Friday, August 11, 2017

Day 4

I got up from the "Best Value Inn" and anxiously headed to the breakfast room hoping for a banana and some juice. No such luck.  A pipe had broken and the room had soaked floors and counters so they closed it for the day.

I did lock my handlebars on my bike. I never did this on my old bike for fear of taking off and taking a tumble. I created an ingenious two part solution to reminding me to unlock the bars.  I put my TSA lock through a decorative hole on my cruise control clamp and a rubber wristband around the throttle and brake. Worked like a charm. 




I left on an empty stomach but not feeling the hunger ad much as I was feeling the need to ride.   I was determined to see that Eiffel Tower.  When I made it I found a gentleman cleaning the parking lot. He told me at one time the tower was made of wood but a tornado came through and knocked it over so they rebuilt it out of metal. The tower is now over 80 feet tall. He said at that time it was the second tallest Eiffel Tower in the world until the city of Paris, Tennessee built one that was 4 inches taller. So then they became the third tallest. That is until someone had the ingenious idea to put a cowboy hat on top. Back to second-place they wept. Then Las Vegas built one that was extremely tall. Just put them back into third place.  Just a few feet away from the tower was the local veterans memorial. It was extremely complicated and very well-built.








For this trip I have purpose to take the back roads. I stopped along several small towns on my way to Killeen.  In Wortham I ate at Joe Fridays. It's a great diner decorated with fantastic Americana. I ordered the 1/3 pound cheeseburger with lemon pepper fries. The lemon pepper was just a little bit too much for me but thankfully I had some ranch dressing to go along with it. My waitress was a young lady named Carson. She was in school studying radiology as well as court reporting. She was very friendly and checked on me several times. My meal came to $10.78. I hardly ever leave a tip over 20% but I was so impressed with Carson that I left her a $10 bill. The service was fantastic the environment was inviting and if you ever find yourself anywhere close you should stop in.






I finally made it to my cousin's home. 
I took this picture to send to my mother. I love the look on my cousin's wife's face.



I spent a little time in his office just doing a little goofing off.


Later my cousin's wife treated me to a light coloring of my eyebrows.  



I also had a cup of English tea with Milk.  Catherine is from England and really knows how to make this. 


Off to bed I went.  Looking forward to a full day tomorrow. 


2 comments:

  1. Yea! So happy you got to spend time with Shannon and Catherine!

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  2. Sounds like a great trip so far. I hope you continue to have a great ride, and safe travels.

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