Day 36 – The birthplace of Texas

Miles Completed: 71.9

Cumulative miles: 1895.1

Miles to St Augustine: 1172

Today we rode from Yegua Creek State Park to a campground on Lake Conroe in Sam Houston National Forest near New Waverly, TX. Once again we had nice riding through mostly farm land in East Texas. For reference, we are about 50 miles north of Houston right now.

Our route took us through Independence, TX. I learned that Baylor University started here in 1845 and was at this site until 1886 when it moved to Waco. Also, the Independence Baptist Church started in 1839 and is where Sam Houston and his wife attended church. His wife is buried across the street from the church.

In nearby Washington, TX on the Brazos River, the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed during the Convention of 1836, and the area is known as the Birthplace of Texas.

We also traveled through Sam Houston National Forest which has a lot of tall pine trees. We crossed Lake Conroe and camped in the National Forest.

I didn’t make a lot of stops today because it was another cooking day for me, and I wanted to get to camp early. I was paired up with our tour co-leader Simona. Simona is really good about using up things in our food coolers and food bins. So we created a meal that ended up working really well. Here’s what we had:

Appetizers were veggies (carrots, celery, cucumbers, and snack peppers) and guacamole. The main course was penne pasta with smoked sausage and our secret sauce. We also had salad and a Mexican bread with garlic butter rolled into a ball and decorated like a pumpkin (sorry I didn’t get a picture of that!). The secret sauce? One large jar of marinara sauce, two small jars of pizza sauce, and two bags of frozen broccoli. It worked!

We had one box of penne pasta in our food bin and Simona bought a second box at the store. When she looked and the two pastas were different brands, she said that was a mortal sin for Italian cooks. Simona’s mother is Italian and she would not have allowed it! Well I did and the two boxes went into the boiling water. I don’t think anyone noticed…

For desert, Simona bought some Mexican desert which was like bread with colored sugar on it. We forgot to get a Halloween desert, so we dug some candy out of the food bins and gave everyone some Halloween treats.

Overall, it was a successful cooking day!