Spirit Trees

A Spirit Tree

Over a year ago, we posted about the death and rebirth process here at An Old Man's Journey: What Happens When We Die. We have writtten about one rebirth option, for souls who have completed their paths, in the following post on the Covina Hermiticia blog: Spirit Trees

THINK GREEN
BLESSSED BE
COUGINA and AGGIE

Across Houston to Cypress: Riding in the Rain

We finally got some cycling in. Our friend and student, Nancy, had invited us to stay out in the pasture at her place in Cypress. (Of course, the house and conveniences were all available as well.) So we got Sabrina to give us a ride about halfway, and started riding on the White Oak Bayou trail from around the northwest corner of Loop 610.

It was great to be back on the bikes. It was raining lightly when Sabrina dropped us off, and continued to rain off and on all day. However,we thought it beat riding in the Houston hot sun by a long shot. The White Oak Bayou was beautiful, and we wished we could take it all the way to the end. If you have spent any time on the bayous in Houston, you know that the city seems far away, even though you know that it is nearby, and that there is an open view of those beautiful local cloud patterns.

After the Bayou, we got onto some busy streets. The height of excitement was when we missed the turn on the Google bike route and went over the 249 overpass at Beltway 8. Oops! We ended up on a major freeway. It was an adventure crossing the entrance ramps to get to the next exit, but we made it safely.

The next adventure was when the thunderstorm kicked in. We were on a two lane road with no shoulder, and school had just let out. We pulled the bikes off on the driveway of an empty lot, put on our raingear, and waited it out. I actually enjoyed being in the midst of the storm and the thunder.

After that, it was pretty uneventful. At one point, someone made a right turn into Cougina that forced him to stop for the vehicle. Other than that, the drivers were friendly and courteous. If you live in Houston, you know how stressed drivers are on rainy work days.

The sleeping barn.

We rode on into Nancy's pasture and relaxed. That's the old horse barn, and the red arrow points to the open space where we pitched the tent: Open on both ends to catch the breeze, but protected from the rain, so that no rainfly was necessary. The barn even had electric lighting if we wanted it. We have been loving it!

THINK GREEN
BLESSED BE
AGGIE and COUGINA

Across Texas to Deer Park

Illiki

We were both really hoping to ride across Texas. The problem was that the Google map showed 70 mi stretches between water and legal overnights, paid or unpaid. With the trailers, in the heat, this was too far for us. We had a friend interested in following us in her car, which would have allowed us to drop the trailers and ride as far as we could each day, but it didn't work out. Therefore, we rented a cute and peppy little Chrysler 200, bought a bike rack, and drove to Houston overnight.

It didn't help when we were informed on the last morning that the motel room we rented for a week at the Belmont motel in Roswell was really only for 6 nights! Fortunately, Avis was able to give us the car a day early with no problems. The Avis manager is an extremely courteous and helpful young man.

We drove straight to Deer Park to stay with Sabrina and Illiki Machek. That's the beautiful and talented young Illiki in the photo. (Too bad we didn't snap the photo when she was decked out on Saturday evening. We got the tired-after-school-and-athletic-practice look, and we like it just as well.) Unfortunately, we didn't get photos of their beautiful home, which has been completely updated and was such a pleasure to stay in. Sabrina made us completely comfortable, and Illiki is a hug master. Sabrina has known Cougina for decades, so there were great stories being told.

THINK GREEN
BLESSED BE
AGGIE and COUGINA