Day #26 - 4/7/2011 - Sanderson, TX to Marathon, TX - 54 miles

It was 54 challenging miles from Sanderson to Marathon.

A good nights' sleep at the Comfort Inn, but, what a room!  There was a desk with no electric outlets within 15 feet.  In fact, there were hardly any electric sockets...anywhere.

A pair of touring bicycles makes any room a little crowded, especially if it was cramped to start with.

The coffee maker came without coffee and was precariously perched on the 'fridge straining to reach the extension cord.  But, for $40...I'd take it again.

This was the only way to plug in the coffee maker, which didn't have coffee in the first place.

My right leg feels the way it has each morning: a mid-calf ache that will probably fade in a few miles...I'm not worried about that.  It's only 53 miles to our next destination, Marathon, TX, but my right leg has been acting out in a terrible way at the 30 mile range.  There's an Amtrak here in Sanderson...will I be turning back and bailing out? I'm anxious.

We were out the motel door and on our bikes near 6:00 am.  The air was cool, the roads reasonably flat and the winds close enough to calm to not complain.  We biked off into the darkness as I anticipated another sunrise.

My camera, a Canon 7D, is a bit of a behemoth, but having it on my hip ensures that no sunrise went to waste.

We should have made good time, but it was clear that Lani was operating at only 70%.  It took us 2.5 hours to cover 20 miles, 30 minutes longer than yesterday.  And, from then on, things just got worse as the wind whipped up to sustained speeds of 25mph, right in our face and it never let up.

I was starting to miss the Tezas Hill Country.  At least with the hills, you struggle up...you fly down...you struggle up...you fly down.  With the winds, well, you just struggle all day.  A PB&J break remained a source of solace.

 Sometimes, against the wind, we'd stop and walk.

This is supposed to be a picture of us walking.

We continued to be impressed by the markers along even the most remote parts of US90 left by the Texas Historic Commission.

 This marker was about the ancient geology of South Texas and the Ouachita Rock Belt.

This marker informs that the  Ouachita Fold Belt, a northeasterly trending folded and faulted mountainous range  was uplifted about 275 to 290 million years ago.

 Have I complained enough about the wind, yet?  I mean have I complained enough about it sufficiently?  Are you wondering how bad could it really be?  Here...here's how bad it was:

 

Our normal cruising speed on a flat terrain is about 12mph.  On a decent downhill, we easily reach 20-25mph and as high as 35mph and that’s just coasting.  Today, we had to pedal on the downhill and rarely reached 10mph.  On the flats, we were in the 6-8mph range.  It was exhausting.

We stopped under one of the rare trees we found along side the road.  Gerda and Tenn, the couple from the Netherlands on a 6-month trip, came cycling by.

I was beginning to suspect that Gerda and Tenn were really cyborgs, impervious to the wind.

Anyway, we finally made it to Marathon, Texas, a small town (population=455) with a degree of charm disproportionate to the mere 7/10ths of a mile it measures along US90.  It is the second largest town in Brewster County, which says something about how populous Brewster County is; it has a population density of 1 person per square mile!

Marathon as founded when the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway built across what was then part of Presidio County. A crew building east from El Paso reached the townsite in March 1882. While no industry of significance exist, Marathon has positioned itself as a gateway to the Big Bend National Park.

The railroad remained a constant on our route on US90, linking together the small towns who owe their very creation to the railroad.

Freight cars labeled China Shipping were common.  I imagined them carrying socks and t-shirts to a Walmart near me.

Accommodations were limited in Marathon, as they were in any of these small Texas towns along US90 but, in Marathon, they included the Gage Hotel.

When Alfred Gage came to Texas from Vermont in 1878, he had built The Gage as a hotel and ranch headquarters for his 500,000-acre ranch. 

The ownership of The Gage Hotel changed in 1878 and the new owner returned the hotel to its turn-of-the-century trans-Pecos glory.  We liked Marathon, though there wasn't much to it: a few blocks a few cute shops, but a town we would come back to were we to explore the Big Bend region of Texas.

The rooms had an Old Western feel; some had private bathrooms and others used a shared bathroom/shower down the hall.

We cleaned up and enjoyed the charm of the Gage Motel and the charm of US90 as it turned into Marathon's NW 1st St.  We walked to the next block, took a seat at Guzzi Pizza and rewared ourselves for surviving the hills and the wind.

The best part of today?  I had no right leg pain...strange, but a tremendous relief.