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…
Posts by: Paul and Terry
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…
See you in (Del) Rio…. Ranger Country to Del Rio
Our night by the side of the road passed by undisturbed. Not even the friendly armadillo troubled us in our slumber and we woke early next morning to the sound of birdsong and the occasional passing pick-up which seemed not in the least bit interested in what we were doing. Then, just a few minutes…
Don’t fence us in…. Vanderpool to Ranger Country
Today we’ve been riding in the cycle tracks of Lance Armstrong. That’s according to the woman who served us coffee at the Lost Maples Country Store this morning who told us this is where the now disgraced seven times Tour de France winner did his training. The only difference between us and Lance is we’ve…
Putting the boot in.… Kerrville to Vanderpool
On a good days cycling there’s nowhere else you’ve rather be. Conversely on a bad day’s riding you’d rather be anywhere than in the saddle. Today was a good day. At one point, I was pedalling along a straight road, high in the Texas Hill Country, the light bright and a slight chill in the…
Texas Hill Country Riders…. Johnson to Kerrville
It was so cold when we woke up in our tents that we opted to stay wrapped in our sleeping bags for an extra half hour. We were still wearing all our cycling clothes from the previous day, but knew that as soon as we emerged from our cocoons we’d start to shiver. Besides which…