Weather forecasting

October 3rd/09 - Crystal Beach, TX
Crystal Palace Hotel
Mileage: 104 km
Total mileage: 4,430 km

From Surfside we cycled north along the coast to the Galveston Island Bridge. Again, we cycled into a headwind. Slow going. We began to see hurricane damage from hurricane Ike which occurred in September 08. Mostly just damage in this area, not total destruction.

Just prior to the bridge we stopped at a roadside store for some refreshments. Here I learned from one of the locals that a six pack of beer and a joint would be good medicine for my back problem. I think I'll stick with Advil unless it gets really, really bad.

As we drank our coffee, I looked at a cloud mass coming from the south east. It looked ugly so we decided to stay at the store until it passed.

We have learned from locals and from experience, that this is definitely the rainy season along the Gulf shore. We have also learned that the weather here does not seem to come in as a front but comes in as localized cloud masses, which can pack quite a punch. Not all areas will get these showers, but all areas will get some at one time or another. In any case, the cloud hit us and a pounding rain ensued. The rain was more or less over in about 20 minutes as expected. That's usually as long as these showers last.

Proud of our new found weather forecasting expertise we left the store, somewhat dry and began cycling across the bridge toward Galveston. We weren't quite smart enough to realize that the cloud we had avoided was also north bound and we cycled into it. Unless we were to stop cycling for the day, we would have to continue in the rain which we did. Luckily the rain is warm and not so uncomfortable anyway.

Galveston Island is very scenic, passing among huge beach homes and fancy condominiums. Again, little to no protection. People don't seem to learn from experience. 26 years ago when I had cycled this area a hurricane had wiped this entire area out.

We cycled along the sea wall at Galveston, noting repair work that was still going on from Ike last fall.

Pretty city, lots of people enjoying their Saturday on the beach.

We took the Bolivar Ferry to the Bolivar Peninsula. From here we continued to cycle along the coast, now in a north east direction.

The Bolivar Peninsula was hit very hard by hurricane Ike. We learned from a local that, just on the Peninsula, 3,600 homes were either totally demolished or damaged beyond repair. From the local paper we learned that Ike took 10 lives and an additional 4 people went missing and haven't been located. Lots of devastation could be seen. Repairs were in the works and as we travelled we could see lots and lots of pilings where houses had been. One of the locals who was rebuilding told us that after the devastation, trucks hauled debris 24 hours a day for days on end. I didn't ask, but wanted to, why they were rebuilding there??

We stayed at the Crystal Palace Hotel, which was not a 'Palace' at all. It was a dive, but it was our only choice since Ike had wiped out all the hotels and only a portion of this place was open. So it was our home for the night, having made a wise decision to stay out of the weather. The incoming clouds from the Gulf were black and stacked up to the heavens. During the night there was a horrendous storm, but we had gotten dry after our cycle in the rain and stayed dry.

Deby was not as impressed with the local paper as the paper was with a local youngster's trophy Alligator kill. This young fella shot a 10' 8" alligator in the area we were riding through. Something Deb probably would have been better off not reading about or seeing the picture of!