Day 24: Law West of the Pecos

Langtry, TX to Del Rio, TX
Date: 01/25/2013
Distance traveled: 58.09 miles (1426.34 miles total)
GPS tracks: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/266363392

After a blissful, but short, night of sleep behind the Langtry Community Center I got up early and had packed up the bike by 9am. I rolled the short distance over to Langtry’s biggest attraction – the Judge Roy Bean Visitor’s Center (and restroom for weary cyclists).


The bar, pool hall, and courtroom of Judge Roy Bean.

The judge was quite the character – he was known as “the law west of the Pecos” river. Before his time it was said that “West of the Pecos there is no law; West of El Paso there is no God.” He was obsessed with Lilly Langtry of Jersey Island for whom he named the town of Langtry, and his saloon (the Jersey Lilly). He also apparently just did his ‘judging’ by shooting from the hip, ignoring the actual law and just dispensing justice however he saw fit. He was larger than life and it’s hard to separate fact from fiction, but it makes for good story telling.

I spent a fair bit of time at the visitor’s center – mostly because it was interesting, and partially to give my electronics a chance to charge since I’d been without power for a couple of days.


The wooden windmill in the cactus garden. The visitor center is also home to a very nice cactus garden which was fun to walk around.

When I finally did get on the bike, it was very slow going. Big headwinds. More rolling hills. By the time I had gone 30 miles I was already beat. I stopped for a very long lunch at J&J Holley’s Place in Comstock where I watched reruns of Rosanne with the owner, devoured a massive burger with fries, and did some blogging.


The Pecos River canyon.

I had planned to do a longer ride today, but I really just didn’t have long distance in me today – 60 miles was more than enough. When I rolled into Del Rio and saw that there was a hotel next to a Rudy’s BBQ I took that as my sign to call it quits for the day. It was time for my first BBQ of the trip. It was about time!


I had 3 sandwiches and I was still hungry! So good!

Day 23: Motoring

Marathon, TX to Langtry, TX
Date: 01/24/2013
Distance traveled: 116.52 miles (1368.25 miles total)
GPS tracks: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/266363341

There have been some long, empty stretches where there has been nothing around for miles and miles and miles. This section of road takes the cake. It was the absolute longest stretch on the trip without services of any sort. In the 115 mile span between Marathon and Langtry there is only one town worth speaking of – Sanderson. That meant that I had to pack food and water to last me for two 50+ mile stretches of desert. Now that the temperature has warmed up, that means I’m drinking a lot more. I believe I was carrying around 7 liters of water for each 50 mile leg, and I used every drop of it.


Shirley’s Burnt Biscuit Bakery

The first half of the ride between Marathon & Sanderson went really quickly – I had the wind at my back and was going downhill. I was also powered by fried pies from Shirley’s Burnt Biscuit. I was told I wasn’t allowed to leave Marathon without trying them, so I picked up 4 for the road. I was averaging 14 mph for the first 50 miles – it felt like I was flying!

So, naturally, when I got to Sanderson I made the call to keep going. The only trouble is that I got away late in the morning since I had to do laundry – the biking clothes needed a serious wash and I wasn’t able to get to it the night before. I didn’t roll out until 11am. That meant that I was making the call to do another 60+ miles at around 4pm in the afternoon. I knew I’d be riding in the dark and I was okay with that… after all, at 14 mph I’ll be there in no time, right?

Wrong. As soon as I left Sanderson the road went from fun & fast downhill to rollers. And the wind somehow had changed directions. But that’s okay… I was still having fun.

In fact, I had a really great 3 hour ride in the dark. It was a cloudless night with a nearly full moon. It was just me, a few truckers, and border patrol out there on the road. Most of the ride was incredibly peaceful and relaxing.


A picture of the campsite taken in the morning.

I got into Langtry (population 17) around 10pm. The best option for the night was to camp on the community center’s grounds. It was peaceful and out of the way – it turned out to be one of the better campsites of the trip so far because it was so quite!

Day 22: Tourist

McDonald Observatory to Marathon, TX
Date: 01/23/2013
Distance traveled: 71.36 miles (1251.73 miles total)
GPS tracks: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/265407663


Me and John on the catwalk of the 107″. The 82″ (the first telescope built here in 1938) can be seen in the background. At the time they were built, these telescopes were amongst the biggest in the world. Now they’re tiny by comparison, but still quite useful. Research is actively going on using these telescopes on a daily basis.

Today I put the tourist back into bicycle touring.

Starting off first thing in the morning, I trekked up the hill to go visit the McDonald Observatory’s telescopes up close and personal. John gives an excellent tour – we talked for at least 2 hours about his work ranging from the computing and control systems that guide the telescopes to the maintenance required to keep them functional. John is wicked smart and clearly enjoys the tinkering he gets to do at his job – he has to be a relative jack of all trades. We started our tour at ‘the 107’, which is what the Harlan J. Smith telescope is called due to its 107 inch diameter mirror. It was built in the late 1960’s. The thing weighs 160 tons, but moves with grace and precision. We went out on the dome’s catwalk to get a view of the Davis Mountains which surround the observatory. From there, we went over to the telescope control room, and then to check out ‘the 82’ which was built in 1938. You can imagine it takes quite a bit of work to keep a precision instrument from the 1930’s running well. :)


View of the mountains from the telescope’s catwalk.


Standing in front of the 107″.


John explaining how the 82″works while filling it up with liquid nitrogen to keep it cool. Focused light can really heat things up.


Motors, gears.


Built to last.

I personally don’t know much about astronomy so a bunch of the actual research done on these telescopes went over my head. For example, we talked for a while about how astronomy helped to prove the theory of plate tectonics. The rest of it went in one ear and out the other. What did stick was the odd conglomeration of ancient and new tools that keep these telescopes useful. I found it interesting that the problems they were having were pretty common computing problems. The X server keeps crashing on this Linux box. This bus interface doesn’t have a USB translator, so we need to keep this ancient Sun Spark workstation up and running so we can use this particular camera. We can’t upgrade this machine with RedHat version whatever because the controller drivers don’t work on newer kernels. The hodgepodge of Linux, Mac, Windows, and Solaris would drive me nuts!

Many thanks go to John and Deb for hosting me for the night and the awesome tour!


John at work at ‘mission control’.


This old NOVA computer from Data General used to control one of the telescopes. If you’re a computer geek and you’ve never read The Soul of a New Machine, you should.


The domes as seen from the road.


Fast and fun road down to Fort Davis.

I finally got on the bike at 11am and rolled downhill rather quickly to Fort Davis. The scenery was magnificent. The wind was favorable until I got into Fort Davis where it started blasting me head on. I took this as a sign that it was time for lunch, and to do some more touring. I spent an hour or so at the old fort. It was pretty interesting. The only reason it existed was to protect travelers on the road between El Paso and San Antonio. One of the more interesting things about the court-martial of Second Lt. Henry O. Flipper, the first black graduate of West Point who served at the fort. Later on (in 1976) the army gave him a posthumous honorable discharge, and 1999 he received a full presidential pardon.


The officer’s houses are in the background, the barracks to the right.

Inside the barracks.


Lt. Henry O. Flipper

And then I finally, really, started biking. The weather has finally turned warm – high 70’s, low 80’s – and I’m loving it.


Lots of ranch land out in these parts.

Somewhere along the route I got stopped by crazy lady who expected $25/night to stay at her house. She wanted to know where to advertise her house to other cyclists. I told her she should try “the internet”. Mostly I was just pissed at her for stopping me mid-climb. Don’t ever stop a bicyclist who’s going uphill. It’s rude.


So sad.


Lovely sunset.

The best part of the day was getting into Marathon. I rolled up and immediately met Ed, Uriel, and Meredith who were out in the hotel/campground courtyard enjoying a beer. After I got showered and my camp site set up they came over and asked if they could buy me dinner. So nice! So unexpected. They are on vacation biking around these parts. Uriel and Meredith are recently married. Uriel has biked across the US at least once and done several other bicycle tours in other parts of the world. We had a great dinner together at the 12 Gage Restaurant, adjacent to the Gage Hotel which was just up the street from our hotel. What a great way to end the day!


Uriel, Meredith & Ed (picture taken the next morning).