It was another cold morning start from Ft. Davis at 8:00 am. The early morning scenery was great with the near-full moon still visible in the morning sky. The 24 mile ride to Alpine was generally downhill with no wind. About half way I met another cyclist climbing towards Ft. Davis. At first I thought he was a local rider out for a morning ride. He was riding an older mountain style bike and I did not see any gear. As I got near I could see a medium sized backpack on his shoulders. I pulled over onto his side of the road to talk to him. i didn't get his name but he said he had started in Connecticut, was homeless, had no family and was just riding and avoiding large towns. I shook his hand and wished him luck then went on my way. Several minutes down the road I wished I had stayed a little longer to get a better understanding of his story and situation. He must have had but the meagerest of belongings in his backpack and did not appear to have much in the way of resources to support his riding.
Alpine is a nice sized town for these parts; about 6,000 compared to Ft. Davis for example which has 1,200 and Marathon at 400. It is home to Sul Ross State University. I had breakfast and visited a local bicycle shop before heading out for the final 32 miles to Marathon.. There are no services between the two towns. It was about noon and the wind had picked up considerably while I was "piddling" in Alpine. Though the grade was generally down hill, the 10-25 mph headwind made the riding a bit tough at times. I still made Marathon before 3:00 pm. Marathon is hosting the Marathon2Marathon this Saturday and I saw starting lines painted on the road for the 1/2 marathon, 10k and 5k. Either I missed the marathon starting line or it is an out-and-back route. After cleaning up and sharing a load of laundry with Gary we walked into town for pizza. I was in my tent by around 8:15 pm.
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| Full moon in morning sky outside Ft. Davis, Tx. |
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| West Texas landscape. |
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| Sul Ross State University, Alpine, Tx. |
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| Marathon 2 Marathon banner on fence outside the RV park. |
October 14 - Friday; Marathon to Sanderson, TX; 55 miles.
I slept really well last night and woke up late; 6:45 am. At least I thought I was late (we're usually up by 6:15 am) - but no one else was up yet. We left the RV park about 8:00 am and restaurant in town for breakfast. I also stopped at a grocery store to get an extra Gatorade. There were no services between Marathon and Sanderson. I left the restaurant first and about 2 miles out of town figured out that I'd forgotten to pay. I called Ray who was still there and he paid then I paid him back when we arrived in Sanderson. Today's ride was nice. It was not as cold to start as in days past so I didn't have to wear all of my cold weather gear. The cycling was down hill nearly all day long. There was a road-side picnic area at 20 miles where Dan, RJ, Gary and I relaxed for quite a while. There was another at 45 miles where Gary, RJ and I relaxed for a really long time. The remainder of the group arrived at this picnic area as we were pulling out for the last 10 miles to town. We found the RV park and set up tents then walked to Dairy King for milk shakes. They closed at 2:00 pm but will reopen at 5:00 pm. We will likely eat dinner there tonight. The next order of business is purchasings groceries for b'fst, lunch and dinner tomorrow night and b'fst and lunch the following day. There do not appear to be any grocery stores between Sanderson and Del Rio so we'll have to carry quite a bit of food for the 81 mile ride tomorrow.
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