I started out around 7 this morning to get an early start. I went to the Wendy’s for breakfast and they were having cash register issues, so I ended up not getting on the road until after 8. When I stopped to eat, a homeless looking dude wearing a backpack was loitering around the front of the place. I left Heyoka against the window outside. Before I got in line to order, I went over to the window and peeked outside. The guy was getting ready to rifle through my stuff. He saw me looking at him and took off. So, I went outside and got Heyoka and brought him in to join me for breakfast. The Wendy’s folks and convenience store staff looked at me a little funny though. Once I got on the road, it was a pretty good ride all day. It was a slight incline with a big elevation gain spread over the 75 miles, so it wasn’t too bad. The worst part was getting a taste of the rough chip seal pavement. I think that’s how most of Texas will be, so I guess I need to get used to it. It’ll be 800 plus miles of it before I get to Louisiana. Here’s the map from today and some pictures.

Riding in the cold this morning.
The sun starting to warm things up a bit.
So there you go. This used to be something. I think this was a red tailed hawk, but I’m not sure. The wind was blowing in the right direction for once. I had a hard time convincing Heyoka this was just a piece of art, not a real store. He wanted some Prada tires. Click on it to read the wikipedia article. The only thing open in Valentine was a tiny, tiny library. I went in and filled up my water bottles.

An aggregation of tumbleweeds. The chip seal pavement today was much coarser. Rough riding! A big ol’ blimp. Not as big as the Goodyear blimp, but it was pretty big. Those are buildings all around it. Maybe some sort of meteorological balloon? Welcome to Marfa. Not to be confused with Marfa’s Vineyard.I bet the Stardust Motel was cool when it was still standing.

Tomorrow, Alpine, TX

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