Los Angeles, California to Little Torch Key, Florida
via the Southern Tier Bicycle Route
September 28 -December 25, 2001

Tuesday, October 30, 2001 - We Take a Sixty Mile Bite Out of Texas and Vice Versa

61 miles. Sanderson, TX to Langtry Community Center, Langtry, TX.

     We are near the end of the western chunk of Texas, where there is a whole lot of nothing. Today we traveled from Sanderson (pop. 1128, tho' probably lower now) 20 miles to Dryden (pop. 13), where we ate our lunch. There was a very small store and a post office, but nothing else. From Dryden to Langtry (pop. 50), there were no other towns. We had wanted to go on to the state park in 18 miles, but the wind was too strong, and we had trouble enough getting to Langtry. Thankfully they allow camping at the community center, that is to say the Vashti Skiles Community Center. It is within sight of the Rio Grande and there was a full moon to to light it up. Langtry was the home of Judge Roy Bean, Langtry's only claim of fame. It is now becoming a ghost town as are many of the small towns of West Texas.
     But the real story of the day was the wind. Joan and I have ridden in many parts of the country and have faced the wind but today was one of the worst ever for wind. It was basically a straight headwind from the southeast, the direction we were had to ride and it took its toll. Early in the morning it was a nascent headwind and we made good time in spite of it but by noon it had developed into a natural force to be reckoned with. There were a number of small canyons to deal with and several long grades that normally would not be all that bad, but with the wind they became excruciating efforts, and the descents had to be pedaled down. The big drop down to the Rio Grande near Langtry was a joke in that when we got to the bottom we had virtually no momentum at all. The wind fought us all the way down, resenting our hard fought gains earned by climbing the reverse slope. These conditions try a cyclist's soul.

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Last updated 01/02/2002