(January 16)

Day 22 - Del Rio to Langtry TX

The Universe Speaks...Again

 I met Martin about 20 miles west of Del Rio. He's a Brit from Devon in the UK. He was traveling ULTRA light...his bike looked a lot lighter than mine!

 I've definitely arrived in West Texas. For the next several days I'll be traveling through the Chihuahuan Desert. Endless vistas.

  Perfect location for a zombie apocalypse film

The bridge over the Pecos River. The locals in Del Rio told me I wasn't really in West Texas until I'd crossed the Pecos.

 

A few hundred yards behind me, this river...The Pecos River...joins the Rio Grande right at the Mexican Border.

 

 Jerry & Ruth...my SECOND meeting with other bike tourers today. Jerry and Ruth are retired and started their bike touring life a few months ago in South Carolina. They aren't technically taking the Southern Tier route like I am, so meeting them was simply good fortune. Particularly considering they, too, are heading West: the first fellow travelers I've met who are going my way! I rode into Langtry with them and have enjoyed camping out here.

 Camping in the grass outside the Langtry TX Community Center. Though there are no services here, the Texas Department of Transportation Visitors Center here in this tiny place has a water spigot outside..and WiFi :)

Langtry is famous as the town where Judge Roy Bean once held court.

 The very first time I've had to use my backpacking stove and cooking utensils. Good thing I didn't ship them home as I was thinking seriously about doing as recently as YESTERDAY!!??!

Sunset over my tent in Langtry, Texas  



 I didn't rise too early today, mostly because I stayed up too late last night in my hotel room watching Goliath, an awesome series on Amazon Prime. But I did manage to make it out of Del Rio and be on the road by 8:30am. Not too bad really!

Today was a day of firsts, and of quite a bit of soul-searching. The first "first" was meeting not one, but two, sets of fellow travelers. The second "first" was that Jerry & Ruth were the first travelers I've met so far who were traveling in my direction. Though I'm traveling faster than they are, and not exactly following the same route; for today it worked out perfectly. It was so pleasant...and weird!...to have people to talk with while riding. To chat with over dinner as we camped at the Community Center in the tiny little town of Langtry. And the final "first" was actually using my backpacking stove and cooking utensils that I've been hauling around for three weeks.

Naturally, I HAD to use them...no other choice here in Langtry since there is no  restaurant or store of any kind...because just yesterday I was convinced I would be fine if I shipped all that stuff back home. I was contemplating sending my sleeping mat, my stove AND my cooking gear home. All of which I'm using at this moment.

Remember when I accepted that ride in a truck in a rain storm on the day after I'd failed myself by not accepting an invitation to breakfast? The universe was teaching me a lesson. Just as today....practically only hours after I'd firmly decided I didn't need certain items, the universe sends me to Langtry. Where I needed every one of those items.

And, then the next "first" today: this is the first place I've been with no electric plug-in of any kind. And, in another "first": no shower facilities of any kind. And the final "first" will come in the morning when there is absolutely no place to eat a quick breakfast before I get out on the road. In every other place I've stopped there has been some sort of restaurant. I've been pretty spoiled I think!
So, I'm finally touring like Iris and Martin: the primitive way! Let's see how I do tomorrow on the 60 mile, uphill-all-the-way ride to tomorrow's destination!