{"id":1027,"date":"2013-10-04T19:06:58","date_gmt":"2013-10-05T00:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/?p=1027"},"modified":"2013-10-04T19:06:58","modified_gmt":"2013-10-05T00:06:58","slug":"2013-crossing-deserts-day-one-roads-less-travelled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/2013\/10\/04\/2013-crossing-deserts-day-one-roads-less-travelled\/","title":{"rendered":"2013 Crossing Deserts: Day One Roads Less travelled"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By\u00a0 some miraculous action there is WIFI reaching my campsite. I traveled over 380 miles to get here, Seminole Canyon.\u00a0 As the sun sets, I think back to the start of this Journey, less than 10 hours ago.\u00a0 I had barely slept six hours, after frantically trying to get all my stuff packed last night.\u00a0 There was a last minute trip to the camping supply store to get something that would allow me to stay warm in my 40 degree sleeping bag, when the night temperatures get below that.\u00a0 I also expected to face windier than usual conditions, so new spikes for the tent were in order.
\nI finally got to bed past midnight, but I could not quite sleep.\u00a0 The mental check list kept on ticking in my mind.\u00a0 Indeed, there were still things to be done early in the morning, such as resetting the message to the GPS transponder that reports my position every 10 minutes during the journey.\u00a0 But finally sleep came.
\nI was up at six, and while Sandra prepared some breakfast burritos I finished the bike loading.\u00a0 Joe and Don, ever faithful friends, came by to see me off, and to pray for the trip, and for the mission of the journey, the ongoing need to spread the word about human trafficking, and raise funds to assist victims.
\nI was off finally, a bit after 7:30, and worked my way out of Houston, wading through the morning rush-hour traffic.\u00a0 I headed south on 59, looking for my usual spot to intersect with Alternate 90, and then it was West for the rest of the day.\u00a0 This is my usual route when I head West for any reason.\u00a0 It snakes and rolls through small towns, and soon enough you start encountering hills and curves.\u00a0 All of this is denied to the Interstate traveler.\u00a0 Around east Bernard, home to one of the Houston Texans unsung heroes, the current punter, a nagging question crept into my mind: “had I packed a flat repair kit?”\u00a0 I knew I had packed the electric pump, but could not recall the plugging kit. I tried to talk myself out of the worries by thinking that I had never had a flat, but then again, I always have had a plugging kit.\u00a0
\nAt around 100 miles, I decided to take a quick break and rode into the Halletsville town square.\u00a0 Right in front of me was an Auto Store.\u00a0 Well heck, what better timing.\u00a0 I popped in and got a plugging kit.
\nThe journey continued through familiar towns, including Shiner, home to one of my favorite beers, and Gonzales, home to the only place I know where you can still visit the old jail, and see the gallows they used to execute prisoners.\u00a0 I usually cut north when I get to Gonzales, so the road less traveled started here for me as I continued west.\u00a0 I rode past Seguin, and got on to I-10 briefly to get through San Antonio\u00a0 Past San Antonio it was back to 90 and Castroville came along.\u00a0 Perfect spot to get one of my road trip staples, BLT.\u00a0 From there Hondo was the last town that I remember by name, until I crossed Del Rio.\u00a0 From there, a wonderful sight as I crossed the Amistad reservoir, and briefly after that had a short visit with a very polite border patrol agent.\u00a0\u00a0
\nSeminole Canyon is not far from the Amistad.\u00a0 The road starts showing signs that you are entering canyon lands. The highway descends, and cuts into the rocks.\u00a0 Signs of the desert are everywhere.\u00a0 Cacti and light purple flowers, along with euphorbias line the roads in the rocky landscape.\u00a0 Peace begins to settle in my mind.
\nAs I set my tent, and prepare for a windy, but dry night, I have my first encounter of the trip.\u00a0 As always, a motorcycle loaded with camping gear attracts people, and seeds conversation.\u00a0 A gentleman wants to know what year the BeMWu is, and where have I gone.\u00a0 As the conversation develops we get to the purpose of the journey.\u00a0 One for the good guys.<\/p>\n

Good night \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0 some miraculous action there is WIFI reaching my campsite. I traveled over 380 miles to get here, Seminole Canyon.\u00a0 As the sun sets, I think back to the start of this Journey, less than 10 hours ago.\u00a0 I had barely slept six hours, after frantically trying to get all my stuff packed last night.\u00a0… Read More »2013 Crossing Deserts: Day One Roads Less travelled<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[43,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-43","category-journey"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2o6Hc-gz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1027"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1028,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions\/1028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}