Day 36, Post 34: Lousiana! I passed through East Texas at Bob Weir, crossed the lazy meandering Sabine River into Louisiana and ended the day at Merryville, (so named because in the late 1800's it was easy to get liquor here (no longer, unfortunately), which earned the appellation of "that merry city". There's a museum here with a cabin, a stage, some tent spaces and a shower and bathroom, so some enterprising town folk have set it up for "cyclists only" camping and got it listed on the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) Southern Tier map. It's a good thing too, there's no other place to stay for 50 more miles to the east and a good 25 to the west.
This area has more churches per square mile than any other place in the US. I had already noticed an increase in churches as I progressed through east Texas, but this is on another scale altogether. In a conversation with the couple who run the museum and cyclist only camping operation, I learned that the wife had been born into "Church of Christ" - the most doctrinaire of all - no music, no dancing, no movies - while her husband had been born into a Baptist household. Now, the Baptists are way too liberal for the Church of Christ folks. Add to that a constant desire to interpret things differently, resulting in lots of sub groups of sub groups - all of whom are fervent about their truth. Mix in the Pentecostals, (the other big church around here) and you have a lot of belief systems indeed. For pent up " belief relief" there are nondenominational churches, where the folks exhausted by theological doctrine can believe what they want - as long as they're worshipping Jesus, of course.
Check out my road cycling activity on Garmin Connect.
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1649300945
Pic 1, Morning shot leaving Kountze, TX
Pic 2, Need I say more?
Pic 3, The Sabine River, border of Texas and Louisiana.
Pic 4, Talking to our hosts (other cyclists camped here in addition to me) in Merryville, TX.
More to come,
Michael
