My alarm went off at the jarring time of 0800 and I awoke to a beautiful blue sky day. I opened the windows up and started hanging my laundry out the window and on the window sill to dry in the sun. My chaps had air dried just hanging on the door but my jacket was still wet and hung loose like the skin on the arms of an old lady.

I put a desk chair on the bed and hung the jacket on it to get it in the sun. I was careful to position it so it wouldn't block the sun shining on my shirt, socks and gaunchies behind it. Have to maximize our use of the solar radiation!



Since I couldn't sleep I was working on the blog and the internet connection was unusually good so I was able to upload some videos. At one point I was uploading videos and items were becoming dry so the race was on to get everything done by 1100. I started packing the bike up which was a long walk as I was at the other end of the building. I know m'otels have limited inventory and yesterday I was extremely grateful to get the the room, but this morning it is a lot of work to pack up. I try to carry as much as possible but it is still 5 trips!

My drying solution was about 95% successful in all cases except my shoes. Normally this class of m'otels provides a small hair dryer that I stick in the foot hole and let them run for 15 minutes, but this one does not. I elect to wear my walking around Red Adidas instead of putting on wet shoes. After I am all packed up I tie my wet shoes onto the Pelican hoping the airstream will dry them during the ride.



I have also recently taken to carrying my monopod externally. Every year I bring the camera accessory and every year I regret it. One year I brought a Manfrotto 5 stage stand and it slowly shook itself apart. Each day there would be another piece missing, taken by the ether to parts unknown. For awhile I could replace the parts with bits of wire I would find here and there as well as the ubiquitous black electrician's tape, but eventually it needed to be discarded.

So everything was on the bike, I was just waiting for the video upload to complete. That is always the balance I try maintain. I hope the blog is interesting and to make it so I feel there needs to be videos, or at least photos, but I am at the mercy of the strength of my internet connection.

I always put on my leathers standing in front of the AC unit, I also put my T-Shirt in the fridge for 15 minutes, and my helmet, if it fits! So I was timing everything to come together as the upload finished; fully dressed and laptop in hand. It all happened at 1105!

Last night when I was talking to Amy & the Skipper I had discussed my plans for the day, I am heading to Corpus Christi, Texas to visit The Lexington aircraft carrier museum. Skipper said if I stayed on the Interstate I was around 4 hours away, but I already had a plan and that was to go through Galveston and then further south on the Gulf Coast hwy. Sadly there is no actual GCH in this area, it is more a maze of smaller highways that need to be stitched together in 10 - 20 mile increments.

I was on I-10 and stayed on the Interstate into the labyrinth that is Houston. 6 sometimes 8 lanes plus collectors all doing 90 mph in 110 degree weather, keep your head on a swivel or get run over by Grandma's in Hyundai's. I took a turn off for Galveston, not sure if it was the right one but it was a southbound Interstate, I-45. The Interstate eventually turned into a 2 lane divided, then a one lane divided then a normal street. I just kept going knowing eventually I was going to hit the Gulf of Mexico which I did at North Beach. Funny what these guys think is 'North'!



I was hoping the trip to Corpus Christi from Galveston would be maybe 2 hours but I seriously misinterpreted the scale on my map. The first sign I saw was 216 miles, almost 350 kms! Also the first 5 kms was all beach front with lights every block and a tremendous amount of pedestrian traffic, prolly took an hour all by itself. I was thinking wistfully of the Interstate!

I stopped for a navigation consultation with my Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) also known as Siri. I allowed roaming so it could determine my location, and I had already programmed my end of day m'otel into the favorites so voila! Go back to the Interstate and take Skippers advice was about 4 hrs 30 mins. Plot my way through a myriad of roads following the coast was 4 hrs 15 mins. I have had a rule on bike trips for the last 25+ years, and that is to never backtrack, always move forward, stubbornly even when, often, it is the worst choice, so forward we went.

I often say I lead a 'charmed life' as very frequently somewhat questionable choices end up turning out to be blessings. It took awhile, some frustrating time spent on industrial highways and roads with regular traffic lights every 100 yards, but eventually I found USGT 35 and all was good. A lightly traffic'ed twisty 2 laner took me to almost all the way to CC.

There was one area, for prolly 45 minutes that I was on a coastal roadway with homes to my left all on stilts. They ranged from what I would consider to be a single wide mobile home to enormous mansions. They were all built within maybe 100' of the Gulf of Mexico so I could see storm surges being a frequent occurrence. I guess you build as close as you can to the ocean and anything you leave at ground level you expect to lose it eventually.



I should mention my carrying my shoes externally plan lasted about 10 minutes as they were severely flopping around, essentially kicking me in my ass. I stopped and untied them and stuffed one each into a saddlebag. The left one fit easily but the right one needed some effort to get it to latch. My tripod was half un-bungee'ed so that got fixed then too.

It was late afternoon and I knew I was close to my m'otel, I had made a reservation on Expedia at it because it billed itself as being 0.3 of mile from the Lexington. I was on an Interstate sized road with narrow shoulders, it took awhile before I could pull over. I swapped my iPod for my iPhone and lit up Siri navigation. I was 1000 feet from my turn off! I let Siri take me to the Day's Inn.

Rooms booked on Expedia often get discriminated against and that was the case here, top floor (bottom floor requested) farthest from the elevator, parking lot view. It took many trips to unload the bike, up and down 2 flights of stairs.

As is my routine I turned the AC on high, and then went in search of potanical beverages. There was a WhatABurger next door to the gas station so I picked up dinner too.

I watched the sunset on the beach and retired to my room for some blogging.



Day 14
Winnie, TX to Corpus Christi, TX
515 kms