...some more catching up to do

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...So...continuing where I left off last...we made it to this guy's house, where he had told us to meet him. It was a pretty suburban place, about 60 miles north of Houston. We get there after riding 18 or so miles with my wheel wobbling all over the place and he informs us that we're going to have to go wait because he has to go open his bike shop and he can help us with my wheel only after he gets done with work because he doesn't have any *spokes* at his BIKE SHOP. Very puzzling. And why wouldn't he let us come to his bike shop for a bike repair??? Also very weird. He seemed slightly annoyed that we were there, and went on to tell us how he doesn't have anything to do with adventure cycles (the bike touring map company where we got his info from) and that he's kind of annoyed that all these people touring keep calling asking him for help. Um...okay. So we go to any all you can eat buffet place, the Golden Coral, for lots of food and equally for the air conditioning and go to the library to use the computer and for more air conditioning (it was really really hot...so hot that the paint from the white lines on the streets were melting off onto our tires). We finally get back to the guy's house and he proceeds to rip the valve off my tube, put in a spoke, true it in a really half-assed way, and then charge us $20. Pretty lame.

We learned how even lamer it was when we rode for about half a day the next day and I started to hear my wheel rubbing again and wobbling again. Great, the spoke we spent a day fixing and $20 on is broken again, not even 24 hours after getting it fixed. Then another one goes. Crikey. We go to a small diner, and by this time we're too far to go back to the guy who "fixed" it in the first place. We start asking the waitresses.

Is there a bike shop anywhere nearby?
You mean motorcycle?
No bicycle...
Would a car garage be able to help?.....

It was clear that not too many people rode bikes around there. The waitresses were very very sweet though, and tried to get someone to give us a ride to the next town, or get us a phone book to see if in the off chance there was a bike shop they just didn't know about. And they let us sit there for three hours while we thought over our options and drank cup after cup of coffee. We realized our only option was to try and catch a ride down to Houston, a city we weren't even planning on going to in the first place. I taped some white pieces of paper together, and made a sign saying "broken bike, need ride east". We went down the street from the diner and within 5 minutes a really nice older guy picked us up on his way to the dump and he dropped us on the major highway going towards Houston. Then once again we only waited 5 minutes or so before a guy comes running down the shoulder, and told us he was headed to Houston and we could get into his Geo Metro...which we were both skeptical about at first but once we got our bikes on the rack on top we were able to pile in back with all our stuff. The people who picked us up were Rus and Kealy, two really nice people who lived nearby, and were about our age. They were especially nice to put up with our stink, because we hadn't showered in a few days and it was about 100 degrees with the humidity.

They were seriously amazing. They helped us find a bike shop in Houston, and even took us out to a delicious lunch while we waited for my bike to be fixed. Again, we've been blessed with so many awesome people helping us out. And they were pretty darn funny too. After they took off, we went to get some water at a gas station and wondered what to do next. It was hot, we were very very low on money (especially after fixing my wheel again for the second time), and we didn't have a place to stay. Luckily we remember that Ben in Austin had a friend in Houston, so we called him and got in touch with Tyrone, a courier in Houston and another really awesome kid. He put us up (he even gave us his bed to sleep in), took us to a rad party, and then gave us a head start on our way to New Orleans by getting his friend with a pick-up to give us a ride to Beaumont.

New Orleans has been great...we went to the pauper's graveyard, ate crawdads, saw some music on Frenchman street (having bars open 24 hours means that there are a LOT of drunk people around), watched movies being screened in the artist/musician guy's backyard, and did a lot of reading and relaxing. We're leaving for Florida tomorrow, which will maybe be tough because of all the bridges out along I-90. I finally got smart and started a couchsurfing account, and so far we already have a place to stay in Gainesville.

I can't believe we're almost to the end of our trip. Two and a half months have gone by fast. I hope you all have gotten the postcards I've sent, and if you still want one then email me your address. I have to say that it's been amazing, but I'm also really excited to see all my friends in Philly again and catch up on all that's been going on with them. I really feel like overall this trip has made me realized how much people have in common all across the country, and how important it is for us to go out of our ways to help other people out because something that might not mean very much to you could make the world of difference to someone else. For reals.

Love,
Megs

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