Day Five: South Padre Island to Livingston, Texas

Approximately 450 miles.

It was Tuesday already and time to start heading back north. We'd been gone for almost five days and knew it was time to start heading home.

Thus, we rode back across the three-mile bridge back to the mainland and turned our bikes north along the Texas Gulf Coast. We planned the hug the coast for most of the day and ride on North Padre Island around Corpus Christi.

It was a day of changes. We left the sunshine and warm breezes of South Padre Island and, almost as soon as we headed north, the skies turned gray and a light drizzle set in that would follow us most of the way. We also left the developed, urban area of South Padre and rode into the sparse open countryside that is South Texas. We started out riding alongside Jaguars and BMWs but soon found ourselves dodging tractor-trailers rigs.

At Corpus, we turned east again and rode over a much less impressive bridge onto North Padre Island. Again, the two islands were different as night and day. While South Padre has developed into a tropical resort area, North Padre is relatively undeveloped. Mustang Island has the large Mustang Island State Park and clumps of subdivisions and condos. We rode through the park and along the coast to Port Aransas at the north end of the Mustang Island.

We crossed over back to the mainland via the Port Aransas Ferry. The ferry hauls you over Redfish Bay into Aransas Pass. Miles later, we turned on U.S. Highway 59 (yes, the same one that runs through St. Joseph) and headed northeast to Victoria and Houston. The ride was pretty uneventful. Southeast Texas is richer and green than South Texas with row crops and livestock, but it's not what you'd call great scenery.

We made Houston by early evening and, after stopping for gas, decided to press on further north for a few miles. Back on the highway, we came upon one of the worst traffic accidents I've ever seen. We topped a hill and saw nothing but red brake lights as cars were slowing and stopping across most of the lanes. We swerved to avoid the stopped cars and managed to navigate around the snarl, but it wasn't without some anxious seconds.

As we passed, we saw four piles of crumpled steel and aluminum that used to be cars strewn across four lanes of the highway. It would have been a miracle if no one died in that crash.

Once rid of Houston, Eric turned east to see his grandparents, who live in Woodville. Denny, Dave and I continued north through Cleveland and stopped to grab a sandwich in the tiny town of Shepherd. As we wolfed down our hamburgers, a strong wind whipped through town and we could see the storms gathering on the horizon. We donned our rain gear and set out for Livingston, Texas.

In Livingston, we decided to stop for the night.

As always on motorcycle trips, we avoid chain hotels and restaurant in favor of local places. If that means bedding down in a fleabag motel for the night, so be it. But, as tired as we were after hundreds of miles of riding, even we couldn't stay at the Royal Inn in Livingston, Texas.

The place looked deserted but we ran the service bell and a woman appeared in a housecoat and sold us a room. But we changed our minds when we checked out the room. Mold was growing on the bathroom floor and walls. The bedding hadn't been washed in several days, if ever. The place smelled wet and moldy. So, after drawing stares from some of the other guests, we rode back to the office, got our money back and searched for a new hotel room.

Unfortunately, most of the motels were full so we settled on a nice room at the Hampton Inn. While checking in, Denny and I mentioned that we'd sampled the Royal Inn. The comment drew an odd look from the desk clerk. "Around here, we call it (another name)," she said, hinting that some of Livingston's "professional" girls worked out of the Royal. That could explain the weird looks as we were leaving.

Later that night, the weather turned nasty as a severe thunderstorm rolled through the area. Fortunately, we had pulled our motorcycles underneath the Hampton Inn's awning and they survived the night.