Slept pretty good. First time I felt comfortable putting in ear plugs and conking out. Big mile day instore for today, here comes the pavement. Dadgumit. Camp broke.
Had to switch a gear in my brain. Find adventure and good fortune in this part. Fair weather. I’m feeling good. I have a healthy steed with a 100 ponies. And time. Let it come to me.
There is worse pavement to pound I suppose, just tried to relax, daydream about life out here. But I was daydreaming about home as well. Day 5, about right. Plus my ears hurt from taking my helmet off 200 times. Cuticles are trashed from gloves coming on and off. Body is sore from the repeated tasks. Man, but it’s good for you!
I only stopped a couple times in this 100+ mile stretch.
Hello Alpine. Goodbye Alpine.
Not something you see too often, a dead bull elk in-between Marathon and Sanderson. Looks pretty fresh, last night? Bet that was scary. Somebody already harvested the antlers.
Sanderson Texas—The Town Too Mean For Bean. I have passed through here many times and just kept going to get to Big Bend, including a couple days ago. I decided to poke around a little today.
Sanderson came to be with the construction of the railroad in 1881. Charlie Wilson was the first to settle in the area. He established a saloon nearby called the Cottage Bar Saloon. Where’s that place when you need it. Sorry Charlie.
He had a local competitor, Roy Bean, as in the future “Judge”. However when Bean opened another saloon in town, Wilson spiked his whiskey with “coal oil” and Bean moved east to Vinegarroon, close to where the Pecos high bridge is now. Sanderson peaked at 3000 in the 1950s. But in 1965 a wall of water came down the canyon and hit the town pretty hard, 27 people died. As a result 11 flood control dams were built. The town slowly recovered but the population did not. Present day, 27 people live here, or maybe I made that last part up.
I looked for a local eatery. Not many options and the only thing open was this “coffee house”.
Not normally my scene but I was feeling drawn to it.
Cool, I can get a hot sandwich and a drink that was other than coffee. Cool, and there is live music. Cool, they are good and singing songs I know. Mamas and The Papas, Van Halen…..
And then in a corner this dude was whipping out a painting. From behind him over his shoulder I said, ‘Lori Darlin’. Cool dude. If you have $750 you can own that painting.
I ate and updated the ride report from yesterday. And shed a layer. Onward, after a court house visit.
Not impressed, so I took a pic of this old place.
From here….decided to do something different. Not wanting to do the same exact roads I did on the way out here, went for some new to me pavement going north. I’ve always noticed the crazy big dam west of town on 90, now we know why it came to be. Then today going north, these 3 within about 8 miles of town. If that town floods now, we got bigger issues.
I really enjoyed this route. Nothing crazy awesome but new territory for me and it threw in some pretty stuff here and there.
Shed another layer. Enjoyed the smells. And what a lonely stretch of road. Saw nobody.
I’ve stopped at Ft Lancaster before, not much there present day but worth the stop/read if you are biking out this way. You can see it down below from this point.
At the top of that climb is a really nice picnic area. I took a good long break here.
I’m doing good on time and this is really peaceful and the view is good. And I had coverage, answered y’all’s questions and moved out. After I shed my last layer. Getting warm.
Rolled into Ozona and found some shade to knock out this part of the ride report. Used the water hose from this church to douse my clothes and leaned against a tree on the court house square. Might as well be cold before I’m hot?
Smell ya later, gotta keep moving.