Everyone was still catching up on sleep and no one was in the breakfast room before 7:15am. It was raining . . .  HARD!!! Showers predicted for today with a high of 51. At launch time it was 45 degrees.

With the chilly weather and rain, I did not want a repeat of chilly feet so broke out the new Shimano shoes for their maiden ride . . .

. . . mmmmmm, breakfast, DONE, truck packed DONE . . .time to ride? Maybe not yet.

There was a group of architecture students, from Austin, on a weekend tour staying at our motel. I asked them for a photo,  and told them one of them may be the next Frank Lloyd Wright (from WI you know!)

We have seen this expression used in several of the last towns we’ve biked through. Must be a local saying!!!

Going to be  LOWWWWWWW ceiling today.

Here was a research botanical garden that would have been fun to stop at. It was not Open yet . . .and it was raining. Time to bike on!

This historical marker preserved all that was left of Manual Musquiz’s home from 1854. He finally abandoned it in 1865 because of too many ongoing raids by Indian’s.

After the rain we’ve had for the last two days, some of the dry stream are actually starting to flow. ‘Flash Flood Warnings’ today for the area we are traveling through!

I came around a corner and here was Margie do a little ‘road maintenance’. She was in good spirits and 5 minutes later we were both down the road.

We were QUICKLY loosing our ceiling . . .

But soon we were out on the open plains . . . wide open to the horizon for 360 degrees!

You hate to see a county line because it can many times mean a change in the highway construction. You can see the difference in the shoulder is like night and day. Back out into the lane of traffic because the shoulder was too rough.

Soon we were at our midpoint town for today, Alpine. Great little town that we all wished we had more time to spend in than just for lunch. GREAT murals . . .

. . . around town

. . . that were really well done!

Humorous little display at the hardware store for selling doggie coats.

At lunch, I read the local Alpine Times and saw that the Border Patrol also catches Mexicans coming across the border with drugs. Over $1.6 million in marijuana confiscated from illegals this week, carrying packs stuffed with 50 pounds of weed!

This area prides itself on having some of the ‘Darkest Skies’ in the US. They use it as and advertising gimmick!

So . . . I wonder if in a week or two, there will be a new cross and flowers located here for someone who didn’t make it. Speaking of not making it. As I rolled along I saw in the ditch a dead fawn that was being dined on by a turkey vulture . . . .

. . . about 2 miles down the road I saw a turkey vulture that had been hit evidently by a Toyota. This insignia is probably the last thing it saw!!!

The rain had been on and off all day . . . but in the last three miles before Marathon, our home for the night it stopped.!!!

Marathon is out in the middle of NOWHERE! Evidently it’s here because of a local cattle company. It’s probably either cattle or the railroad that settled many of these small towns.

We are staying at the Marathon Motel. A great little place on the edge of town. The rooms were not ready until 3:00pm so we sat out on their veranda trying off our gear, while Linda fixed her tire.

So here are my ‘new shoes’ after having ridden in them for a day on the road. They look broke in now. You might notice the little ‘extra’ I added for warmth. Plastic grocery bags. They work GREAT!

 

AFTER THOUGHTS:

While riding today I saw a couple of things that got me thinking  . . .  lot of time to think when you are on the bike for 5-8 hours a day.

I saw this set of tracks that went off the road and through the fence. Wondered if there might be crucifix there in a few weeks.

I have seen LOTS of crucifixes’ and memorials for those who have died on highways, for probably a variety of reasons . . . most likely alcohol related. This one hit home . . . a fellow bicyclist. The death was marked by a ‘ghost bike’, a national program promoting bike safety that puts out white painted bikes out where cyclists have died.

Rene was killed here in 2012. I stopped for quiet moment and walked around the area. Mounting up again, I headed towards Marathon. Simon and Garfunkel’s, ‘The Boxer’, was coming through my earbuds and as I pedaled along. I thought about what had happened to Rene and if there was any warning. Probably not. It brought to mind the death off our neighbors, Jan and Al, who were also killed in Texas last year when the driver of an 18 wheeler reached down for a Snickers bar and hit them, head on, while they were driving their Gold Wing. Probably no warning. Fate for Jan, Al and Rene? I don’t think so. It was their time.

Read bout Rene here.

Could I have been hit and killed by that pickup hitting the rumble strip and de-laminating his tire right next to me?? Sure. But also just as easily by one of the thousands of other cars that have driven by me seven feet away, at 70-80 miles and hour, or by the ‘heart issue’ I had a couple of years ago. It wasn’t my time.

One needs to be ready in your heart, your life and in your relationships . . . because you never know the time or the place.

As I slowly pedaled the last 3 miles into Marathon, the sky began to clear . . . blue sky, sun and warmth! By the time I reached Marathon, I was dry from the rain and warm enough, that if it had been any further, I would have needed to shed a layer.