Texas Citrus Fiesta, and a parade to remember the fallen

Mission, Texas has become our new home. The neighbor children are no longer afraid when I say "Hi" to them. The apartment maintenance guys always wave as they cruise along in their golf carts on their way to fix something or another. Like Galveston, we seem to be getting some friends around here, and have probably been here for a little bit too long. That's why I was so surprised when low and behold, I saw some unexpected bleachers on the side of the road. However close I feel to this community, I am out of the loop. Something big was about to happen, and I was just catching wind of it. Something was going on this weekend. Jen had overheard the barista in town talking about a parade that she would be working. My curiosity was piqued when I learned that there was going to be a parade. A parade for whom, for what, where, and most importantly when.

Since my time in New Orleans, parades have taken on a new meaning. When I learned the parade was for the Texas Citrus Fiesta, I started to imagine the armloads of grapefruits, oranges, lemons, and who knows what else that would be thrown from floats decorated in the aforementioned fruits. That however, would be indicative of a New Orleans style parade.

The main event for the Texas Citrus Fiesta would be Saturday evening. At seven p.m. sharp, the floats, bands, queens and kings, princesses, and military regiments would parade through town. We arrived a little early so we could sample some of the local fare like:

Hot Cheetos with nacho sauce.

Some of the worst barbecue I have ever had

Gulu had some hot cocoa:

This guy:

Onto the parade. The floats were decorated, but only sparingly in fruit slices. The overarching theme for the floats was Winter Texan R.V. Parkers who were honoring POW, MIA, and "the troops that gave some, and those that gave all."

The first place prize winner:

Some of the princesses:

Of course, motorcycles (and even in the dark you can tell they are Harleys):

And the never ending parade of cops. Unfortunately, this is how most of my photos turned out:

By the end of the parade, we had only caught one orange. It wasn't a hapless victim of a float either. The Pooper Scooper was filling his time in between picking up road apples by handing out fresh Texas citrus. Yum Valencia oranges, my favorite.

Benjamin

Connecticut and back to Galveston

A few days before flying out of Connecticut, Ben spent several long hours on the Internet, trying to figure out how to get us a ride from the Houston airport to Conroe, TX to get the motorcycle where we'd left it at Katie's parents house. His last ditch effort involved posting onto the Adventure Rider forum and asking for a ride. Surprisingly, despite numerous other attempts on rideshare websites to no avail, we had over five phone calls one after the other with offers from folks to pick us up. At one point, while still in Connecticut, Ben turns to me and asks, "Hey--tomorrow. Do you want to get picked up in a BMW?" and I, thinking he is joking, replied, "Yeah, totally." He was serious and we were picked up in a BMW the next day by Billy, a member on Adventure Rider who was exceptionally flexible (or as the joke became, "pliable") in picking us up, taking us to Conroe to get the bike and then inviting us back to his house in Humble, where we met his wife (and the better half of the motorcycle duo), Anna.

They were wonderful and funny and best of all had a lot of good advice about what to see, particularly in Mexico, and some times for maintaining the motorcycle. All I gathered from it was: white lithium lubricant for the chain. I will swear on this tip until the day I die or until it locks up our chain and we go flying from the bike. The other advice I received was from Anna; she told me to go to Guanajuato, Mexico,

and you could tell by the way she recommended it that it was more than just a destination for her, but a place she really, really loves. They showed us some of their photos, and they are definitely the crazy adventure riders types that I aspire to be.

We spent a few hours in downtown Houston in the Museum District. The de Menil Collection was pretty amazing--it is a multi-building museum free to the public and created around a private collection of art spanning from the prehistoric all the way to the 1990s (with new acquisitions). The docents were jerks (running around, tapping their pens, chatting and staring at you like you're about to steal something), but that doesn't detract from the quality of what we saw there.

What kills me is that I didn't realize that Houston had such an outstanding museum district. When you Google 'Things to do in Houston' the first two things that always come up are 'The Galleria' and 'The Houston/NASA Space Center.'

The Galleria is a SHOPPING MALL. The Space Center isn't really in Houston, or if it is, it is only because Houston is the size of many former Soviet countries. Ben and I also ran into the Houston Children's Museum for the hour that it was open, but we were treated like creepy, second-class citizens because we didn't have any children in tow. I am only 22. I am obviously still interested in how phones work and other industry-sponsored exhibits about oil, money and engineering. If you're ever in Houston, don't be turned off by the illustrious Galleria, although I secretly wanted to go see it, because I can only imagine how fabulous this place must be if it is THE BEST PLACE IN HOUSTON.

Now, we're back in Galveston; which is more and more like home everyday. This is bad when you are on a road trip, but good when you really like the place and the people. We're here until Tuesday, because the bike needs some er, maintenance and so we can do a couple of days of glorified yard/hurricane work for, as Ben likes to proclaim him, "the legendary Rex 'Wrecks' Bell." It's like doing yardwork for Bob Dylan or Lucinda Williams, I guess.

Kisses, Jennifer

lets get on with it

Wonderful. That is usually what i have to say when i get good news. Great news in fact. I just found out that I did in fact buy a battery with a warranty!!! Wonderful. NAPA auto parts was more than accommodating when I called them and let them know that the battery that I bought from them less than 4 months ago was dying. They told me that the battery had a 12 month warranty, and even though I didn't have my receipt, they would be happy to give me a new battery on warranty. So in the same breath I must thank our wonderful Couchsurfer friend Katie from Galveston TX for letting me borrow her car to go and drop off the old battery and pick up the new one. Thanks Katie!!!!



In addition Jen and I decided that we would go ahead with the purchase of the battery tender. We decided on the Deltran Waterproof 800 battery tender. The idea is that whenever we have stopped at a city and are working on the bike, or on financing our trip, we can keep the bike's battery plugged in and keep it charged, but not overcharged. I have the new battery plugged in right now in Conroe TX.



That brings me to the final note of this post. We are in Connecticut right now. Jen's family brought us up here for the holidays! While we are here we are having our boots resoled with Vibram soles. This will give our cowboy boots the traction we need to get through the Andes, and the Amazon. While still looking good enough to attend dinner parties and work banquets, biker rallies, and paint the inside of a house. Like this interior we completed at our friend Jet's house. It is a western themed room with this great Blaze Folley picture hanging on the wall.

So let the reminiscing begin. We will be in Connecticut for 3 weeks. almost as long as we were on the road from Seattle to New Orleans. Have we told you about that trip yet???


Benjamin

Before we leave Texas.

The Yamaha xs500 came with an alternate kick start for the very good reason that one day it knew you would find its battery dead. The starter wants to turn the engine over, but just doesn't have the power to do so. Almost all motorcyclists have come across this situation, and the same goes for most car owners as well. Some reminiscent memory of the lights being on when you went inside, or my usually habit of forgetting to turn the key off, drifts to mind as you sit there, cold, on a dead battery. We are lucky to have the alternative kick start on days when the bike isn't fully loaded, but i can just imagine the nightmare of jumping up and down on the motorcycle trying to kick start it with all our gear strapped on.

I digress, we have been having an issue with the bike not wanting to start up right away. Getting on the motorcycle and starting it up is a sort of ritual. I always ask Jen to wait to get on until I have it started. Most days it starts just fine. Perfect in fact. Usually all I need to do is touch the starter button and the bike fires up. On cold days the choke becomes a factor, and getting the idle set just right is always an issue. Since we left Louisiana the bike has been hard to start, very hard to start.

When I push the starter button a weak chug-chug emits as slowly the starter motor picks up a little steam. A slight scratching sound of unburnt fuel in the cylinders can be heard as the chug turns into va-va-va-va (I want to start but I am not going to do it) churning. I start to give it a little bit of throttle and the va-va gets quicker. At this point it seems that the engine is doing about twenty percent of the work and the starter motor is doing the other eighty. After about twenty seconds the ratio of work being done by the starter motor and by the engine turning its self over changes as the engine picks up all the slack and starts running on its own.

Before I go to the parts store and plunk down another 50 dollars for a new battery we are going to try to see if a battery tender will save the one we already have. A battery tender does just what the name says, it tends to the battery. It does this when it is plugged in and charging the battery with a current of house hold electricity. Battery tenders are more specifically used while motorcycles, boats, cars, and lawnmowers are parked, or garaged for the winter. For around 30 dollars battery tenders will keep your battery from dying of misuse, or in most cases just plain old non-use. The battery tender maintains a charge level in an unused battery without overcharging it. What I am suspecting is that our daily rides have not been enough to fully recharge the battery, and so we have been slowly draining it to where it now refuses to hold a charge. I need to do some more investigative work but I believe we should be able to install a battery tender and plug the motorcycle in on a daily basis to make sure it is fully charged everyday. I will let you know just how it goes once i have the answer to my dilemma.

Benjamin