Cycling Ellen

55.9 miles today
1146 total

Sometime this winter, we all received an e mail from WomanTours  that oil had been discovered in Sanderson, Texas and that we might need to mail sleeping bags into town and sleep in a firehouse or a school for the night.  The oil people had taken over all the rooms in the area.  Fortunately, somehow, they found a way for us to sleep in beds tonight but we are in two different places at either end of town.  Neither is anything to write home about (let’s just say it’s not like the Gage last night) but they are clean and have beds and I’m glad not to have to deal with mailing home a sleeping bag tomorrow.

Today was one of the more straightforward cue sheets.  Turn left onto US 90.  Ride 55 miles.  Turn left into one of the two motels.  For “landmarks”, there were the entrance signs to Pecos County and Terrell County.  The landscape was beautiful desert with mountains and bluffs.  The terrain was mostly flat or rolling, an easy cycling day.  Since it was a short day, several of the stronger riders left Marathon at 10 and caught up with the rest of the group at the first sag stop at mile 20.  I had fun riding with different people along the way and taking it easy, conserving energy for our 112 miles tomorrow.

In awhile, those of staying at the far end of town (a small but select group!) will shuttle back for dinner.  The motel there has a live snake display that I visited on my way through.  The diamondback rattlesnake shook its rattle at me the whole time I looked through the various cages.  That’s a sound I don’t want to hear again!

I’ve hand washed my laundry, written my short blog for today (sorry, there just wasn’t much to describe) and will hang out for a bit here.  We have found a tiny bar of internet floating in the air just outside our motel room.  Who knew what we would find in Sanderson, Texas?