Sanderson is in West Texas, with about 60 miles from any
other town in the middle of a valley in the desert. The landscape has become sparsely populated
since I left San Antonio and I’ve had to make better preparations between towns
since I’m riding through the desert on roads that aren’t heavily
travelled. The climate and scenery has changed
dramatically since I left Louisiana and crossed into Texas and into the
West. It went from bayou to trees and
forest and now into cacti and desert.
The people are friendly and hospitable as always. I’ve had a good shoulder on the road so I
haven’t had to deal with motorists other than going through urban centers. There were strong headwinds today, which made
me take a day off. The winds last night
flattened my tent a couple of times in the middle of the night. Since I last wrote I’ve been through
Beaumont, Houston and San Antonio and into hill country. I stopped in San Antonio to see the riverwalk
and The Alamo. To be honest, as
interesting as The Alamo is and as nice as the riverwalk is, all I saw was
commercialism, people shopping , or people eating. I guess I have a different way of looking at
travel given the places I usually backpack through. My highlights for Texas so far have been the
small towns though, not the “touristy stuff. “
Each town has a rich history, whether mining or the railroad. I’ve been through a couple ghost towns and a
couple in decline. I went through one
yesterday with a population of 10. The
county I’m in right now has a population of around 950. I’ve met a couple groups of touring cyclists
like myself these past few days. They
have all been headed the opposite direction.
They have all been retirees as well.
People in their 50s-60s. I camped
with a group of them two nights ago and got some good touring advice and heard
a few good stories. If a group of
retired people can do a cross country bicycle touring trip, then I should have
no reason to complain. The other
bicyclists were pretty surprised to see someone touring solo, and winging it on
the route as I am. As I’ve continued on
this trip I’ve become more conditioned, I can ride from dawn to dusk now, and I
can cover 60 miles by the early afternoon.
The weather, and the sparseness of the region I’m in have slowed me
down. Not to mention the big hills. I can’t just ride until the sunset anymore,
since that would probably place me right in the middle of the desert with
nothing for miles. I have to plan to finish
close to civilization. I should make it
to Arizona in the next couple weeks, mountain range and weather depending. So far this trip has been a huge
success. I wanted to see America up
close, the people and the towns. I also
wanted a challenge. Something that would
test me every day, and I found that with my mode of transport. This would have been a boring trip if I just
drove through in a car on the interstate with everyone else. I’ve only taken a few pictures so far. I’m usually too tired or in a good rhythm and
I don’t want to stop to take a picture.
For me, this trip was more about the experience than about taking
pictures. I’m sorry to anyone who was
looking for daily pictures or something like that. I’ll probably try to write more about the
trip once I get to Arizona.
