Relax! The title doesn’t mean that Susan has finally had enough and left me to carry on by myself 🙂 We’ve actually now arrived in Texas – the Lone Star state.

Why is it known as the Lone Star State you’re asking yourself. And if you’re not asking yourself this question then you’ve got to ask yourself why you’re not asking this question because its the question on everyone else’s lips. Come on, stay with me and I will tell you about the Alamo.

In the 1820’s, Texas was actually part of Mexico and was settled by around 300 American families. They were encouraged there by the Mexican dictator of the time to create a buffer zone between Mexico and the Comanche tribe.

In time, the Texan Americans and the Mexicans didn’t see eye to eye. Cultural differences – don’t quote me but I believe it was largely down to the Americans wanting to put ketchup on their Mexican food. They’re still putting it on everything today!

So the Mexicans sent a 5,000 strong army to sort out the rag tag Texan revolutionaries who were ensconced in the Alamo. 187 Texans, including Jim Bowie (bowie knife) and Davy Crocket, held out for 13 days but were eventually defeated and killed in the Mexican victory.

If you want to get a true life movie version of the Alamo story then it has to be the 1960 John Wayne movie ‘The Alamo’. Directed and produced by Big John, starring Big John as Davy Crocket and, wait for it, Richard Widmark as Jim Bowie. Movie gold!

Such was the American outrage, people flocked to Texas to support the cause and the American army, under the command of Sam Houston (now you know where the city name comes from), quickly defeated the Mexicans. Texas was now an independent country and for 9 years thereafter the Lone Star flag flew over the Republic.

Here’s us entering Texas – we didn’t have time to muck about with a selfie of the two of us so here’s something better.

Oh I know you’re missing your pictures of Susan, the poor wee soldier who pedals us across continents and puts up with me at the same time. So here’s your Susan picture to even it up.

What’s she doing I hear you ask? Well she’s certainly not fixing the bloody puncture cause that’s my job. She’s adding some interest to a picture that would otherwise just be a bike lying on its side.

What happened? Well, we were leaving Kinder at the beginning of our 77 miles to Orange when the tyre blew. Not just the inner tube but the sidewall of the tyre ripped and went with a whoosh.

Now please bear with me at this point as I’m going to go into a little detail for people that know about tyres. They’re kind of tyre fetish people. If you don’t care about tyres then look at the picture of Susan with forlorn sadness on her face and just skip a couple of paragraphs.

We’ve been using Schwalbe Big Apple tyres on the tandem and they’re ideally suited to the bike – they just ‘roll’ really well with a couple of lardies. Unfortunately, they’re not the hardest wearing of tyres. Incidentally, after four front wheel punctures we had changed the front tyre for a Continental Contact Plus Travel in New Orleans. Doesn’t roll as well but it has better puncture resistance. We left the Big Apple on the rear.

This morning the rear Big Apple went just like Eve had taken a bite out of it. Now in the Big Apple’s defence let me say that the roads in America are littered with all sorts of detritus. In Australia we really just came across dead kangaroos. Here in America I have to weave my way along the hard shoulder through odd bits of tyre, metal and wood. America clean up your roads!

The tyre was a gonner but, thankfully, we carry a spare. We smiled and the world was brighter. The rear tyre has now been replaced with a Schwalbe Marathon Supreme and this tyre is tougher than Charlton Heston. I could use a more modern movie star but I’m trying to be relevant to the people who read this blog 🙂

After the tyre was changed we had a great cycle to Orange and across the Texan border. The weather is decidedly cooler now. It won’t last but the skies are overcast and it’s in the mid 80’s F. We’re loving it.

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