Day 3; Hazelhurst, MS - Lufkin, TX

First thing; thanks to everyone who has been following me. I certainly didn't expect such interest in this, so I have been pleasantly surprised by the people reading the blog and commenting!

On to today's events....

Well, I did it again. First turn out of the parking lot was in the wrong direction. I figured that one out quick, so no real loss of time. I know the guys in the parking lot were standing there laughing at me, I wonder when I'll shake the rookie moves? It was a frigid morning. Luckily I put my rain covers over my gloves to keep the wind out. It worked well, so did my under armor shirt. There were a ton of trucks on the route today. There was also a couple of medium sized towns with a lot of traffic. I crossed the Mississippi river into Louisiana and the scenery was much different than I expected. Not swampy and gator filled like I had hoped. It was still very nice scenery though. I think I spent about 80 miles behind semis one of which I tried to pass twice, but couldn't make it happen. I'll post a video later that shows the two failed attempts. One of them, I think he sped up #asshole. I was eventually able to pass him though, watch the video to see how (wow, so suspenseful, right?). Another semi saw me trying to pass and actually drove on the shoulder to let me. That was nice of him. I pulled up next to the cab and gave him a wave as in "thank you" but he kept pointing forward and had a puzzled look on his face. He was indicating for me to quit with the niceties and to hurry up and pass since he was driving on a shoulder. I started rocking forward showing him I was trying my best (I was topped out on speed). I could almost hear him say "OHHHHHHH" and then he started laughing, as did I. I eventually got ahead of him and proceeded on my way.

I crossed at 2 mile bridge into Texas. It was over a nice lake and made me want to go fishing. That is when the ultimate gaffe of the day happened. I positioned my scooter in front of the "Welcome to Texas" sign for the checkpoint picture. I crouched down and right as I snapped the photo, the scooter fell on its side. The picture below is actually mid fall, and the other one is obviously post fall. Thank god I had my iPhone recording so I could put it in todays video (enticing!). I righted it and continued west.

I saw the guy that drove by me at the checkpoint and flipped me off (all in good fun of course), parked on the side of the side of the road. Flat tire. #karma. He had it under control so I headed for lufkin. I made it to the motel, took my picture and got out of there. That place is a dump. I'm staying a couple miles away at a holiday inn express.

That's it for today, keep the comments coming! Tomorrow is Lufkin-Abilene!!




These are my walrus shaped rain covers. Not sure why they shape them like that, but they work!



More parking lot maintenance. Sure hoping I don't find myself in that situation!



Like I said earlier, they ride them for 12 hours and then rebuild them in the parking lot at the end of the day. #vintage


Cliche and emo picture of my shadow in the sunrise



Ran into this construction. The road was scraped so it made for a violent 2 mile ride through this town. It moved my wheels all over the place. I found a good short cut around this guy.



If you look closely, you can tell that it is mid fall by the angle it's leaning at and by the position of the kick stand.


Awwwwwww, so sad. No harm done, just a little fuel leakage



All of that so I could get this picture at the Texas/Louisiana state line.