December 5

I did not mention that Geoff, the anarchist from Winnipeg with whom I rode six days ago, was going to Austin to try to patch things up with a girl named Sasha. They had ridden together, in a group of seven or eight, from Winnipeg to New Orleans. According to Geoff she had fallen in love with him, but not vice versa, which created tension, and when Geoff fell in love with a girl in New Orleans, Sasha split from the group and rode to Austin on her own. Today I met Sasha.

Sasha is a Haligonian, a student and a member of the staff at NSCAD. She has ridden down here (Kingsville, Texas) from Austin, still on her own. She was at a visitor's information center where I stopped to find out how far it is from here to Raymondville. She's going to Ciudad Victoria, and she speaks Spanish. We will meet up in Raymondville and ride together into Mexico. Now what kind of karma is that?

I had been wondering this morning why Texans would name a place "Kingsville". There would never have been any admissible loyalty to any monarchy at any time in Texas history since gringos began naming places. At the visitor's center, where besides meeting Sasha and fixing another flat tire on the BOB, I learned that Kingsville is named for the founder of the King Ranch, which was known in my youth as the largest ranch in the world. More than 800,000 acres now. The reason there is such a long uninhabited stretch (65 miles) between here and Raymondville is that the road runs through the King Ranch.