Winds were pretty steady last night, between 20-30 mph until almost midnight. Our little RV did the shake, rattle, roll making sleep hard to achieve. Temperatures dropped close to 32 degrees making a chilly start this morning. Fortunately, the wind had dropped to about 8 mph and were from the west giving the guys a tailwind.
Marcia and I stopped at this “general” store on our way out of town. They had all kinds of scrap metal sculptures and pottery outside and everything from Mexican pottery to plumbing supplies inside. It was like a maze going through the store!
If wind was the story of the day yesterday, hills and trucks were the story today.
Highway 90 was much busier with a constant flow of trucks, both directions, for most of the day. Fortunately, the road is pretty wide and had passing lanes. The trucks were also good about moving across the lane to give the guys plenty of room to ride.
Not far outside of Sanderson was a historic marker about the Baxter’s Curve Train Robbery. Apparently, in 1912, Ben Kilpatrick, a former member of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s gang, and Ole Hobek, attempted one of the last train robberies in West Texas. Unfortunately, for them, while they were searching the baggage cars, a Wells Fargo Express manager, bludgeoned one with an ice mallet and killed the other with the first robber’s rifle. Crime does NOT pay!
Tobey was resting his feet at our lunch break and went outside wearing his flipflops. He had one of these thorns go through the flipflop into his foot! Fortunately, it was only a poke, but we were all very cautious after it happened!
The guys only had 20 more miles to go after lunch. YEAH. Unfortunately, there were more hills. BOO.In Langtry, we visited the Judge Roy Bean Visitor’s Center. What nice people worked there!
Judge Roy Bean was the “law west of the Pecos”. He was probably the most colorful justice of the peace and ruled America’s last frontier in the late 1800s. They say that justice was swift in Judge Bean’s court. When an accused was brought in, Judge Bean removed his apron (he ran a saloon and billiard hall, also), hauled out his law book and notary seal, and called a jury from among his customers. Some legends say he was a hanging judge, but there is no record that he ever sentenced a man to hang. Threatened them, yes, but hanged them, no.
It is a free museum and we had fun reading the stories about him and seeing two of the original buildings. Even though the one building said Opera House, Town Hall, that was actually where he lived!
There was also a botanical garden with more varieties of cacti than I knew existed! On the site was also a 10-foot Model P Eclipse Windmill which were sold around 1900. They played an important role in the development of West Texas, providing the power to bring pure water to the surface. The wooden tower was bought as a kit and shipped on the railroad to be erected at the well site. They have one in the gardens.
We are camping at the Community Center tonight before heading to Del Rio tomorrow.
Today’s ride was over 60 miles with lots of hills. Tobey will update his map tomorrow!
Today’s ride was over 60 miles with lots of hills. Tobey will update his map tomorrow!
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