Day 34: Silsbee, Texas

Shepherd Sanctuary: We arrived at a brand new camp for us last night, but C2C had used Shepherd Sanctuary in Shepherd, TX, in 2014.  It is nearly impossible to describe in words about this place.  It is owned and was created by 2 wonderful ladies named Peach and Connie. They told us they have been working on the place since 2008.  It seems like a place that will never be really "finished." They are like the female version of American Pickers TV reality show.  They love to take old things and repurpose them, and they do it beautifully.  It does not look at all like Sanford & Son and looks instead like something out of House Beautiful. They have probably 8-10 cabins, set up in sort of a maze and each a unique treat to the eyes. All rooms/cabins can be rented.

We were all scheduled for tent camping, and Jeff and I had already taken showers in one of the 3 outdoor, very rustic shower facilities.  Then we discovered we had won some sort of secret lottery, and our bags were moved to a gorgeous loft suite with a 4-poster bed surrounded by twinkling Christmas-like lights.  Everywhere you looked in the room, you saw more treasures and comfortable furnishings.  In fact, this was the most welcoming place you could ever find.  It just felt like you could plop down anywhere and make yourself at home.  Though we felt incredibly guilty for having such luxurious accommodations (which Bubba gave up for us--how do we say thank you to that!?), a fellow rider (Eddy) told us a story early in the trip on his birthday with the moral of the story being, if someone gives you a gift, you should gratefully and humbly accept it, thereby giving a gift to the giver, so this is what we did.  We try to always pay it forward; so there was a huge walk-in shower downstairs that we kept directing riders to as they came in and we were happy someone was able to enjoy this feature.


Today was 61 miles from Shepherd to Silsbee.  It was a pretty uneventful day, with even the terrain being pretty even and just lots of pine trees lining the route.  Sorry for that boring synopsis, but really it was one of those days.

Rain threatened all day, but once again we arrived at camp to full sun and hot temperatures, this is actually a positive thing.  We would rather bike all day under the clouds with no rain and come into the full, hot sun at camp when we are done for the day.

UK Update:  Happy Birthday Tim!  We wish you a wonderful birthday and many more to come.  Your dad is a joy to have met and take part in this journey we are on.