Pat and Sari's Honeymoon Bike Ride

Sunday, April 06, 2008
Galveston, TX to Pearland, TX
72 miles (1899 total miles)

This morning began refreshingly cool with high, puffy clouds. We packed up the tent and all our stuff and were treated to Belgian waffles, fruit, and other goodies by the cook at the RV park. By 8:15, we set off down the rest of Galveston Island towards the San Luis Pass. The island narrowed as we went and we had lots of views of the West Bay on one side and the Gulf Coast on the other. The houses along the road were grand shore houses and very interesting to look at. There were also some stretches of open land and a few pastures with cattle or horses. It was very pleasant riding along listening to the ocean surf with few cars to worry about. After about 10 miles, we came to the end of the island and went over the mile-and-a-half long San Luis bridge. The bridge was low over the water and we could see several people camping and fishing on the shores on both sides of the bridge. Approaching the bridge, there were large, fancy developments with beautiful landscaping - many flowering hedges and oleander bushes, ponds and fountains. It was very lush and luxurious looking.

We were in Brazoria County on the other side of the bridge and went another 13 miles on islands with coast beaches on one side and bay or marshes on the other. There were a few small communities but mostly we rode past surf and scruffy plants. Very scenic. We got to the end of the islands and reached another milestone - this was the southernmost point of our trip! From there, we took a right turn onto Route 332, going over a very high bridge over another Intracoastal Waterway. This road went on for about 20 miles and was mostly lined with industrial buildings and refineries. It was not at all scenic for the most part, although it did have a good shoulder and we had a mild tail wind. From here, we got onto Rt. 288, which we took for the next 40 miles, nearly all the rest of the way to our destination. By this time, the sky was completely cloudless and becoming very warm. We went through a few interesting areas, especially the town of Angleton, the county seat of Brazoria County, which had some interesting buildings, but we were not much in the mood for stopping to sight-see. 288 had a good shoulder most of the time, although one long stretch had an interesting variation on rumble strips - they had these white blobs that looked like giant chiclets spaced evenly across the shoulder that Pat had to try to steer us between. We were glad when that bit was over. The sun was quite scorching, even though the humidity was low so the temperature wasn't unpleasant, but our sunblock didn't seem to be a match for the Texas sun.

It was a long day - 72 miles in 6 hours of bike time - and we arrived hot, sweaty and tired at Sarah's house by 4:45. We played with Amanda & Rand and talked with Sarah for a while, barely having the energy to update our website - but we couldn't let all our readers down! Tomorrow we have a much-needed rest day, which will be filled up with a long list of things we need to do.