Let’s get one thing straight. Texas is huge. It’s vast. Bloomin’ enormous. The Lone Star State makes up nearly a third of the entire Southern Tier route and it has taken us three weeks to cycle across it. Our journey has seen us cycle through lush forest, to hill country, to ranch land and through…
Archive For March, 2020
Soaking up the sights in Sun City…. El Paso
For a zero day off the bike El Paso surpassed itself. We had great architecture, a presidential political rally, bike racing in the streets, art, jazz, great food and historic art deco trams which got me so excited I could barely contain myself. The day started at the Beto O’Rourke political rally where the El…
Another Brick in the Wall…. Fort Hancock to El Paso
“Are you taking a photo of the wall?” the pick-up driver who had pulled up beside us asked. “The wall? Er, no we are taking a photo of this irrigation channel,” I replied, following the man’s eyeline and realising that, standing perhaps half a mile from us, was probably the most controversial and highly devisive…
This town is looking like a Ghost Town…. Van Horn to Fort Hancock
Van Horn only looks good in your rear view mirror. Preferably in the dark. That’s how we left the mile long strip of cheap motels and auto repair garages. Activity on the adjacent trainline provided a welcome distraction from the early hour of our departure. After the early morning express had trundled through at walking…
In the footsteps of Giants…. Marfa to Van Horn
It’s not often you come across Elizabeth Taylor while riding through the deserts of west Texas, nor is it somewhere you’d expect to find a Prada store – but this was a day of strange occurrences. The oddest thing of all was we got up so early we managed to break camp, wolf down mountains…
The art of doing nothing…. Marfa
A day off in Marfa proved a great choice to recharge our batteries and take in some hippy chill. Originally founded as a railroad water stop in the 1880s it was transformed in 1971 when Minimalist artist Donald Judd moved there from New York City and gradually began using buildings around the area – and…
Looking for UFOs on the hippy highway…. Marathon to Martha
After being awoken by the soft tones of Acker Bilk’s clarinet yesterday, this morning’s alarm call was rather more brutal – the 5.30am freight train passing within a few hundred yards of our tents and blowing its horn all through town. If the train driver had to get up early for work he was going…
Stars in their eyes…. Sanderson to Marathon
Terry and I have just been standing outside our tents gazing up at what is probably the most amazing night sky we have ever seen. Even with the naked eye thousands upon thousands of stars are visible and there are numerous constellations we’ve never seen before. We are camping at an RV park just outside…
Bedding down with Bubba’s Pampered Pedalers…. Langtry to Sanderson
By the time we awoke in the shadow of the old Langtry schoolhouse, Jay had already packed up and left town and Lloyd and Louis were busy loading their belongings onto the tandem. We bade them farewell and off they set, still on time for a world record attempt despite our efforts to slow them…
If you want to be a record breaker…. Del Rio to Langtry
For the first time on the Southern Tier we’ve been camping with other touring cyclists – Jay from Savannah, Georgia, riding the Southern Tier West – East, and Lloyd Collier and Louis Snellgrove, two doctors from the UK, now living and practising in Australia. To be fair, calling Lloyd and Louis touring cyclists is rather…