Just a note in general. I am actually going into catch up mode on the blog. I write this on April 10 in Austin, TX, a rest day. The day I am blogging on now was the first of 6 nights in a row of camping, no connecting service of any kind for 4 of those nights, one night we ate out and one night I had cooking/cleaning duties, so no time then and no blogging.
As I have mentioned before, weather has not been an issue. Sun, sun and more sun. The only forecast you need are wind direction and gravity, both always present in west Texas. Today it was moderate gravity, meaning rolling country and moderate headwind.
This is dry country. The mountains are receding, the land becoming flat, with more and more washes. More scrub vegetation, not yet trees, but...many more birds. One of the true joys of riding has been the beautiful songs of the birds.
The naming if the creeks is still without imagination. Today we crossed without fanfare, 'Cow Creek'!
The first 60 miles was against a breeze that was really refreshing, much like being at the beach, sitting in a chair, watching the waves, reading a good book...but it wasn't that. It was humidity, coming from the east. Felt good, but later...you will see.
60 miles brought us to Langtry, TX, more about this in a separate blog. We found the first 'open' services in 60 miles. A gas station/dinner with huge Fred Flintstone rock/boulder picnic tables. A fine spot, (it had shade and food), with lively workers. (Picture a bedraggled lady older than me, 3 sizes below too thin, salt and pepper hair and I don't mean hair color, moving like she was wearing bike shoes and riding too long, sorry that was me, talking to no one in particular through a cloud of smoke, saying "if I could hit a moving target, I would just shoot myself"! On her return amble she thought we said we were calling a body shop, really it was a bike shop, she muttered "make an appointment for me"!
We crossed the Pecos River, the unofficial line between far west Texas and west Texas. A river with water! No longer west of the Pecos, we move on, and on, and on. Mile 70-80 with the addition of the humidity knocked me out. I sweated for the first time in days. Every part of my body cramped that night. And we were camped in a beautiful state park in Texas with the name of an Indian tribe in Florida. Go figure. At least the name was different, not dry or cow and the river had water. Oh yeah, did I mention humidity and cramps? Stars, beyond description. Deep in some part of Texas....
In the pictures...
Miles of dirt roads along the main roads where the Border a Patrol looks for footprints in the dirt. Trying to establish patters of entry. The tires are used for dragging the surface, like the Little League park of the old days in Biscoe.
Lots of picnic tables along the way complete with ladders to cross the fence to the bushes.
No comments:
Post a Comment