Day 2, We are in Jasper (still in Texas)

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OK, so safe and sound after day 2.



We are in a town called Jasper, in NE Texas. We had planned to stay here since this morning as it’s near the border with Louisiana but after meeting one of several friendly locals at a gas station along the way who asked where we were going, agreed it was a great destination. His reasoning? He pointed to the large hangman knotted noose hanging from the rear mirror in his oversized 4x4 with massive tyres and explained that just a few years ago, ‘someone’ was killed by being dragged behind a truck. Welcome to Texas. He was a very friendly chap and told us that he had visited Australia and loved it. He then said that as he had so much Australian stuff at his house that he brought back, he wanted to give us something to remember his town by (have a guess…..).



He went back to his truck, returned with a small bundle and explained that he owned a pile driving business. The shirt he handed Chris was the one he had been wearing that morning. It was a little wet, but it had his business name and a great picture of his town on it. Would we like it. Of course Chris said yes. That whole encounter will be my lasting impression of Texan culture



We decided to start early today to avoid the midday heat, so we were on the road from Port Aransas on the Gulf of Mexico at 7.45am. We caught the ferry back to the mainland, then back roads to Bay City (no sign of the rollers). We stopped for lunch on Surf Side Beach and finally got to eat the shrimp that ever 2^nd road sign was advertising and it was very tasty.



On to Galveston, another ferry and then a long coastal road you can see a few mins of in the video.



We ended up on some great back roads and pulled in to Jasper at 9.30pm, that’s 14 hours on the bike and over 450 miles today.



A quick but excellent Mexican meal, some well-deserved beers and then a shower (in that order) and now off to bed. Another long day planned tomorrow.



Sorry about the videos, we are simply too tired to edit them tonight so I have included 2 vids, both only a few minutes long to give you an ide of the type of roads, and speeds we have been travelling today





More news tomorrow night.

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