Day 32: April 5, Shepherd to Silsbee

We made the mistake of dawdling a bit when we woke in Shepherd, and rather than making a quick exit we wound up in an interminable line of our fellow Shepherd Sanctuary guests to use the kitchen and bathroom. So for no good reason we finally rolled out around 9am and resumed our trek in East Texas, as the hills dwindled even more and the tree and ranch-lined roads went on and on.

It was a fairly easy day of riding, we were thinking of making it a long haul of 90 miles to Kirbyville but instead stopped in Silsbee because the NCAA basketball Final Four was on at 5 and we wanted to make sure we were in a good position to watch it. As we approached Silsbee we suddenly slammed on our breaks: in a wooden bar/shack on the side of the road, dozens of pickup trucks and Harley motorcycles were lined up for what appeared to be a BBQ cook off! As we decided whether or not to go in, a lady outside in a full leather suit waved at us and yelled “Y’all hungry? Come on!” So we did.

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Nothing could really capture the people watching we did, but here’s a small slice

Unfortunately we seemed to arrive just as the trophy ceremony was taking place, and therefore the eating was over. But we did hang out for a few minutes, soaking in everything we saw and heard: cowboy hats, head-to-toe camouflage, head-to-toe leather, Keystone lights as far as the eyes could see, “Just you two? Riding through here? I know y’all are carrying guns. What? You’re not?! You’re crazy!”

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Wings and fried pickles and cowboys and country music

We stopped at the grocery store in Silsbee to get some provisions and headed over to the RV Park where we were camping. We made fast friends with the Park hostess, Miss Rita, who gave us a tour on her golf cart and then brought us out some freshly baked and delicious cake. Right next door was the Texas Honky Tonk, clearly a local hot spot where they agreed to put on our basketball games. Surrounded by cowboys, crappy beer and fried food, we made an evening of it until the indoor cigarette smoking became too much, and we finished off our evening eating non-fried food and watching basketball in the RV common area. RV Parks are the best.