Mandeville to Seguin -

We got an early start today – I believe we were on the road by 7 a.m. Out destination was Seguin, TX, which is about 500 miles west of Mandeville.

The first couple of hours were cool, and the only real traffic was in Baton Rouge. We stopped for a comfort break and coffee at a Louisiana welcome center. If you are familiar with I-10, there is an 18-mile section that is elevated and crosses a swamp. The rest area is near the western end of that section of the highway.

We signed the guest book and poured a cup of coffee. (It was terrible.) The host invited us to look around and to go out to the “butterfly garden.” There were no butterflies, but there were a number of bronze animal statues.

It was starting to rain, so we donned our rain gear. There wasn’t very much rain, but we did manage to stay dry.

Later in the morning we stopped for gas and a cup of good coffee at a Pilot station. We took off our rain gear because the sun was out and it was hot and humid.

There was a line of dark clouds to the south, and it looked like we just might get out in front of the storm as we sailed along with the flow of the traffic. Then we hit a jam-up.

We were in a stop-and-go situation for a few miles, and the delay was long enough for the southerly winds to blow the storm right over us. We had to move through traffic to the shoulder and put the rain gear back on as it poured.

The traffic cleared and the rain stopped. We pulled off into a rest area for lunch. The picnic tables were under covered pavilions, so we had a dry picnic while the rain soaked the bikes.

On went the rain gear. It rained and then it didn’t. Then we hit another traffic jam. Once we hit downtown Houston, the traffic was much lighter–and for me, more dangerous.

My eye caught something just to my right. It was the hood of a car that pulled into my lane without looking. I swerved a bit, glared back at him, and cranked on the throttle as a big SUV passed me on the left. The miscreant must have been pretty scared as he backed way off.

We stopped at a Buc-ee’s, with its 100 gas pumps and giant store, for gas and a photo. The rain gear got neatly stowed.

We had about 120 miles to go to our hotel and it looked like we might miss the rain coming up from the south. Such was not the case. We stopped to put the rain gear back on. The delay allowed most of the storm to pass to the north, but we still went through a couple of miles of rain.

We made it safely to our hotel, met our friend from Silver City who is returning there after visiting a friend in St. Pete, and had dinner at the Italian restaurant next door.