Day 19 - 21: Del Rio & Rattlesnake Attack

Several long days fighting wind along rural highway 90 took us from Sanderson to Del Rio, 234 miles, through a series of small Texas towns. (You can tell you are entering a West Texas town because the speed limit drops to 60.) Lovely, rolling terrain covered by yucca and brush (mostly thorn bushes) just leafing out. Many hills near and far.

As we headed further east the landscape became wider and flatter, and you had the impression as you topped a small rise, that you had come over a dune and were looking out at the ocean, because the view ahead was of a bluish expanse stretching to the horizon.

Highlights: Lunch in Alpine at the Holland Hotel, restored to former grandeur.  It was the last place author Ambrose Bierce was seen before disappearing into Mexico a century ago, and more recently, where actor Tommy Lee Jones (No Country for Old Men) was kicked out for bad behavior.

Camping at the Seminole Canyon National Historical Park, near the Pecos River, overlooking canyons and vast emptiness.

Arriving bedragged, tired and ravishingly hungry, to lunch at Rudy's BBQ place in Del Rio, where the turkey sandwich was unbelievably moist. Not to mention the pleasure of showers and laundry at the Ramada.

After a couple of very challenging days, Friday's ride was just 42 miles (but still a struggle at times) and along the way Paul, riding the shoulder, veered around a dead rattlesnake, and while intently watching it only vaguely heard a "ssssss" sound.  John, following, discovered an angry, coiled snake on the shoulder and as he passed, it struck at him, trying to bite his foot.  He sped up and got away.

Spinning tumbleweeds and striking rattlesnakes -- two hazards we have come to appreciate so far from home.

Sanderson: 30* 8' 4" N /  -102* 23' 6" W   Del Rio: 29* 23' 8" N / -100* 54' 15" W

Days 22 & 23 -- Easter Sunday in the Hill Country

John drove Bob to a motel near the San Antonio airport, thus ending Bob's two-week sojurn with us. The rest of us, reduced,  headed east into the usual headwind. The weather was pleasant, even hot.  Out of Del Rio the landscape was flat and wide, but gradually we entered gentle rounded hills, and began seeing big junipers and live oaks, just coming into leaf. Chip seal is the predominate road surface, but the traffic was light, the scenery lovely and generally this was as pleasant a day of riding as could be wished.

As a group we continue to nurse overuse injuries, but not so much we don't wake each morning eager to ride. We ended the day at a campground near Camp Wood on the Neuces River. We found steaks and a bag of charcoal in a tiny market, and cooked our dinners, this being the first Easter Eve any of us could remember spent this way.

The campground was alive with RVs, tents, kids on bikes, groups playing basketball and volleyball, competing country and Mexican music, Christmas lights hung from trailers, children's voices chattering, crickets, children's voices, crickets, children's voices, competing country and Mexican music, crickets, Mexican music, shouts and yells in Spanish, Mexican music, shouts and yells in Spanish, crickets, Mexican music, shouts and yells in Spanish, shouts and yells in Spanish, Mexican music, shouts and yells... you get the picture.  Until 3 am.

Easter Sunrise found us packing up our bikes, grumbling about our unneighborly neighbors, and heading for the highway.

On Easter Sunday we were lucky to have little traffic but we fought the usual headwinds and tried to make headway at 9 mph, hour after hour.  We found a lovely country resort restaurant open in Leakey, the Frio Canyon Lodge, and most of us had the turkey and potato special -- for $7.99 it came with much-needed vegetables and a (less-needed) brownie or cheesecake dessert. Then some dramatic climbs in an amazingly beautiful section of the "hill country" of Texas, with riverside resorts, steep ups and downs, wooded hills and valleys.

Winds blasted our hopes for an 86-mile day so as rain began falling and daylight ebbing, we called it quits at about 60 miles and headed for (much-needed) showers at a Comfort Inn in Kerrville, about 100 miles west of Austin.  Suddenly we were in civilization again.

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