Daily Diary 26: Conroe to Beaumont TX - 103 miles

Last full day in Texas and it was a good one. 103 miles and overall it was not too taxing surprisingly. Started riding  a bunch of bike trails and dedicated paths through north and north eastern Houston, through some beautiful neighborhoods and areas covering almost 30 miles. Nice to start the day that way. Then battling a few roads and bit of major highways here and there but overall pretty good riding with a slight breeze behind me or from the side so nothing too too difficult.  Quite a bit of riding on shoulders of busy roads but that was fine, where there was no shoulder the traffic was light enough to manage it. Rolled into the west side of Beaumont and found a nice hotel for the evening.  Had a nice conversation and dinner with my friend Chris in Conroe last night, covered a lot about the ride and in particular the mental aspects of it.  We talked about how the doing of something like this can open your mind to other possibilities you didn’t think you could do. And how important even little achievements  are to helping boost one’s self-confidence in order to complete larger goals over time. Often people overlook the value of smaller achievements or achievements along the way but they can have a very powerful impact on how you feel about yourself and what you are doing. During almost every ride I set smaller goals, like finishing the next 10 or 20 miles, or getting to a point where I can stop for lunch, to break up the larger goal. As you achieve those milestones it makes you feel better about what you’re doing and making the entire endeavor more possible.