Bicycling elevation gain was 5587 feet through the Texas hill country.

We rode 81 challenging miles to Ingram, TX. I rode an additional 4 miles exploring Leakey, TX after my patronage of the Leakey mercantile. These small towns we went through, along with the brush landscape gave me the thought of western movie backdrops. We found ourselves in the hills of Texas, the training ground of infamous Lance Armstrong, I understand. We had the most challenging verticals of the trip yet! I compare it to doing the Blue ridge mountain parkway (which I only drove with my daughter Allie’s Jeep). I think the hills of today are the milestone of having the toughest biking behind us.

I also note that beginning with the town of Hunt, it was the first time I noticed residential homes with two stories and full size trees making the majority of the landscaping from the road; for one stretch we rode under a canopy of trees.

The plan for our next day is to reach Johnson City.

Del Rio to Camp Wood, TX. We left after 1230 because we were trying to let the wind die down after wind advisory. We were running out of daylight so we left in the wind and Rode 79 miles through heavy wind until 40 minutes after sundown, and did bicycle 1942 feet of elevation gain. I think I said enough about the wind.

Just past Laughlin AFB, but before Bracketville, there was what looked like a Gazelle bounding up to a 10 foot high fence along the road, bounce off the fence and continue loping along. My understanding is that there are game ranches in the area that attract hunters for sport. On this ride at dusk, I saw two coyotes cross the road about 50 yards in front of me. I also passed in front of the Diamond Ranch outside of Uvalde. I forgot to mention when we rode down the last mountain in Fort Davis we went past the Prude Ranch. All eateries at Camp Wood were shutdown when we arrived after 2000, except one- Kings Texas Smokehouse. When I entered at 2025, I was greeted by the cook with – “we are closed,” but after the cashier intervened and since the grill was still hot -the cook acquiesced and said he would make me a burger- I had the most delicious “Bacon and Bleu Burger” with fried potato slices; I also purchased two bags of spent grain granola and chunk of Texas Gold mild cheddar for breakfast the next day; the cashier, who was much nicer than the cook, proclaimed he was marrying the cooks daughter- who he proclaimed is the prettiest girl in town, so we both agreed that tolerating his future father in-law was worth it. 😊

The plan for the next day is to ride to Ingram, TX.

Comstock to Del Rio was 32 miles, but took most of a day to navigate the strong winds and the narrow or rough shoulders; when we arrived in Del Rio at 2:30 we got a hotel to unwind and resort our provisions and equipment; we decided to take Day 20 as a rest day. Danny the manager at the Best Western was accommodating for our bicycles and pool. On our rest day I received a haircut and shave.

The plan for Day 21 is to ride to Camp Wood.

Rode from Sanderson to Comstock

This journey was shortened to 90 miles due to wind that required pedaling downhill and a bicycling 3889 feet of elevation gain. The weather was hot and sunny too. My cousin Duffy remained in good spirits despite his bike trailer being blown by the wind too. The remarkable thing about biking this segment of Route 90 was the amount of “road kill” with just the right mix of heat; every hundred yards was trying to olfactory senses. We stopped at our only available outpost at the 58 mile mark called- Jerry’s Wagon Wheel in Langtry. We visited with Jerry who was within a couple days of turning 77. He was interested in our trip, sold us water, ice tea, and soda, then gave us a postcard of Judge Roy Bean’s courthouse and saloon. Jerry asked us to call him when reach St. Augustine, so he knows we made it. We continued on to Comstock and arrived as the sun was setting with no more energy to go the additional 32 miles we had planned. We had a wonderful dinner at J &R Bar and Grill; Kim served me a “chicken fried chicken” meal with all the fixings and gravy, of course. Kim explained they had won many awards for their food; and, the meal was good.

We rode from Fort Davis to Alpine to Marathon and on to Sanderson, TX. The total miles of 111, and 2041 feet of bicycling elevation gain were achieved by riding an hour after sundown. We both have headlights and taillights. Route 90 from Alpine to Sanderson was rarely used from afternoon to evening. The front run flat tire on my bike started losing to much air, so we went to the American Legion Post 79 in Alpine to convert the tire and wheel for a tube and install the tube. My cousin Duffy’s expertise and strength was helpful in this process as the power in my hands have diminished from riding. Alpine seems like a nice college town. We were successful with new tube insertion. On to Marathon, we started facing serious winds, the kind that brings you to a stop while you are going downhill. At the Marathon post office, which closes at 2:30pm on weekdays, I met a man named Eric who recommended “Angie’s restaurant for our dinner meal at mid afternoon; Eric also was going there for dinner; I met Angie the proprietor, cook, and server, who made probably one of the best meals we had since starting the trip; it was grilled chicken, on a bed of rice, topped with grilled vegetables. The fascinating part of the meal was learning about Eric who lives on a 42,000 acre ranch in the next town over; yes that is right 70 square miles, which we understood included a mountain; Eric is also a gun collector, showing us his 50 Caliber videos. He offered us to stay at his ranch, but we politely indicated we had a schedule of riding we were trying to keep. When we left for Sanderson at 4:30 we faced strong headwinds again. We made it to Sanderson at 9pm and found three motels, but no restaurants, we made the best out of a Stripes convenience store well run and managed by Russell. Russell said that he would be opening the store at 0600 tomorrow for us to start our journey to Del Rio, 120 miles away. Tonight we decided on a motel called Outback Oasis Motel;Lia the clerk showed us that the motel office was co-shared with a collection of snakes, especially rattlers😊

Day 16 from Plateau to Fort Davis

We ended our journey at Fort Davis because of the steep elevation climbs; we were exhausted when we rolled into town. I will have more thoughts on this later.

We rode 71 miles and 4283 feet in bicycle elevation climb.

Today, we struggled with carrying enough water. We did see some beautiful sights, we were up to 6000 plus feet in elevation; this is the second time where I think the elevation affected my getting out of breath on the climbs. There was a lot of green in this part of Texas. Most of this ride was through the Davis Mountains Park; we went by the McDonald Observatory; we ate at the Fort Davis Drugstore for dinner- all you can eat buffet of hamburgers and chicken burgers; then we topped it off with ice cream.

Plan for day 17 is to ride Sanderson TX.

Day 15 Fort Hancock to Plateau

We rode 96 miles with 2881 feet in bicycle elevation gain.

Today we ran into a lot of wind too. This is the day my front tire punctured while riding about 15 mph; I have run flat tires, as I had these installed at cyclemania before flying to San Diego. When the puncture occurred there was a pop, hiss, and a spray vapor that shot from my front tire; I just kept rolling and the tire stayed pressurized. A little further down the road we ran into a flood zone across the road in the middle of nowhere; we crossed by foot getting very muddy. It was only by cousin Duffy’s courage and our can do attitude that formed, by not wanting to back track 20 miles, we forged through the mud😊. Note that cousin Duffy tows a trailer.

One of the things have not made note of are the character of the towns we pass through. I will

comment on Van Horn later. Some of the towns we went through had more abandoned or closed up buildings than not. We decided we needed to stop when daylight was running out at the only convenience store/gas station/ truck stop/ restaurant in the town; they let us and a bunch of truckers camp out in the back. On Day 16 sunrise is at 7:53. Our goal will be to ride to Alpine through fort Davis.

This is it in the morning.

Day 14 Las Cruces to Fort Hancock

This day we rode 103 miles through headwinds and rain and did 1288 feet of bicycling elevation gain. We crossed into Texas. We stopped at the Trek store so that my cousin could get his new rim, and I got new gloves hoping that they would help with the pain in my hands from holding the handle bars. Because we were rolling in to Fort Hancock at night we decided to stay at the only motel in town. Across from the motel was Angie’s Restaurant. Now Angie and Lori we’re keeping the lights on for us making delicious Mexican dishes. Because of their limited choices of beverages at the end of the day, Angie let us walk next door to the Shell station to pick up our drinks to return and have our meal. Now normally Angie’s is open for breakfast at 0600, but she told she was feeling extra tired so that the restaurant would not open until 0630. Sunrise was not until seven, so we made it work for Day 15’s breakfast.

Day 13 from Baywood Springs to Las Cruces

We rode 92 miles and had bicycling elevation gain of 596 feet.

Travel was relatively flat with rain off and on. We arrived in las cruces as the sun was setting and decided to stay at Spring Hill Suites. Matthew, who was just getting off work offered to take my cousin and I to Post 10, but the building was closed; so Matthew brought us to a local establishment for food and drink; during those couple hours Matthew told us of his attempt to enlist in the Air Force; and, that he was not allowed to complete his enlistment because he was under weigh criteria. I recommended that he give it another try and he seemed enthused to do so, especially when I told him about potential reserve options and education benefits. Matthew was a hard worker, not only did he return us to our hotel that night, but he was part of the breakfast crew that started serving us at 0600, before we started Day 14’s journey.