Day 37 – Orange biscuits and free cookies

Miles completed: 51.1

Cumulative miles: 1946.2

Miles to St Augustine: 1121

Today we rode from Sam Houston National Forest to the Shepherd Sanctuary near Shepherd, TX. It was another great ride through farms and forests with rolling terrains. I’m told that starting tomorrow, we will enter some very flat parts of Texas and we will have very few hills the rest of the way to St Augustine.

Today was the start of Texas’ deer hunting season. Interestingly, I only heard one firearm shot the entire day while we were preparing breakfast. But I took no chances and wore my red bike shirt today!

This morning was a little cool, but better than the past two cold mornings, so most of the group planned to stop at Honey’s Coffee shop in New Waverly, TX just 7 miles into the ride. Honey’s is known for their orange biscuits. It was a biscuit served over some warm orange custard-like sauce. It wasn’t what I was expecting but of course it was delicious.

There were several local bike riders out today on this Saturday morning. We met one of those riders, Tiffany, at Honey’s. Tiffany lives in the area and works at a bike shop about 15 miles away in Conroe, TX and was heading to work after her coffee. She looked at our route for the day and provided some comments about the roads, potential dogs, etc. She also told us to stop at a little farm stand about 2 miles up the road. She called the owner and said she would buy us cookies. Only Felix, Dana, and I stopped at the Farm Stand. We split a package of two chocolate chip cookies and they tasted great. Thank you Tiffany for the conversation and cookies!!!

We are staying tonight at the Shepherd Sanctuary. It is hard to describe so I’ve added a few pictures. There are several “cabins” and we are staying in them so I have a bed tonight. Yay!

Pat and Dale made dinner tonight and they may be our two best chefs. Dale made a low country boil with shrimp, sausage, corn on the cob, potatoes, etc. Pat made a beet salad and coleslaw. All the meals have been great, but this one was probably the best!

On a separate note, Dale has decided to leave our group. He is still going to finish the ride, but is going to ride his own route the rest of the way starting tomorrow. His wife is coming to be his support vehicle the rest of the way. We wished Dale the best in his adventure the rest of the way.