Category: Texas

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Our Trips Texas

Please Come To Texas

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New cowboy hat, of course

In 2010 The Bike Hermit took his first bike jaunt in Texas.  Titled Texas Buckaroos, his adventure is well chronicled on crazyguyonabike.com.  Since then, I have heard about his trip pretty much Every Single Day; how amazing this part of Texas is, how friendly the people are, how we need to move to Texas, how Boise is actually hotter and colder than Alpine – you name it, I’ve heard it.  Being who I am,  my initial reaction was there is no way I am moving to Texas.  Those who know me know that  I tend to balk when others rave about certain places or things – yes even when The Bike Hermit is the one doing the raving :).  After a few years of his pushing Texas I finally let the brain crack open and began to soften to the idea of at least going for a visit.  It took a few years to line up all the stars but suddenly the idea was becoming a reality.  Originally we planned to go in early 2015 but with everything slipping into place we decided we’d planned enough and we’d just go for it.  Again, to those who know us, this should come a no surprise.
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From the start of our Texas Bike Ride I vowed to have no agenda, no expectations and to allow each and every day unfold of it’s own accord.  A little self congratulations are in order as I think I came pretty darn close to achieving that goal.  (okay there may have been a few moments and there were some very choice words thrown around on a particularly nasty section of Glenn Springs Road in Big Bend National Park)glenspringsugly2 But as always when riding, it got better. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Everyone approaches bike touring in their own way.  We all have our little rituals and habits.  One of mine is to make up songs as I ride.  My theme usually involves what ever I see or experience on the the ride.  During our 3 weeks in Texas I wrote a great little riding ditty.  My singing is totally restricted to riding my bike with Jim either way out in front or somewhere behind me.  I can carry a perfect tune, as long as no one is listening.  Here are the words: (the tune is The Heart of Saturday Night by Tom Waits)

Little Yellow Flowers growing by the road, tucked in with the cactus and a flowering yucca plant too.
Bike riding in Texas, having a marvelous time.

Got the wind at my back, the sun in the sky, riding along with my favorite guy.
That’s why I like Texas, have a wonderful time

So, what do I think of Texas?  I will answer that with, we are busy planning the next trip.  As the standard response from a certain someone. “Just listen to the Bike Hermit and all will be fine.” 20141219_102002_resized West Texas is a country unto itself.  I am a lover of wide open spaces and certainly got my fill of beautiful, quiet, rugged country.20141219_131812_resized

Are we moving to Texas? Well that move, if ever, is certainly a longs ways off.  I  look forward to doing quite a bit more Texas bike pedaling and have many more places to explore.  The isolated beauty, while amazing to visit, may become a bit tarnished if I were to experience it day in and day out.

You can never go back – a mantra of mine for sure.  I believe one will never have the same experience twice so when we do go back, I will once again embrace the adventure with no expectations and just look forward to enjoying the beauty Texas has to offer.  Have a wonderful time.

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Our Trips Texas

The “Roll Your A**” Tour- West Texas and the Big Bend of the Rio Grande

It’s Christmas Eve 2014 and 50 degrees colder here in Santa Fe than what we have been accustomed to. After spending 14 days in west Texas and the Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park and sleeping in the tent or the teardrop trailer we are treating ourselves to two nights in relative luxury at The Lodge at Santa Fe. Tonight we’ll be taking the Christmas Eve Canyon Road Farolito Walk, an apparently popular city event, and ending up at The Palace to listen to some country music!
We have the touring bikes with us and left the truck for two nights in Alpine, TX while we rode to Davis Mountains State Park, down to Marfa and then back to Alpine. From there we drove down to Study Butte near Terlingua and left the truck for three nights while we rode around Big Bend National Park. A more detailed journal can be found here (link will take you to crazyguyonabike dot com)

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Riding in Big Bend National Park, a study in scale.

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Riding toward Boquillas, Coahuilla Mexico with the Sierra Del Carmen in the background.

You may be wondering about the title and the name of the tour. We were parked outside the Army surplus store in Farmington, New Mexico, having just purchased and installed a carrier for our five gallon water container, when a white man of late middle age pulled up in his large Dodge Ram pickup truck, and walked over to ask about out teardrop trailer. When I told him where we were headed (West Texas) he asked if I had a gun because they, Mexicans, “will roll your a**”. That ended our conversation. At first I considered that he may be right and that I was foolish for bringing my wife down to the land of marauding banditos. But as we drove through the trashy, rundown outskirts of Farmington where iron bars adorn all the doors and windows of the homes and businesses, I began to consider that maybe he was not right. Maybe he lives in a bubble of fear and hatred and xenophobia, emboldened by hate radio and by Fox News. I was angered by the fact that just because I look like him he felt like he could vomit his racist venom on me. Then I began to feel a little sorry for him because his attitudes keep him locked in a shitty little world.
In the end, we weren’t rolled. We rode our bikes and hiked along the Rio Grande and we camped under the stars in some of the most magnificent country on the planet. The people we met were friendly and courteous, some of them going out of their way to see if we needed anything, or to offer us places to park the truck, or recommending places to go and things to see. I’m sure there are many places along the border where his predictions could come true, but there are many places in American cities, such as Farmington, where they could come true as well. I’m certain that if I looked hard enough I could even find someone who looks like me who would be happy to “roll my a**.

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Louisiana Our Trips Texas

Bike Touring the Southern Tier

I came across this YouTube channel the other day. Dave is bike touring across the US and documenting it in videos. It’s pretty cool, especially if you have been to some of the same places he travels through.

He’s traveling from west to east on Adventure Cycling’s Southern Tier route with a Bob trailer hooked onto his bike. If you’re thinking about following all or parts of the same route, might want to check it out, because he points out some of the tricky intersections, talks about traffic, and about where he stays and eats. His YouTube channel is called ThreeWheelJourney. He was nice enough to link to my site and my YouTube channel too.

I thought this video journal was highly entertaining, a nice twist on the photo journal. I am going to try to figure out a way for people to share their stories here. Since I’m a rookie at this WordPress thing, any suggestions about how to do that are welcome!