There is this great scene from “Good Morning Vietnam” where Robin Williams describes a hot day in Viet Nam. His monologue would be an apt description of today’s weather as we travelled from Winnie to Austin. The signs early on were not promising in that the morning news show from Houston said that today was already a record ‘hot day’. It was not clear whether the high today (in the mid 30’s) was the hottest June 3 on record or whether it was the hottest day in Houston thus far this year. Either way, it was hot.
The roads were otherwise non-descript. Straight pavement between A and B for the most part. In planning the route there was an attempt to build in some ‘motorcycle roads’ based on internet information, however the selections proved to be underwhelming.
Leaving Winnie we followed I-10 west to TX-61 and then looped around Turtle Bayou and then north on TX-583 which was a pleasant ride, with tree cover providing good shade against the sun pouring in from the east. The pleasant ride ended at Liberty where we picked up TX-146 to Moss Hill. This was a faster, straighter route without protective cover, so the growing heat of the day started to penetrate.
The roads did not improve much as we looped through Cleveland, Shepherd and Cold Spring on our way to Conroe. Only the short section into Conroe was to our taste. Doing it again we would likely spend more time on the network of FM or ‘Farm’ Roads in the area.
Heading west on TX-105 we stopped at a Starbucks by a marina on Lake Conroe, and then topped off our fuel at the adjacent Shell station. After that it was just endless super slab under the relentless Texas sun.
At Brenham we popped onto TX-290 and then TX-237 where there was a nice stretch of road through Round Top. There were some really funky businesses in this quaint little town. If not for the need to maintain airflow we might have been tempted to stop.
Just north of La Grange we stopped for a quick break before our final push to Austin. While there we were approached by a young Hispanic boy. With earplugs in it wasn’t at first clear what he was on about, and then he clarified that he was offering ‘Tamales’ for sale. Tempting as that was we refrained and saved our appetite for dinner. We arrived in Austin well ahead of the massive thunderstorm system moving into the area later in the evening.