Wednesday October 9, 2013, 60 miles (97 km) – Total so far: 402 miles (648 km)
The alarm went off at the same time, and we all met in the dark to pack the car with bikes and bags. We witnessed another beautiful sunrise as we began our cold morning ride in another West Texas town. It could be Fort Hancock, Van Horn, or Marathon—they are all running together as we work to accomplish this task of riding from El Paso to anywhere close to San Antonio. As beautiful as it is around here, it is beginning to look very much the same!
Sunrise at our drop off point picnic area on Rt. 90 about 5 miles east of Dryden.
Another blue sky day in the cold morning air as we pedal along the expansive wide open range.
We had planned to ride 90 miles to Del Rio with an early morning start, hoping for at least a few hours of calm morning winds, but of course Mother Nature didn’t cooperate. We were forced to stop after 60 hard, long miles, making it only to Comstock. On this section, there are no services for many miles and there is no cell signal. Beth couldn’t track our progress and wasn’t surprised when we called for a pick up at 3:30 p.m.
Langtry, TX is a ghost town with a visitor center and museum dedicated to Judge Roy Bean, the Law West of the Pecos. It was nice to find relief from the 15 to 20 mph headwinds.
Judge Bean (in the center with the beard) and his bicycle club buddies.
Long, steep rolling hills and headwinds made it a memorable day. (We won’t remember the easy days.)
The border patrol drags tires to smooth the dirt and catch illegals leaving tracks. At least that is our guess what he was doing.
This is what I see in my mirror right before I yell to Tim and Brian, “Truck back!” Today I had to scream it due to the noise from the wind.
This was taken from a scenic overlook before we crossed the Pecos River and officially left west Texas behind. The Rio Grande and Mexico are out there in the distance. We took a break every chance we could as the day dragged on.
No break was taken to get this shot over the Pecos River. The river is 275 feet below the bridge. The crosswind was horrendous and I just held the handlebar with one hand and snapped away without taking my eyes off the road. Not a bad picture considering the circumstances. You won’t see any images of the Pecos crossing from camera cowards Tim and Brian.
We met John Chapman who is going Coast to Coast to benefit no-kill animal shelters. “Miles for Mutts.” Search for his blog on crazyguyonabike.com.
Interesting geology in the road embankment. We tried to stop between the walls for shelter from the wind but it didn’t help very much.