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!
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