The travels of the Rambling Roses: Sanderson to Marathon Texas March 27

55 miles in 4:04. I couldn't believe it even though every map, GPS, and pamphlet said it was true. We did not really go up anything more than a slight grade for 55 miles, yet we increased our elevation to 4040 feet. That's up 1300 feet from yesterday, and I never really saw a hill. BUT.....my legs felt like crap all day, and my quads had an inexplicable burn for most of the day. I guess I was going uphill. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. The road was still the same old US 90 I have been traveling since San Antonio, but as we go west, there is less and less traffic, and really less and less scenery. Today, there were always mountains, bluffs, buttes, all around, but our path of travel continued to weave, gradually between each one of them. It seemed that the trees, cacti, and shrubs are about a week behind where they were further east. The yucca plants that are done blooming further east, are in full bloom here. The white, solid rock of yesterday is now more of a brown sandstone like you'd see in the Allegheny 's. There was actually dirt, and there were grasses growing, even though they were dry as a bone. Some cattle ranches started to appear as we got closer to Marathon. Speaking of animals, when we left Sanderson we saw the two biggest Tom turkeys I've ever seen, and it was almost like they were chasing us, gobbling their heads off, from about twenty yards away from the road.
Today was my international biker day. Last night Alex (doing the Wounded Warrior ride) and I decided to ride the trip together, and he is from Canada. The first two guys we met going west to east were Dave, from Great Britain, and Mark from Denver. Not very far behind them was Jess, a twenty something girl from Australia doing the southern tier, solo. (Nice accent) I had a short conversation with each, and moved on, because seventy year old Alex was Pounding me into the ground with his strong pace on his recumbent bike! The man is a beast. We sort of did the rabbit and the hare thing. He was the rabbit, who pushed out on the pace, but he took a break every fifteen miles, and I would catch up and pass. He tried to slow down and ride with me, and we rode together for a while, but I knew I was holding him back. His comfort zone was about one or two miles per hour faster than mine, so we were always close to each other, but weren't side by side very often. Overall, it wore my butt out trying to hang in there. I want to be like Alex when I grow up!
When we got to Marathon, the heat of the day was at its peak. Pam and I walked maybe two miles and checked out this small town of about 450 people, then burgers on the grill and a day of rest tomorrow to check out Big Bend National Park.

Jess from Australia

Mike and Alex at the end of their ride

Can you believe this guy is 70? He's a machine!

We walked into the town and Mike attracted these three female burros! They were shameless, guess that was because the male burro was on the other side of the fence, so Mike was the only show in town!!!