Day 20 - Mile 1009 - 1064 (55 miles, 721 ft ascent, 1289 ft descent)

Marfa - Marathon, TX

Daily Route

Daily Elevation

Yet another chilly night sleeping, but I feel like I got a pretty good night sleep.  When we woke up at 7:15 AM, it definitely felt warmer than it did two mornings ago.  Is this finally a warming trend?  By the time we left at 9 AM, the temperature was up to 37 degrees, almost 10 degrees warmer than when we left two ride 2 days ago.  This made everyone feel much better this morning.  Plus, we only have 55 miles to ride today.​

Beautiful morning

Our first stop today is a picnic area just 8 miles down the road, dedicated to viewing the Marfa lights.  The Marfa lights are a weird phenomena that lights appear on clear nights over US 67 when observed from this spot on US 90.  Since we were there in the morning, all we saw was a plaque explaining the phenomena.

After leaving the Marfa lights roadside park, the route took us over Paisano Pass.  As you can see from above , we are only climbing 721 feet today, so this pass wasn’t too challenging, but it was pretty nice with mountains all around.

Our next stop today is the town of Alpine at the 25 mile point.  As soon as we entered the town, the Big Bend Brewing Company was there.  Unfortunately it is closed on Wednesdays.  :-(

Brewery is closed today

Since we have a short day today, we had time to stop in a bakery and not be too rushed to get back on the road. 

Jackie and Jim enjoying the bakery in Alpine

After a pleasant stay, we hopped back on the bicycles for a 15 mile ride to our next stop.   Then, around Mile 30 we came across 2 cyclists, Alexander from Germany going our way (east) and Robert from the UK going west.  It is quite the coincidence that Bill met a "Paisano" from the UK just after going through Paisano Pass. When Tim and I travel to the UK this summer, we will look Robert up.

Other crazy cross-country cyclists

As we were talking to Alexander and Robert, Patrick passed us and we gave him a thumbs up that we were good.  Since today is only 55 miles, there is no plan for Patrick to stop on the route to meet us.  Then, as we approached a roadside picnic area, we noticed Patrick parked.  He said that after he passed us, he saw this great parking area, and couldn’t resist stopping for us.  What a great surprise!  We could now refill our water bottles and leave all our excess clothes with him now that the temperature is over 60 degrees…heat wave!

After shedding, filling water bottles, and eating lunch, we were back on the road.  However, during the 15 minutes we stopped with Patrick, the wind shifted and we were now battling a headwind.  It took us 48 minutes to go the 7 miles to the “Target”.  Another desert art exhibit in the middle of nowhere.

Gerri flabbergasted as the others inspect

After studying the weather forecast, I determined that we would soon be turning east and the wind should switch to a crosswind.  Luckily, I was right.  We only had to battle the headwind for another couple of miles and then we were back to a pleasant ride with only 10 or so miles to go to get to Marathon, TX.​

We arrived to the RV park just after 2:30 PM giving us plenty of time to relax, setup camp, and walk into town to check it out.  While in town we saw the Brick Vault Brewery (also closed on Wednesday) :-(

The second closed brewery today

Tim and I did however, finally get a photo of us in Texas with a Texas flag.  When we entered Texas 6 days ago, there wasn’t a “Welcome to Texas” sign, so this will now have to do.

Welcome to Texas, 6 days late.

We returned to the RV for an awesome taco dinner and then was invited by an amateur astronomer to view the stars through his incredible equipment.  I am now in the tent and am feeling pretty good since the temperature is going to stay above 40 tonight and when the alarm goes off at 7 AM it should be above 50 degrees.  Maybe we are finally going to have a warming trend. With the higher temperatures, and tomorrow only being 55 miles, it should be a good day of cycling.