DAY 6 - PARIS, TX TO COOPER, TX

Mileage - 40.1; Total Mileage - 222.2 miles

The emotions on the last day of a tour are mixed and all over the map for me. I feel excited and proud about completing something that I have been planning for months. But I'm a little sad that the tour is over and I have to return to my "real" life. Being on tour has a certain simplicity and freedom that I haven't figured out how to replicate in modern life. I'm also relieved that I came through the trip without any major catastrophes. 

We rolled out of the "luxurious" Motel 6 this morning with all these feelings swirling around in my head. We had one main agenda item prior to leaving Paris - a visit to the Eiffel Tower! 

The Eiffel Tower, Texas style. 

After a quick breakfast of taquitos at Whataburger and our tour of the Eiffel Tower, we were headed out of Paris. 

We had two options for getting back to Cooper today. One was a little more scenic with quieter back roads, the other was a more direct route on busier roads. After a call last night about an emergency in Houston, we decided on the more direct route so we could get back to Houston tonight. 

We did have some more gravel roads this morning getting out of Paris and on the route, so it wasn't an adventure-free ride today. 

More shady gravel. 

We passed this house on a quiet road that had lots of junk around, and all kinds of bikes lining the fence. 

The "welcoming committee" couldn't be bothered to get up, even after we stopped the bikes right in front of them. 

We couldn't figure out what was going on with this road. The paving job must have been done by "Jim-Bob's Discount Paving." But it was mostly covering concrete road. Out in the middle of nowhere. 

Crossing the North Sulphur River. The water was crystal clear. 

A view of the country-side we've seen all week. Mostly flat fields bordered by trees. 

Back to Lake Cooper State Park where we left the car for the week while riding. It felt great seeing this sign!

I only made it back with one of my warm gloves. Somewhere along the NETT between Clarksville and Paris, my right glove is looking for a new home!

Looking back at the week, we had a very smooth tour. We did have my broken brake cable, but that was easily fixed because I carried a spare. You can believe that item will always be on my packing list! 

Outaide of that, we didn't even have a flat tire. Even with the rough roads, gravel, and trashy road shoulders we rode this week. We also escaped any other major equipment issues. We call that a lucky week!

We don't have another tour scheduled yet but are working on what we'll do to celebrate retirement in March. We are looking forward to being able to tour without a set schedule. 

DAY 5 - CLARKSVILLE, TX TO PARIS, TX

Mileage - 31.7; Total Mileage - 182.1 miles

Today was a really good riding day. By Day 5, your body finally starts to get with the program and accept that it has to get up and ride another day. 

The B&B last night was a treat, except that the heater never came on last night so it wasn't quite as toasty as I was hoping. It was cool (61 degrees) in the house when we got up about 7:30 this morning. But still way warmer than it would have been in camp at 39 degrees!

The original plan was to take the Northeast Texas Trail (NETT) fromt Clarksville to Paris. I was unsure of the trail surface from Clarksville so we decided to look it over and go with plan B if needed. We found the trail a few blocks from the B&B. It was mostly dirt and mowed grass on the RR right of way, but was rough and rutted. We rode it about a mile and decided plan B looked better. 

Plan B was to ride the wide shoulder of US 82 for about 5 miles out of town before we could turn off onto a quiet FM road that generally parralleled the path of the trail to the town of Bagwell. Once we got to Bagwell, we could see the trail leaving town was now graded dirt with gravel. It looked much smoother and more rideable so we moved over to the trail. The trail was in really good shape, and was very shady and quiet. Sometimes, with the trees you couldn't even tell where you were. 

Dave's trail find this morning!

We took the trail all the way to Detroit and planned to eat at CJ's Cafe right on the trail. CJ's had a good menu and good food. It was a bonus that it was easy to get into and out of! We headed west from Detroit towards Paris on the gravel trail. The trail continued to be in good shape except for the bridges. Most of the bridges were really rough and the wood decking was rotted in some areas. We were still able to ride them but we were slow and careful crossing. 

CJ's Cafe

Trail sign heading into Detroit

When we got to Blossom, we were rewarded with paved trail all the way into Paris (about 10 miles). Man, that pavement felt so smooth after the gravel! There were benches, port-a-potties, water fountains/pumps, and picnic tables beside the trail in this more developed area. The trail is being developed from the west to east, so further enhancements should be made to the gravel trail we rode earlier today. 

Look at the beautiful pavement ahead!

Nice picnic area near Paris

Just a few miles from Paris

It is forecasted to be another cold night (40 degrees) and our friends James and Monica were planning to come visit us in Paris so we decided to splurge on another motel tonight. 

We got in about 3:45 this afternoon and had time to clean up before James and Monica arrived. After getting caught up a little, we headed out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and margaritas. We were not familiar with any of the restaurants so we chose one from Google and went there. We walked in and were seated, checked the menu and saw they didn't have margaritas, and we walked out to try the next restaurant on the list!

The second restaurant had great reviews, but we were not sure when we pulled into an old Sonic building. They must have expanded the building some because there was plenty of seating room inside. They had a full menu and best of all, there were margaritas! The food was good, the margaritas were better, and the company was the best!

James and Monica - don't get to see them enough!

After several rounds of margaritas, it was time for us to head back to the motel and for James and Monica to head home. 

We have one more day of riding until the tour is over. I'm not ready for it to be done yet, but reality is calling us. We will head back to Cooper tomorrow and then head home to Houston. Then the dreaming of the next tour will slowly begin again. 

DAY 4 - MOUNT PLEASANT, TX TO CLARKSVILLE, TX

Mileage - 38.0; Total Mileage - 150.4 miles

It was chilly last night but we stayed warm enough in the tent. It was 43 degrees this morning when we finally got up a little after 7am. It took a long time for the sun to shine through the trees and start to warm up camp. I had my long sleeve shirt, leggings, wool socks, rain jacket, and gloves on. And I was still chilled by the time we started riding! We didn't get out of camp until about 9:30 because it was not as easy for me to put everything away while wearing my gloves!

It has been so dry up here there is never any dew on things in the morning. The tent footprint has also been bone dry every morning until this morning. We had to drape the footprint over the clothesline to dry before packing it up this morning. At least the Mt. Pleasant area has had a little more rain than others. 

We took the quiet county road option out of Mt. Pleasant instead of the busy road with a good shoulder. The drawback to this route was that we had to detour 2.5 miles off route to get to Talco that had a convenience store to get lunch. Otherwise, there were no services along that road. It all went to plan until we returned to the quiet country road after the planned 5-mile detour. 

I could have done with less shade and more sun this morning, but the road was great!

Shortly after getting back on the quiet country road, the pavement disappeared and we were left with mostly packed dirt and gravel for 6.5 miles. Part of it was pretty smooth rolling, but that was broken up with big potholes and washboards. It was a very long, slow 6.5 miles. We finally got the pavement back about 18 miles before town. 

Crossing the Sulphur River on the gravel road. 

The last 18 miles had a solid cross-headwind all the way blowing across lots of open grazing land. We were happy that the roads were mostly gentle rolling hills today without any big hills given the wind. It was a nice change for our tired legs. 

We took a break at a cemetary and found this weird fence. There's a 2-foot gap at the bottom where there isn't any fencing. It was like that all around the large cemetary. We couldn't figure out why it would be like that. It's not like they need to worry about the people escaping the cemetary! 

Clarksville is on the Northeast Texas Trail (NETT) that is a rails-to-trails project. Clarksville offers primitive camping in the city's Fireman's Park for free for people using the trail. It has restrooms and running water available but no showers, which is doable. Given that the forecast is for a low of 38 degrees tonight we decided warmer accomodations would be bettter, so we're staying at the Courthouse Inn B&B in town.

Courthouse Inn B&B with a hitching post out front!

We went to one of the handful of restaurants available in town for dinner and it was decent. This is a small town without a lot of options or variety for restaurants. It is the county seat of Red River county and they have a nice, stately courthouse with a clock and bell tower. The bell rings on the hour. We are a block from the courthouse and Dave just heard the bell. Looks like it will be a night for earplugs!

The Courthouse Inn B&B is a victorian house built from 1881-1883. It has been beautifully maintained/restored and we are the only ones here tonight. They had a laundry room for us to use and an oversized jaccuzzi tub in the bathroom that I am about to soak in!

Full moon shining tonight over the town square. 

Tomorrow, the plan is to take the NETT from Clarksville to Paris. We'll have lunch in Detroit and dinner in Paris if everything works out as planned!

DAY 3 - PITTSBURG, TX TO MT. PLEASANT, TX

Mileage - 29.2; Total Mileage - 112.4 miles

Last night finally got cool. It was 50 degrees when we woke up. There was no rush to get up and on the road today since it was planned to be a short day. Pittsburg was about 11 miles down the road so we planned to stop there to eat. We had first breakfast of oatmeal and a honey bun in camp.

View of last night's campsite from the lakeshore. It was very roomy, private and quiet. 

We had several options for the ride today ranging from 11 miles to 32 miles. As we left camp this morning we were still not sure how we were going to get to Mt. Pleasant. When we left camp, my legs were very heavy. They finally started feeling a little better by midday, but they are still tired. 

Crossing Lake Bob Sandlin this morning on the way out. 

On the way to Pittsburg, we got off the busier road onto a beautiful, quiet back road where only 3 cars passed us in 6 miles. We didn't get that nice road until after we rode a few miles of gravel/patchy tar road. It was very shady and quiet, but a little rough. All cyclists know you have to "pay" somehow for those sweet, smooth flowing roads!

As we were turning off the busy road, there was nursery with these beautiful flowers. 

Gravel/patchy tar/rough road. 

Beautiful, quiet back road. 

We rolled into Pittsburg about 11:30 and had lunch at Herschel's after 14 miles. We ate lunch instead of second breakfast, and finished it off with homemade peach cobbler and buttermilk pie for dessert.  

Pittsburg is the county seat of Camp County, but the courthouse was dissappointing. It's hard to compete with Sulphur Springs!

Camp County courthouse. 

We passed several Pilgrim's chicken farms yesterday and today that all had quarantine signs saying no entry. The bird flu has been through here. 😞

On a quiet backroad outside of Pittsburg I heard something snap as my rear brake lever went slack about 12 miles from camp. Well crap! We looked at it and the cable had snapped. We tied it up out of the way to get to camp and l managed fine for those few miles with just my front brake. I knew there was a reason I always carried the spare shifter and brake cables on every tour since I went cross country!

I failed to get a picture of the busted brake cable and MacGyver'd tie job to get us down the road to camp. Likewise, I failed to capture my awesome mechanic husband installing the aforementioned spare brake cable for me that I've carried around forever! My bike is as good as new and ready for many more miles!

We rode around the town square in Mt. Pleasant (another county seat) but were again dissappointed by the courthouse. I didn't even bother with a picture. 

I did take a picture of the veteran's memorial in Mt. Pleasant. Look for the small dark area in the top right corner of the Texas cutout to see where we are in the state. 

We rolled into the KOA a little before 3pm and were excited to see a pool. Sadly, the pool is closed for the season. The lady in the office said the water would be too cold, anyway. We figured it would be nice after our ride and probably warmer than the lake water yesterday!

It was 85 for the high today - not horrible but definitely still plenty warm in the sun. We are now in Titus County, which is a wet county. There are various ways to describe Texas counties. They can be dry, damp, or wet. Dry means they can't sell any alcohol within the county. Damp means they can sell beer and wine, but no liquor. Wet is the best kind - they can sell it all! This is the first night we've been in a wet county this tour, so we have enjoyed some cocktails with dinner at Applebee's. Yes, you eat wherever is close to camp!

After a couple of cocktails, it was time to walk back down to camp and settle in for the evening. I can definitely say my legs feel way better after those couple cocktails!

Tomorrow, we head north to Clarksville, TX. There aren't many camping options there. However, they are on the Northeast Texas Trail (NETT), a rails-to-trails project in the works across a portion of NE Texas. We will be riding part of the trail this week. There is an option to camp for free without any services at a city park, but we've decided to "rough it" in a swanky B&B in town. Looking forward to it!

DAY 2 - YANTIS, TX TO PITTSBURG, TX

Mileage - 43.1; Total Mileage - 83.2 miles

Last night was interesting. 

It was dead calm all evening and when we went to bed last night. I woke up about 2am to the wind blowing like crazy. The cool front had made it and the wind was noticeably cooler! Of course, it was blowing from the same direction we were headed today so we knew it would be an interesting ride. We were hoping to get lucky and have it shift some during the day. 

The marina had a restaurant that was open for breakfast this morning. I stopped in and had an order of French toast and got an egg and cheese with biscuit to go for Dave to have at our morning break. 

Sun over Lake Fork this morning leaving camp. 

We got out of camp about 9:15 this morning. At that hour, most people have already headed to work and traffic is usually lighter. The road leaving the lake was pretty busy but once we were away from the lake the traffic died down. For the most part, the drivers were courteous.

Water tower at the top of a climb. We always like to see these ahead because we know it is "high ground" and the climbing is about over. 

As Dave said this morning during a break, "There is no easy riding today!" The wind was a constant "friend" in our faces all day. It was blowing hard enough this morning that you couldn't really coast down hill. We had a good break at 11 miles for a snack. After that, it felt like a long slog all the way to Winnsboro. We took several mini-breaks at the side of the road when needed and slowly crawled into Winnsboro.

We also love to see the reduced speed limit signs before a town. We know a break and food are close!

After lunch at DQ in Winnsboro, we only had 18 planned miles to camp.  We were hoping for some more quiet backroads and so we went off route onto some county roads. They were exactly that and we enjoyed them, until we hit some hills with 12+% grades with some headwind to add insult to injury! 

Quiet, shady county road this afternoon (before the stupid hills!)

Old, dormant oil pump jack in a field. 

The route change also added another couple miles to an already long day. The last 4 miles had more of the steep grades and it felt like 10. We stopped at a convenience store right before the park to get drinks and snacks for camp. They also had a grill and we could have gotten dinner there, but we decided to have onenof our freeze-dried meals instead. 

 Dinner! After a long day on the bike these taste great. 

We made it to Lake Bob Sandlin for camp about 4:15 which was earlier than we thought it would be given all the wind. We have a site on the water with easy access to get in the lake, which of course means we went for a swim to cool off before doing anything else. 😁

View of the lake from our campsite. 

Cool mussels shell Dave found in the lake this afternoon. 

It definitely was getting cooler by the time we finished dinner. It is supposed to be in the low 50's tonight so we will both sleep well. We have a shorter day tomorrow, and after two longer days we will enjoy a little bit of rest. 

We are headed to Mt. Pleasant tomorrow night and will have deluxe accomodations at the local KOA Kampground. 

DAY 1 - COOPER, TX TO YANTIS, TX -

Mileage - 40.1; Total Mileage - 40.1 miles

We had a nice campsite last night at Cooper Lake State Park. The park was clean and had lots of options for people to stay there from cabins and screened shelters to RV and tent camping. Texas state parks are a great value for what you get. We booked the site for the week and will leave the vehicle there while riding.

On the drive up to Cooper we noticed it was very dry in this part of Texas like most of the rest of the state. We didn't even put the fly on the tent because we figured there wouldn't be any dew overnight. It was neat to be able to look at the stars and the moon from bed. There was a beautiful 3/4 moon shining when we went to bed.

Moon shining bright over our campsite

Last night's campsite

Leaving camp this morning

We drove through the town of Sulphur Springs on our way up yesterday and were diverted around the town square because they had a festival going on. Because of that, we decided to eat in Cooper last night to avoid the festival in Sulphur Springs, only to find the town square there also blocked off for a festival! I didn't see what the festival was for in Sulphur Springs, but the Cooper festival was the annual cotton harvest festival. 

We walked around but there wasn't much to the festival and not too many people were there. We were able to find a good dinner at the 7F Waterhole and Grub House on the square before heading back to camp. 

Sulphur Springs was about 20 miles into our ride today. It is the county seat for Hopkins County and a fair-sized town with a population of about 15,000. We always enjoy looking at the county courthouses in Texas. They are all different and it is neat to see the different designs. Sulphur Springs did not dissappoint! 

The courthouse square had beautiful flower beds, several war memorials, and some really cool bathrooms. From the outside, the bathroom looks like a big mirrored box, but when you get inside, it is like it is clear glass and you can see right out. I'd seen pictures of these from Europe but never expected to see them in a small town in Texas!

View from outside the bathroom.

View from inside the bathroom looking out on the square. 

We were at the halfway point for the day and stopped at the Metro Diner for lunch before leaving Sulphur Springs. Diners have the best food when on tour!

We rolled another 13 undulating miles to Yantis and stopped for a break in the shade with some snacks. We spent the majority of the day on TX 19 and TX 154. They were busier roads with speeds up to 70, but they also had a shoulder that was the width of a lane. Once we got away from any town, the traffic would decrease and not be too annoying. 

It was hot today - 95 degrees and sunny this afternoon - but the humidity was very low so that helped some. We also had a steady headwind of probably 10 mph out of the south. You guessed it - we were headed south most of the day. At least it helped a tiny bit with the heat. 

After Yantis, we took some quiet backroads the last 8 miles into camp at Lake Fork Marina. We arrived in camp a little early for us - it was just 3pm. We are the only tent campers here so it will be a quiet night. I think we are both tired enough after a good first day on the road that it wouldn't matter anyway!

We were planning on eating at the Marina restaurant tonight, but they closed at 2pm today so we had to use our back-up plan of the Italian restaurant a mile up the road. The short ride was definitely worth the good meal and desert. We are in a dry county here, so there was no wine to go with the great Italian meal - just seems wrong! When we asked at the Marina, the gal said it was "only a 10 minute drive to a wet county". Of course, we know that means it could be 5 - 10 miles down the road!

We saw these pretty purplish wildflowers several places alomg the road today. I think they are Mexican violets but I'm not sure. 

The rolling roads we had most of the day

Nice quiet backroad this afternoon. 

We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the cool front here "up north" tonight. Will finally be able to enjoy cooler days (low 80's) and nights (50's). Looks like Houston will have to wait a couple more days for that joy!

Dave just asked me what time it was. When I told him it was 8pm he just groaned, meaning it's too early to go to bed but he's tired and wants to go to bed! Such are the trials and tribulations on a tour. 😁

We are headed to Bob Sandlin State Park tomorrow night. Maybe we'll get some favorable wind from this cool front - I can always dream!