Wild, Wild West Texas

Dear Readers, 

When we last updated you on our travels, we were in Marfa, Texas on a beautiful Monday evening. We rode to El Cosmiso, a famous campground in town that features canvas tents and teepees as well as RV and tent camping sites. There's a funky shared bathroom area with nice showers and even a bathtub. At $15 per person for tent camping, it was way more expensive than we would have liked, but the amenities were fun and funky, and that helped make up for it. Also Beyonce stayed there once. 

That night, our first signs of "unfriendly" weather were upon us when, as we tried to sleep in our tent, the wind whipped so fast and strong outside that our tent nearly took flight. The next morning we saw that gusts had gotten up to about 50 mph the night before. Will braved the weather sometime in the middle of the night to remove our rainfly, and if he hadn't I am not sure we'd have one anymore. The lack of fly let a lot of warmth out though, and by the next morning we were surprised to find ourselves really cold (what is this, karma for missing the recent snowstorms in New York?). Luckily, El Cosmico offers its guests excellent free coffee and a neat common room to warm up in.

We stopped at the post office before leaving town to pick up a package from my wonderful cousin Valerie. Her friend Kuumba makes fantastic coconut oil and salves, and after Kuumba heard how much I loved the ones I tried out in Tucson at Val's house, she gave some to Val to send to us. I especially love the rose coconut oil for the end of the day to heal my sunburns. It's soothing and it smells wonderful- a welcome trait in our sometimes very stinky tent.

On Tuesday we rode from Marathon through Alpine to Marathon. We stopped in Alpine for some amazing Tex Mex. Brisket nachos, yes please.

We never know what to expect of these small Texas towns. Sometimes there's a gas station with a few cans of beans, and sometimes there's nothing except a historical marker and a sign indicating that there used to be a town in that spot. Marathon, TX is a real gem. Surprisingly full of art galleries, a pretty well stocked grocery store, some cafes, a pizza joint, and a spot to do laundry at the motel, we really couldn't have asked for more. Man oh man was there more.

The Beehive at La Loma del Chivo

La Loma del Chivo is one of the weirdest, funkiest places I have ever experienced. It's a hostel, but it's also got these tiny outbuildings, many made of paper-crete. I'll let some pictures do the talking. They offer bike tourists one free night of lodging, plus access to the kitchen area, so it's a popular spot among travelers like us. We ran into Jimi, a fellow tourist we had crossed paths with in Arizona, and Eleanor, who is biking from childhood home in Tucson to adult home in Athens, GA.

Hostel at La Loma del Chivo

The top of the hostel at La Loma del Chivo

With headwinds on the horizon, we weren't sure how far we'd get on Wednesday. We ended up putting in a good 75 miles through a headwind with rolling hills and beautiful scenery.  "Lunch" in Sanderson, TX where we met back up with Jimi who is touring from San Fran - Florida, and then spent the night in Dryden, a good example of the kind of town with one store that's only open sometimes and you're lucky if they've got anything in the vegetable or fruit genre. Kindness is easier to find though, and a friendly farmer let us camp under his pavilion and use his picnic table. Unfortunately, between the constant trucks passing by on Rt 90 and the trains hollering down the tracks, it was tough to get much sleep.

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

Note to those on tours: Sanderson, TX has an RV park, a truck stop, and a cafe (it's not open too frequently). It would have made a more comfortable night than Dryden, but for us it would have made the next day just too far.

We woke to even worse headwinds than the day before, and set our sights on Seminole Canyon State Park. Although the day's total mileage was a mere 60, pittance to us on a good day at this point (you should see our quads), it was almost too much to bear in the surging winds, rough roads, and rolling hills.

We stopped in Langtry for BBQ sandwiches. They smoke their own meat and the sandwiches were decent but at nearly $9, it felt a little like highway robbery. I suppose it's hard to get materials out that far, but I think we would have eaten double or triple what we did if the prices were lower. The store has some limited supplies, but we were glad we had stocked up in Dryden's small general store instead.

We got to Seminole Canyon last night hungry and filthy, feeling like classic bike tourists. After wonderful, clean showers at the campground and chili with quesadillas for dinner, we were all riding a wonderful bike tour high. As the stars began to come out, the fireflies joined the light show. We were surrounded in beauty, exhausted but finally at rest.

Today I write from the Whispering Palms Inn in Del Rio, TX. Thank you to Aunt Lisa and Uncle Lynn who gave us a night at an inn during our tour as a wedding present! It's much appreciated tonight! We only rode 40 miles, but despite being mostly downhill included 1800 ft of climbing. Jimi's been riding with us today, and it's nice to have someone to share the road, stories, and the cost of hotel rooms. Despite the short day and elevation drop, today was really hard. The winds have picked up even more, steady from the SE (we were headed SW) at about 15 mph and sometimes exceeding 20 mph. We rode over the Amistad Reservoir today- a beautiful sight but a harrowing, one mile long bridge across it left us mentally and physically drained.

Different bridge, same acrophobia

Tonight we'll tend to our sore muscles, catch up on news, eat a lot of food, and try to figure out what the next week has in store for us. The weather's not looking too good. Austin is about to get over 5 inches of rain in the next week. 

By the way, thank you all for reading. We love updating our friends and family, and doing so is a great exercise in reflection for us. 

We also want to send our condolences to the friends and family of the amazing Jay Willis. We were hoping that this fellow cyclist would catch us so we could meet her, but while she was just a few days behind us on the road she was in her support car when she and her driver were hit by a truck and killed. A former Olympic softball player from Charlotte, NC, she was touring to raise awareness about the need for youth mentoring programs in the country. Although we never got the chance to meet her, we think about this amazing woman every day. We're grateful for our safety and do not take it for granted. We'll keep riding for you, Jay.

-SLL


PS. Written a few days ago. No wifi for a while, now we are in San Antonio and will update soon!

Finally getting misty- we've left the desert!