Day 19 Sanderson, TX to Langtry, TX

May 28

Sanderson, TX to Langtry, TX

62 Miles
1920 ft of climbing

Map:

http://www.mapitpronto.com/index.cfm?fuseAction=routePlanner.viewDBRide&rideID=1707

I should be more careful about stating so decisevly where our next stop will be. The plan was to make it to Del Rio which is a long ride but which the route profile shows as primarily downhill. The people we talked to in Sanderson said the same.

Although there is an overall elevation loss, it is amid dozens of steep rollers. That would have been OK, in fact we talked about how fun it would be in a dead calm. It was not calm. We had a 25 MPH in our face or at our 2:00 from the first turn of the pedal.

About 30 miles in I heard a big explosion behind me and this time it was Chris's legs and his head (not literally of course). Mine was more of a smouldering.

I think the age difference shows both physically and psychologically. Physically, Chris seems to recover faster but maybe not so deeply. That is improving with his attention to nutrition. Psychologically he is brave enough to go harder when he feels better. I'm always saving a little because I've seen the wall and don't ever want to hit it sixty miles from food and water.

We grunted away for six hours of hard pedalling. At the tops of the hills, the wind would gust to 35-40 directly in our faces as it was squeezed through the cut made in the hillside for the road.

We finally got to Langtry about 5:15 PM. Langtry is notable as the home base of Judge Roy Bean, the law West of the Mississippi. The gas station and gift shop had closed a little early but fortunately there is a very nice visitor's center with drinking water available 24 hours a day.

The ranger at the center directed us to the community center where we could camp.

We filled our bottles at the visitor's center (thank you to the State of Texas). We can carry almost ten liters of water and we filled up.

It was hot all day but the wind made it feel cooler than it was. Maybe it was our salt encrusted jerseys that caused the nice lady at the visitor's center to offer Chris her Lipton iced tea and sprite that were in the fridge.

We made camp on the leeward side of the "Vashti Skiles Community Center" building. Thank you Vashti! We found a grassy spot and pitched the tent. I deposited the recommended $2.00 donation in the lockbox for "dry camping". I made it $4.00 for two. Pretty fair deal.

Leeward was on the Northwest corner so it would be in morning shade too. All fine except it was a might warm while we waited for sunset.

Fortunately, we stopped at a market in Sanderson the night before and purchased a small bottle of laundry soap. We needed to wash jerseys and shorts in Sanderson. A little sink agitation action.

In Langtry, it was a little cooking pot (titanium of course) agitation action. We first bathed under the non potable (as far as we knew) irrigation taps, then did laundry with them then cooked ramen and dehydrated dinner. For the cooking we used the visitor's center water. The ramen is far better to the palate than dehydrated chicken and rice. It's not that it's so bad but it makes me feel like I'm eating baby food. The difference is when I don't want anymore my adult makes my baby eat the rest anyway. The calories have to come from somewhere.

Off to bed.