The Houstonian Tree Gator

The journey from Becka’s place south was an interesting one; we went from towering mountains and a rolling horizon to long stretches of nothing. We dodged some cars in Denver and rolled down the highway out of civilization, as we were leaving we were greeted with some bizarre thunderstorm clouds that left the sky divided, one half was a bright sunset and the rest was shrouded in dark purple clouds that would occasionally light up the road as lightning surged through it. After meandering through the busy city and being chased by massive thundering clouds we were then blasted by rain in the pitch-black night, we took refuge in this warehouse until it blew over. It seems that every state has a saying about its weather; I guess Colorado’s is if you don’t like the weather wait 20 minutes. So once it passed we popped a tent behind the building and passed out.
The next day we rolled on to Limon which was around 60 or so miles down the road, we covered an easy 38 early in the morning and then made some awful split pea soup, no offense Jared, and then were hit by some of the worst head winds we have encountered yet, around 20 or 30 mph. They were so bad it took about 4 hours to cover 25 miles. The rockies and mountain passes have their challenges, but give a bad head wind it is like climbing hills all day. Absolutely destroys you mentally, let alone physically. So we roll in pretty late and sleep in a dug out again. We then begin to ride and realize that the winds are actually worse then the day before and we decide to make signs for a possible ride. We pass through about 8 miles of construction filled with the some of the biggest jerks I have met on this trip that made us get off our bikes to let traffic pass, making our timing pretty awful, then we begin to run out of water and some nice people helped us out, the winds kept picking up and after another construction zone we sit down to eat lunch looking at the large thunderstorm clouds closing in on us, we are about 42 miles out of limon and this guy in a massive white van pulls over to see if we are okay and asks if we need a ride anywhere. We were on our last straw and gladly took him up on the offer. So we packed up his van and off we went. We were on our way to Amarillo and it so happens that is where he was from, he tells me about his family, his business and some pretty funny stories about the area and his life. He ended up taking us about 290 miles south and gave us a place to stay along with plenty of food. We were about to head out the following day towards Cleburne and as we open the door it is dumping buckets of rain all around us, so we were invited to stay another night. His niece and her friends took us around town that night and showed us a good time. We then wake up the following morning to find out he is actually heading to Cleburne that night and asked us if we wanted another ride, we eventually reasoned out that whatever time and money saved here in Texas we gain on the east coast, which no offense to Texas, but is a bit more appealing to me. So we take another ride and arrive at my great aunt’s place and have a mini family reunion. My dad’s parents from California happen to be there too, and we meet Roger, Dorothy and Roger’s daughter. We get a ride to Rogers and spend the night in his beautiful ranch house, where we each have our own rooms and beds. We spend the next day shooting skeet and eating out and launching illegal fireworks. The next day we go fishing at my other cousin’s ranch (Alvin) catch a few fish and head back for some smoked brisket. So we continue on the skip Texas campaign and get picked up by my mom’s grandparents and are taken down to Saledo, a beautiful little ranch property near this little creek. We spend a few days with them, go down to Austin one night to hang with Chad and relax while soaking up the fantastic Texan hospitality. We make a massive tree swing, shoot some bows and arrows and get an idea of what retired life can look like. Awesome might I add, old people have it great. Anyways we begin to realize that riding in Texas is just something we are all willing to skip so we take another ride from my grandpa to Houston. Chad and Lindsay take us in and we spend the weekend going to the bayou, Galveston, and around town. We watch countless cat you tube videos, Rock a doodle, and City of Angels. We fill the void in our lives that lacked Chad’s awesome sense of humor.
Tomorrow we get back on the bikes and attempt to navigate our way towards New Orleans. Houston is a massive city and it will be tough trying to find a way out of it, but it has been great and Texas has been more than good to us, saving us tons of money and time, and gives us a head start that will enable us to see more of the east coast on this trip. The hitchhiking experiment pays off and we are looking forward to the big easy. I’ll cross my fingers for no hurricanes.

I apologize for all the spelling and grammar mistakes, again I don't have a lot of time to edit.