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Sunday, October 28, 2001 - Pizza at Angelo's
31 miles. Alpine, TX to Angelo and Diane's, Marathon, TX.
Woke up after the sun came up. The spacing for the
next few days for places to stay is dictating how far we can go. So today
went only 31 miles to Marathon. Only it is relative when bike touring, the
first half of the ride was on a slight upgrade into a very stiff headwind. The
first 8 miles weren't too bad, then we turned into the wind and were only able
to average around 6 or 7 miles per hour for about half the miles, then the wind
let up a little and we were finally heading downhill, so we were able to make
some time into Marathon where we planned to buy a can of something for dinner
and head for the local RV camp.
As we were looking around the town trying
to find the grocery store, Angelo biked up to us and asked if we were looking
for the school to camp at. Then he invited us over for homemade pizza,
which he was preparing for his friends in town. Of course we
accepted.
Now you ask, "who is Angelo?" He is the local
anarchist and the cycling king of Marathon, TX (pop. 800) and an all around
great guy who has now become the fourth member of my Cycling Hall of Fame.
He and his wife Diane invited us into their home and had us stay the night and
were just wonderful to us. I just had a feeling when he asked over for
pizza that he had a serious pizza oven and I was not disappointed. At one
time he had a pizza parlor in New Jersey and then in Marathon and he made us a
great pizza, with his own sauce and crust, and another one for the road.
His wife is a gardener and we were intrigued by her
xerioscaping (landscaping with arid plants). They have
bought this dilapidated place in little Marathon and have spent the last five
years turning it into the greatest little hacienda in Texas all by
themselves. It is still a work in progress but I am sure that they will
finish it some day. It was interesting to contrast their lifestyles to the
ramshackle condition of the rest of Marathon. Theirs is the coming trend
for Marathon and its renaissance is inevitable. There is little property
to buy in the area since it all rangeland so real estate prices in Marathon are
soaring in the last few years.
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