A Better View of Texas

March 22 - Dawn and I chose wisely; to ride in the motor home to Ft Davis State Park and avoid the 2300 foot climb. Hilly, headwinds and a long day was in store for the guys. They averaged 6-8 mph over 23 miles. Rode highway 118 and ended the day riding 52 miles. That is Denise's description of the ride. Here is mine. Mike and I rode three miles up I-10 to Kent, where we turned onto Texas 118. The best way to describe that road is, "the worst chip seal road Yakima County has to offer." On top of that, we faced a 10 to 15 mph head wind that ripped down the valleys, not minding the direction you were riding. But that's not the topper. I rode 15 plus miles with a semi-flat that I wasn't aware of, making the journey feel like I had the drag brake on. Yes, we did fix the flat after several attempts to refill the innertube. Bonked to the top is what it felt like. The best view of the day was the McDonald Observatory. It seemed that I had a new lease on life, at least my legs felt that way. Then came the 2500 foot decent into Ft. Davis. What a ride, just let it rip and fly with the wind. That's a better description of Mike and I's ride.

March 23 - Rest day at Ft Davis - We spent the day touring the fort which was active in the 1800's. Its the best remaining example of a frontier Army Fort left in the country. It was home to the 10 Calvary Regiment, also known as the "Buffalo Soldier's". Then across the road to an ice cream parlor made from an old railroad caboose. Then in the evening we went to a "star party"at the McDonald Observatory. The night ended up being a little cloudy but we were still able to see the moon, saturn, Orion's nebulus, and star clusters. It was pretty interesting. We are seeing beautiful starry nights.

March 24 - 60 miles from Ft Davis to Marathon, TX. (the middle of nowhere) Strong tailwinds made the going great. On my share of the ride, I averaged 20.4 mph. It is hard to describe the vastness of Texas. You ride along and see an entrance to a ranch and wonder how far removed from the road the ranch is and how many thousands of acres it encompasses. We also have never seen such long trains. Each train has over 100 double decker cars chugging down the tracks.

Last night we pitched our tent and we thought the wind would die down. Boy were we mistaken. Winds close to 20 mph blew all night. Russ had it staked well but it rattled all night. It seemed like I didn't sleep a wink, however, at some point in the early morning, I awoke to calm skies. Everything was covered in grit when we took down the tent. At least we survived another night. There is nothing between here and our next town 60 miles down the road. I am starting the day driving and will switch with Dawn halfway down the road. We are in the Central Time Zone so it doesn't get light until 7:30 or so in the morning. Then it takes a while for the sun to rise and warm up. We hit the road by 9:00 yet still rather cold out. Ya'all take care now.