Friday, June 3, 2022

Easy Rider II, Day 25, April 10, 2022

Sandy playing his bagpipes in Marathon

 I was having my nicest riding day yet.

Until I got another flat, my third for the tour.


But with today’s pleasant tailwind and a descent of more than 1,000 feet over 55.4 miles, not even that nasty little thorn that somehow punctured both sides of the inner tube inside my expensive Schwalbe Marathon Plus supposedly “flat-less” tires could get me down.


It does make me wonder how the Germans define “flat-less,” though.


There is not a lot going on in Sanderson TX, where I am staying tonight.


After I checked into the Desert Air Motel, I bought dinner at the seriously overpriced gas station across the street, which is  apparently the only source for food in this small town today.  My dinner: Two bean burritos, Fritos, chocolate milk and Chips Ahoy.


When I returned to my room, there were two Border Patrol trucks parked in the motel lot. I wondered whether they were after the Hispanic kid who had asked to borrow my phone charger in the motel parking lot. The kid was no longer in sight.


I turned the kid down, on grounds that I needed to use the charger myself. I felt ungenerous. But if I had loaned my charger to him, and he disappeared without returning it, I would be screwed for several days, because a replacement would be very difficult to find in one of these tiny towns I have been riding through.


As I was heading out of the Marathon RV park this morning, I met two other touring cyclists. The first, Sue, is westbound (see below). She started her ride in Key West in late January.


The second, Sandy, was stranded in Marathon for four days, waiting for parts to fix some mechanical issues with his bike. When I met him, he was playing his bagpipes at Marathon’s French Grocery, where I was having my breakfast. Apparently a local had agreed to give him a ride down the road in his pickup truck so he could reunite with a cycling buddy.


I carefully patched my punctured bicycle tubes in my motel room that evening because I thought I might need them, and there will be no place to buy new replacement tubes for two days.


DM: 55.4; TM: 1,316.8;4:03 hrs rdg; 13.2 mph avg spd; 504 ft climbing



Texas National Guard looking for illegals

Javelina DOR


Third flat and you are out!

Gas station across from my motel


Desert Air



Sue




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