I left Sanderson with two other riders just before 8am. The weather forecast was calling for a high of 89 F so we wanted to get as many miles in as we could before the heat of the day. Today’s ride would be 80 miles. We were lucky for the first few hours of the day as it was cloudy and that helped keep the temperature down. After 20.5 miles we arrived in the town of Dryden (probably not named after the town in Northwestern Ontario). The town was largely a ghost town but there was a small combination post office/store. It opened at 9am and we rolled in to town at 08:59. We bought some water and Poweraide and continued on.
The rough chip seal road surface can be hard on riders and their bikes. Luckily for me my steel touring bike with its long wheel base helps smooth out the ride a little. By 11:24 we had completed 50 miles and were getting close to Langtry, 10 miles away, where we had planned to stop to eat our lunch.
We arrived in Langtry just before noon and visited the Judge Roy Bean Museum and Visitor Centre. Judge Roy Bean of Langtry was the “law of the west” west of the Pecos.” He ruled America’s last frontier in the last decades of the 19th century. He ruled with his own brand of justice and set his indelible stamp on the rugged Texas land west of the Pecos River.
From a brochure that I picked up at the visitor centre.
We filled up our water bottles, ate our sandwhiches and were on the road by 12:40. The temperature was approaching the high eighties and we had complete about 60 miles with an average moving speed just under 16 mph so we decided to ease up a little for the remaining 20 miles or so, knowing that there would be several miles of rollers and the hill climbing would be more difficult in the heat.
At the 78 mile mark we crossed the large bridge over e Pecos River. We stopped to take some pictures of the first river we had seen in several days that actually contained water.
We arrived at Seminole Canyon State Park around 2 pm and set up our tents. I had a quick shower and then made my way over to the beer cooler for a well deserved beer. We covered just over 80 miles with a moving average speed of about 15mph.
Pecos River
Prickely Pear Cactus near my tent.
Nice to stay at a State Park. Normally we camp at sketchy RV Parks that make us cram 13 tents into a space like this. Woke up to birds chirping instead of dogs barking, roosters, traffic and trains. Even had rabbits hopping around just before dark last night.