finished early today after a couple of long hard days slogging through headwinds and hills. Gonna go grab some scoff, then spend all night sticking stuff up for you lot
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Mount Pleasant, Texas
just arrived in the wee town of Mount Pleasant, Texas, staying at the KOA campsite and hoovering up all its wifi
finished early today after a couple of long hard days slogging through headwinds and hills. Gonna go grab some scoff, then spend all night sticking stuff up for you lot
finished early today after a couple of long hard days slogging through headwinds and hills. Gonna go grab some scoff, then spend all night sticking stuff up for you lot
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7 comments:
Am looking for flights to come and join you in Denver...leave agreed in principle at work, hopefully will book by the end of the week :)
sweet! dude!
HI Kelvin,
Wow sounds like an amazing trip so far. Loved the photos and think you've missed a calling .....what with all this imagery in words!!!
Thins you've been there too long already though as you appear to be using words I haven't even heard of!!
Take care, have fun and cycle safe.
Love Lisa
Just been catching up on your story so far. Been away with work in deepest darkest Balearic Islands - back in the fray now.
Sounds great so far.
Am definitely jealous!
Enjoy...
Dom.
hi lisa, glad you are enjoying it, i can only write the imagery stuff when i've had a couple glasses of wine ;-) it's hard to do it after a day's riding, tends to be just the straightforward stuff then. Glad you're reading it!
dom - tried to text you back but it bounced, will try again later. You would love it out here man, it is AWESOME
And then there were 3?
Mount Pleasant - excellent! Is it NW to Paris from here?
Here's tonight's History lesson - just tell me to shut up if you want -
The lands you are in were part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, when the US bought just about everything west of the Mississippi up to the Continental divide from France for $15 Million, thus ending Napoleons interest in the continent. If only Napoleon had foreseen the present credit-crunch, you may have been sipping a Beaujolais, rather than a Bud. That's why he was a soldier, rather than an economist, I guess.
That purchase brought to a close centuries of fighting for control for the region between the French, Spanish, Mexicans, British and American settlers.
The first European to travel in this area, as far as I am aware, was the Spaniard Hernando de Soto, who landed in Tampa Bay in 1539, with 400 foot-soldiers, some fighting dogs and a small herd of hogs for food. From this base he rampaged the southern lands, crossing the Red River about where you are now in 1541, seeking gold and taking no prisoners.
His expedition was a ramshackle and brutal affair, but it paved the way for Jolliet and Marquette, and later the swashbuckling Frenchman Réne-Robert, Cavalier de La Salle, who eventually made the link between the Great Lakes, via the Illinois River, through to the Mississippi and down to the Gulf in 1682. La Salle was killed somewhere near the Brazos River in 1687, along with 6 other members of his party in a violent quarrel.
The Spanish heard of these French 'intruders', and sent out 5 sea and 6 land expeditions to find and expel the French, who were threatening to push a wedge between their settlements in Mexico and Florida. "Prompt action is necessary to pluck out the thorn which has been thrust into the heart of America" But apart from a few children living with the Tajes and a couple of captives rescued, nothing came of the search for the supposed La Salle colony, and the Spanish retreated back to the Rio Grande for now. Of course, they would be back. Hasta la vista.
If you think that was a mouthful, Kelv - wait 'till I start on Denver and Kerouac!
Cooch
ah yeah, meant to say that natchitoches (pronounced nackadish) is the oldest settlement in the louisiana purchase, very nice and pretty it was too. Didn't take any photos though.
like the instant history lesson, keep 'em coming!
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