Thunderstorm played out b4 bed. Several times during the night the weather radio warning went off but the  warning was maritime. Hot sleep, kicked off blanket, just flannel sheet.

Plan is to drive into Texas to Beaumont, find a bike shop & learn about selected trails. Stopped @ visitors’ center for directions. There are many unbright people out there. Found a bike shop, another unbright person.

Plan is to ride 2 lakes rec area as there is an 8 mile loop that dries quickly after rain. Rural low land Texas. Humid & dead flat w/ lots of standing h2o. Fortunately 2 lakes is just up of the flats. $6.00 entry: USFS includes shower.

Road still damp from earlier shower. I am stoked: Texas makes 39 states and I get to ride after 2 rain days. Remarkable how well the trail drained. Rain clouds dropped down. Temp in upper 60. Summer gear, figured if it rained I would be warm enough. And I was. At first it was difficult to discern humidity from rain. Rode 2 pretty hard laps. flowy twisty hand cut all ST, only 300′ vert in 2 laps. Heavy understory making bush bashing not desirable.

Wore bike clothes in cool shower to rinse off trail debris. Trail remained relatively dry & unscathed during gentle t-storm & my 2 laps.

Last night another gulley washer. This time in the AM the trails @ Lincoln parish had puddles. No way is it going to dry out. Nix on riding Bodeau also. Decided to drive S in LA seeking cajun influence and then over into Texas. Haven’t stumbled onto them yet.

Drove 2 lane roads. Houses run the normal gamut of well done albeit smaller here and the dumps. Pretty flat, some fields had standing h2o in the crop rows. Levees are big. When it rains the h2o has little place to go.

Found a Walmart that does not allow overnight parking.

Saw 2 dead wild pigs off the side of the road. What attracted me was a crow standing on top of something black. 2 pigs together, no idea how they met their demise. Added to my photo collection.

Flutters are all but gone and leg knot almost gone.

Made just N of Lake Charles and was thinking of staying in a XG but spotted an office bldg parking lot. Hot, 76 deg & humid. Forecast is for another bad T-storm. I turned on weather radio to “alarm” setting. Before I finished my lentil stew dinner it shrieked on w/ warning for severe t-storm w/ hail. I quickly drove next door to a drive in  bank under their covered teller stations. Sky got dark, no wind, & then  it hit: winds, pelting rain, lightening, thunder but no hail. Better safe than pelted.

I spoke w/ Paul @ Sportsmobile again and decided to splurge for a solar panel addition. He told me yesterday Austin received golf ball size hail that damaged car bodies & cracked windshields but didn’t harm the solar collectors. Hearing the body damage spurred me to the bank overhang.

Forecast is for rain tomorrow also.

Tomorrow is Texas working to Austin. Van work is scheduled for Tues & Wed.

Found small hole in balance ball that lets air out. Need to find right glue & patch to hopefully seal it. Dipped it in lake @ XG no bubbles. Washed it off under the hose & discovered small stream of bubbles. Stopped @ a Walmart believing they would have beach toy repair kits. Bought the one they had for patching pools.

During the night a violent T-storm struck: big rain, lightening close by, not much thunder. Left weather radio turned on set to alarm. Woke to alarm noise announcing tornado warning but not for Lincoln parish. Listened to rain pound on roof. And then it quit.

Hard rain means trails will be closed. Forecast calls for more T-storms with drying on Sunday.

Setting up appointment @ Sportsmobile in Austin for this Tuesday for battery install. Planning around the date. I have ride possibilities on way or @ Austin. Still cogitating.

Beth Thames article printed in the Huntsville paper:

http://www.al.com/living/huntsvilletimes/bthames.ssf?/base/living/1237713384176150.xml&coll=1#continue

Visited w/ James Ramsaur, park director, trail builder, mtn bike promoter, growing the pie person. His Lincoln Parish trail has been written up several times in MBA, one time as the best trail in the state. Great guy  & interesting.

More later.

Later:

As I remember the flutterings I felt in my chest that I freaked on occured right after for me a brutal ride @ Monte Sano with Freddy and Chad. They were pedaling along talking but I was really pushing it to just see them. No warm up, just drop the gears & hammer. I figured that my heart didn’t eplode or seize up that these flutters would go away. Last night they were the strongest yet so I resigned myself to finally learn the mediacl reason and hope, just hope that the heart wasn’t the problem. I was directed to a private practice DR. I told his nurse that I saw an armadillo and she said she shot one last night. I asked w/ what and she said 12 guage that is kept in a cabinet by front door. She hunts geese w/ it. And then she shaved patches on my chest for the ekg stickies. The young DR read the graph and said my heart is right down the middle. His answer: acid reflux causing the esophagus to spasm and is felt right at the heart. I am back on proton pump inhibitors for 2 weeks to calm the reflux.

Sunny day and h2o evaporated but not fast or complete enough for the trails to be opened. James let me stay a second night for yesterday’s work. Clouds dropped late in afternoon and after dark another t-storm. Darn. Trails can be closed after rain.

Park has small lake in it. Today there were several fisherman tempting the fish. I visited w/ a maybe teenager spin casting for large mouth bass. He called me Sir frequently. Well mannered & I learned about fishing and crayfish burrows that can show up above h2o line.

Bought a pound of boiled crayfish. No big deal just like baby lobster: you break the tail from the body, break the shell away from the tail, & squeeze the meat from the tail. Like shrimp. Could eat pounds of them.

Spoke w/ Sportsmobile about my battery addition & learned way lot about batteries. Solar power charger means almost always having a complete charge on the battery. Might be something to step up to.