journey and passing through Galveston on the way. Everything was going so well until I left the first rest stop without my cycling helmet and had to return to pick it up. This meant that I lost touch with the group who had been cycling together, namely: Mike Rutherford, Gary Schroeder and Wayne Wilson. If anyone knows me, I saw this as a challenge and set out to try and catch up with these guys before we climbed on to the ferry, shortly after the second rest stop.
After two weeks of cycling, my body was better atoned to the need to press out the miles and, at times, I was pushing out up to 23 miles per hour and I had the benefit of a tailwind to make this more possible. I came into the second rest-stop just a few seconds behind the guys and feeling quite elated to have almost have caught them, despite them also pressing out the miles.
Upon leaving the rest stop we were almost immediately queuing to embark on the next ferry journey to Galveston and the ferry journey gave all the riders to chance to relax before the final miles of the tour.
Having landed, we then had to ride along the Galveston Seafront which was broken up by numerous light stops and photo opportunities. The seafront and pier at Weston-super-Mare was rather eclipsed by Galveston!
So began the final stretch to Jamaica Beach which felt longer than it probably was as by this time, I was on my own although Dan Hepp and Mike Rutherford came in shortly after me. So with both satisfaction but also some regret, the Gulf Coast tour came to an end but my transport to a real bed was there to greet me. So once photos on the beach were completed I was off to stay with Wendy & Murphy McFarland for a few days.
See the photos on beach on the next blog. Y’all have a great day!!