Uvalde, Texas

Merry Christmas everyone,

The last time I wrote to you. We had stayed only about 10 miles west of Del Rio. The wind won the battle on that day. I hope we don't have to ride in wind like that again it was really something! As we were riding into town another cyclist came toward us on the other side of the road, waved and then turned around to ride with us. Jon rode with us to the Days Inn where we had reservations for a couple of nights. We planned to stay in Del Rio for Christmas. Jon is a F15 pilot at Laughlin AFB in Del Rio. When he left us at the Days Inn he invited us over to his house later. His family only lived a mile or so away. We exchanged phone numbers and he left. Our room was really nice. It was a suite with a full kitchen. We decided to get some groceries and cook our Christmas eve dinner. There was an IHOP down the street so we headed down there for lunch. They had pumpkin pancakes that were as good as any we have had at the Pumpkin Show in Circleville. We went back to the hotel, showered and walked back down the road to Walmart for groceries. Walmart was packed! I have been in a packed Walmart before but not one that had mostly Spanish speaking people in it. It seemed like no matter where I stood or tried to walk I was in the way. But it was fun to be able to do something fairly normal like shopping. We have been riding through some pretty barren countryside. So even though it was a pain it was kindof fun. We decided since we had an oven we would bake meat, potatoes, carrots and onion for dinner. Now all we needed was something to cook it in. We found something called cooking bags that seemed like they might work. Then we needed something to put the cooking bag in so we bought a disposable cooking pan. I hope this works! We walked out of the store with about 8 bags of "stuff". We had taken the bags off the bike. So we stuffed the backpack with some of it, and I carried all the other bags. Good thing we didn't have to go too far. When we got back we called Jon and set a time to go their house. By the time we left for their house it was dark so we put on all our flashing lights and headed over. We had a great time talking with Jon, Marianne, Kailie and Kody.

Christmas eve day we spent doing much of nothing. We rode over to the church we had picked out of the phone book to see if we could see what time their service was. But they didn't have any times posted. We went by several churches and none of them had times posted either. Strange?? So we went back to the hotel and spent the evening cooking our dinner and watching The Godfather. I don't know why we had to watch it again for the nth time. We know how it ends. They all die! Christmas morning we went to St. James Episcopal Church. After church Jon and Marianne had invited us to dinner. We had bought Christmas decorations back in Van Horn, so we decorated the bike and rode to their house. Marianne fixed a fantastic turkey dinner with all the trimmings. It was great. We sure appreciated being able to spend Christmas with friends instead of in a hotel room.

We finally left Del Rio the day after Christmas. Jon came over to ride with us to Bracketville. We had an amazing tailwind. The road was great for cycling on. We are still following Rt 90 east. We have been on Rt 90 since we were in Van Horn. The road became alittle rougher as we got closer to Bracketville. I don't have to tell you what the scenery is. I'll tell you what when the scenery changes I'll let you know. So if I don't mention anything about it you will know it is the same. We had a quick ride to Bracketville and went to the milkshake shop that Jon had recommended. Jon turned around for the ride back to Del Rio. Quite a chore with the 20 mph headwind! At Fort Brackett they had a campground and a hotel. When the lady told me they didn't have hot showers and the cost for the motel was only $35. I picked the motel. Wouldn't you??

This morning we woke up to wind again. But today it is blowing about 20 mph from the SE. And we are headed east! We fought the wind all day and the wind won. When this happens you just gear down, and ride the bike. And with no scenery (oops I said I wasn't going to mention that) it was a long day. We stopped at a Border Patrol check station and ate some lunch that we had with us. The old stand by peanut butter sandwiches! We were very happy to see the town of Uvalde. Hopefully the wind will be more favorable tomorrow. Later..........