El Camino Real Tour Update - November 1, 2005

Midway to Crockett
First off, let’s talk about the motel we stayed in last night. The motel I booked unseen. I know Frank and Mikail want to talk about the motel we stayed in on the south side of Madisonville. I don’t want to say it was a dump, but it was in need of a little (scream: A LOT!) work. The owner, a pleasant older man of South Asian extraction, seemed to be waiting for me to say “uh, we’re going to look around town a little more,” in fact, he kept giving me cues to do so. I’ll tell you why I didn’t.

First off, Frank and Mikail said it was fine. Second, the guy was doing all of this work on it – when I walked in the office, a fellow was replacing the entire floor. It is a 1930’s two-story house that fronts the little cottages. And, even though we had passed a brand new Best Western out on I-45 that hadn’t show up on my web search when I booked, I figured anyone who would be willing to make the investment in the old property we were looking at should get our business.

It was indeed a humble place. At five o’clock, all sorts of people who were staying there showed up, apparently coming back from work in the area. In fact, he had that place almost filled. Most of them drove late model cars and trucks. Guess the owner has good karma or something. Hope we’re taking some of it with us.

Tuesday morning we settled on breakfast at the Deli Section of the Brookshire Brothers grocery store. This fellow introduces himself and asked if we were the bicycle guys. Turns out, he does a couple thousand miles himself annually in the local area. I ask if there is a bicycle club here and he says he IS the bicycle club. He’s Rick Earp (pronounced “Arp”) and he says there are many miles of great country roads around Madisonville. We exchange cards and head out of town.

Did I mention that it is a glorious morning? Low of 47 degrees and perfectly clear. The rain has cleared the air and there is a nice, cool north wind. We drive back to eight miles outside of Midway where we packed up yesterday in the face of the closing storms. Frank and I get set up and start clocking miles while Mikail goes on ahead. Eight miles ahead in Midway, OSR ends and we turn left onto Highway 21 East. This will be our highway for the rest of our journey in Texas.

The north wind isn’t much of an issue until we get to the Trinity River. Once we cross the mile-long bridge (we choose for the first time to have Mikail follow us in the car with flashers) we are on a wide river plain and the wind really closes in on us. We keep at it, though and eventually work our way back up the next bluff and into some protection of the trees.

Just out of Crockett, Frank and I stop to stretch and a rancher coming out to check her mail sees us and brings us a couple bottles of cold water. Her name is Carolyn and we appreciate her thoughtfulness.

Two miles out of Crockett we take a road I have seen on the map. It is CR 3300 and it veers off from Highway 21. It is an old asphalt mix in remarkably good condition and appears to be the old highway into town. As we get closer to town it becomes San Antonio Road, a clear sign that it is part of the old road system. There is no traffic, very pastoral as we hit houses on the edge of the Crockett town grid. It would make a wonderful linear park for cycling for the local residents and a great signed entry for touring cyclists.

Now into downtown. We find the Camp Street Club, a famous nightclub written up in Texas Monthly. The clerk at the nearby furniture store says the owner are usually there playing guitars but the place is locked up tight. Across the street is a statue of blues legend Sam “Lightning” Hopkins on the guitar. Frank gets a picture of me getting some chord pointers from Lightning.

I visit the Chamber of Commerce while Frank logs a few more miles. Tim Culp of the chamber confirms that CR 3300 is in fact the oldest paved road in Houston County. We talk bicycle tourism. Crockett is part of some large multi-day events that Frank has ridden. Crockett Chamber of Commerce is part of a group of Chambers of Commerce in East Texas (also Nacogdoches, San Augustine, Toledo Bend and Natchitoches) that have joined and have a website about their part of El Camino Real de los Tejas. We have referenced it on our site here a number of times.

Tomorrow, after much anticipation (on my part anyway), we shall enter completely into the Great Piney Woods of East Texas.

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