We ate breakfast in Peggy's Diner at Alpine. Breakfast was included in the cost of the room. Peggy's Diner looked like an old railroad car. As it turned out the hotel we stayed in was where all of the railroad employees stay. We have seen alot of trains on this trip. I guess since there aren't many roads that the railroad follows the road. Hap has been having a great time trying to get them to blow the horn by waving at them. So far I think he's 10 for 15 or something like that. The weather today was just beautiful. Sunny 70's or so and a tailwind. We had a short ride into Marathon planned. I wish I could say that there was something spectacular to see but we are in West Texas and the terrain is pretty much desert like, shrubby bushes, cactus, you get the picture! We continue to have the great berm on both sides of the road. And alot of cars will still get into the other lane when they pass. We are seeing quite a lot of semi trucks. We are also seeing alot of cars being towed by other cars. I am not sure what is up with that?? Are they trying to save on gas?? What's the deal? We both were listening to our MP3 player with some great tunes and just flying along. No, we don't usually listen to our MP3 player while riding but with no traffic, the huge berm and both of us watching for traffic through our mirrors we think it was ok. Believe me, we would never do that back in Ohio! We arrived in Marathon and stopped at a or should I say THE mexican restaurant in town for lunch. It was going to get down into the 20 's again. So we stayed at the Marathon Motel. It was an interesting little place. Each room was a little cabin. And when I say little......we couldn't bring the tandem into the room until we were ready for bed and then the door barely closed. But it was a nice clean place. We found out that they run a marathon every year from Marathon to Alpine. That would be an interesting run.
We ate breakfast in the outside diner at the hotel and left in beautiful weather again. The ride to Sanderson was 55 miles with no services. So we made sure we had plenty of water and food before heading out. We carry four water bottles and a spare camelback that holds about 2 liters of water. Today's ride was record setting. We averaged 19.3 mph! But then we had a great tailwind AND lots of downhill. But it was still great flying along. At one point I asked Hap how fast we were going and he said 30 mph! It was great. We stopped at a small roadside rest for a peanut butter sandwich. Don't you think that a rest area should have a bathroom? Well, not in west Texas! And those shrubby bushes and cactus are pretty small....good thing I'm short. When we got to Sanderson we went straight to the post office. Our mail that we were supposed to pick up in El Paso was supposed to be forwarded here AND we were expecting this week's mail. We were very happy that when we got there it had arrived. We road on into Sanderson looking for the motel. It looked like the entire town had closed up. There were a couple of restaurants, a few little stores, a visitor center and a gas station. But they were all closed. Guess Sanderson closes on Thursdays?? But the hotel was open and had a room. (There wasn't anyone else there!) We made our Dinty Moore beef stew in the microwave added some peas and called it dinner!
The next morning we woke up to overcast skies and cooler temperatures but still in the 60's. The terrain changed alittle bit today. There were more hills. We would ride down into a canyon and then up the other side. We also had a headwind. We again had a day of 60 miles and no services. There was one little store with a post office. We stopped to mail home a package, fill up water bottles and went on. We stopped for lunch again at another rest area. And no they still don't have bathrooms at rest areas in West Texas! The riding today was much more interesting with the change in terrain. We were heading for Langtry and according to our Adventure Cycling map (which we have now because it came in the mail finally!) had no services. There was a visitor center that our map said you could camp by. Langtry was the town that Judge Roy Bean lived in back in the day. I am not sure which day but it was sometime ago..... The Dept of Transportation had built a really nice center and display area where you could walk through his "courtroom" which was actually his saloon. The town of Langtry was maybe 10 houses that maybe 10 people lived in and a community center. The lady at the visitor center told us we were allowed to camp beside the community center but it was "dry camping". Which means no water, no bathrooms, no showers! So I washed up in the visitor center bathroom and we went over to set up our tent. The lady from the visitor center came walking over with a bag of food. I don't know, maybe we looked hungry? In the bag was eggs for breakfast, 2 cookies and 2 apples. We cooked dinner and went to bed. We watched the movie "Hunt for Red October" that we had been carrying with us. It didn't get as cold tonight and we both slept well.
This morning we woke up to the sound of WIND. We cooked our eggs. We discovered a new way to fix eggs. You break them into a small plastic bag and then boil them. Voila! Instant omelette. OK so you all probably new that already! But we were very pleased with ourselves. It was colder today (50) but still sunny. The big story about today's ride was the wind. I don't think we have ever ridden in wind like this. The wind was from the NW and we were headed SE. You would think that would be perfect wouldn't you. Well it was ok as long as we had a direct tailwind but if the road turned at all and we had any wind from the side it was scary. Hap was really having problems going straight. At one point we had a semi truck go by and we had a side wind. Hap hit the brakes, we stopped, planted our feet, and leaned the bike almost all the way over. Hap yelled do you want to just walk. But we didn't think we could push it either. We stopped at a bridge crossing the Pecos River. A spectacular bridge 300 feet over the river. The wind was incredible. Hap had to push the bike to turn around and he couldn't even hold it once he got it crossways to the wind. Then when we went to get on it, the bike started to take off without us so he had to hit the brakes. We have been riding our tandem since 1985, through all kinds of weather, down mts at 60 mph and I can honestly say this is the first time I have ever been afraid! It was a very long day. We made one stop in Comstock for a sandwich. It was amazing when we got off the bike to see how hard it was actually blowing. Everyone we talked to said we can't believe you are riding in this. But that's one on the problems with bike touring. What are you supposed to do if you are out IN IT? We had to get somewhere. When we got about 10 miles from Del Rio we saw a motel so we decided to stop. When we turned on the weather channel it said the winds were a "sustained" 38 mph! With 49 mph wind gusts from the NW. We walked across the street to get some drinks and I couldn't even hardly walk into it. We were glad to be off the bike today. It is supposed to stop tonight. Let's hope so.
Merry Christmas everyone!
We ate breakfast in the outside diner at the hotel and left in beautiful weather again. The ride to Sanderson was 55 miles with no services. So we made sure we had plenty of water and food before heading out. We carry four water bottles and a spare camelback that holds about 2 liters of water. Today's ride was record setting. We averaged 19.3 mph! But then we had a great tailwind AND lots of downhill. But it was still great flying along. At one point I asked Hap how fast we were going and he said 30 mph! It was great. We stopped at a small roadside rest for a peanut butter sandwich. Don't you think that a rest area should have a bathroom? Well, not in west Texas! And those shrubby bushes and cactus are pretty small....good thing I'm short. When we got to Sanderson we went straight to the post office. Our mail that we were supposed to pick up in El Paso was supposed to be forwarded here AND we were expecting this week's mail. We were very happy that when we got there it had arrived. We road on into Sanderson looking for the motel. It looked like the entire town had closed up. There were a couple of restaurants, a few little stores, a visitor center and a gas station. But they were all closed. Guess Sanderson closes on Thursdays?? But the hotel was open and had a room. (There wasn't anyone else there!) We made our Dinty Moore beef stew in the microwave added some peas and called it dinner!
The next morning we woke up to overcast skies and cooler temperatures but still in the 60's. The terrain changed alittle bit today. There were more hills. We would ride down into a canyon and then up the other side. We also had a headwind. We again had a day of 60 miles and no services. There was one little store with a post office. We stopped to mail home a package, fill up water bottles and went on. We stopped for lunch again at another rest area. And no they still don't have bathrooms at rest areas in West Texas! The riding today was much more interesting with the change in terrain. We were heading for Langtry and according to our Adventure Cycling map (which we have now because it came in the mail finally!) had no services. There was a visitor center that our map said you could camp by. Langtry was the town that Judge Roy Bean lived in back in the day. I am not sure which day but it was sometime ago..... The Dept of Transportation had built a really nice center and display area where you could walk through his "courtroom" which was actually his saloon. The town of Langtry was maybe 10 houses that maybe 10 people lived in and a community center. The lady at the visitor center told us we were allowed to camp beside the community center but it was "dry camping". Which means no water, no bathrooms, no showers! So I washed up in the visitor center bathroom and we went over to set up our tent. The lady from the visitor center came walking over with a bag of food. I don't know, maybe we looked hungry? In the bag was eggs for breakfast, 2 cookies and 2 apples. We cooked dinner and went to bed. We watched the movie "Hunt for Red October" that we had been carrying with us. It didn't get as cold tonight and we both slept well.
This morning we woke up to the sound of WIND. We cooked our eggs. We discovered a new way to fix eggs. You break them into a small plastic bag and then boil them. Voila! Instant omelette. OK so you all probably new that already! But we were very pleased with ourselves. It was colder today (50) but still sunny. The big story about today's ride was the wind. I don't think we have ever ridden in wind like this. The wind was from the NW and we were headed SE. You would think that would be perfect wouldn't you. Well it was ok as long as we had a direct tailwind but if the road turned at all and we had any wind from the side it was scary. Hap was really having problems going straight. At one point we had a semi truck go by and we had a side wind. Hap hit the brakes, we stopped, planted our feet, and leaned the bike almost all the way over. Hap yelled do you want to just walk. But we didn't think we could push it either. We stopped at a bridge crossing the Pecos River. A spectacular bridge 300 feet over the river. The wind was incredible. Hap had to push the bike to turn around and he couldn't even hold it once he got it crossways to the wind. Then when we went to get on it, the bike started to take off without us so he had to hit the brakes. We have been riding our tandem since 1985, through all kinds of weather, down mts at 60 mph and I can honestly say this is the first time I have ever been afraid! It was a very long day. We made one stop in Comstock for a sandwich. It was amazing when we got off the bike to see how hard it was actually blowing. Everyone we talked to said we can't believe you are riding in this. But that's one on the problems with bike touring. What are you supposed to do if you are out IN IT? We had to get somewhere. When we got about 10 miles from Del Rio we saw a motel so we decided to stop. When we turned on the weather channel it said the winds were a "sustained" 38 mph! With 49 mph wind gusts from the NW. We walked across the street to get some drinks and I couldn't even hardly walk into it. We were glad to be off the bike today. It is supposed to stop tonight. Let's hope so.
Merry Christmas everyone!
1 comment:
Merry Christmas Hap and Diane,
I tried to send you an email on Christmas Eve but it wouldn't go through. Hope you had a nice holiday. I spent mine in Columbus with my kids and 8 yr old grandson. He was a riot. I am leaving tomorrow for Iowa for a visit. Have been homesick so I am anxious to see my family. Take care. Julie Swanson
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