Day 22: Saturday 03/26/16, Marathon, TX to Sanderson, TX

Day 22 distance: 55 miles

Total miles:  1190 miles

Elevation gain: 672 feet

Map of today's ride:

This morning we woke to a cool 41 degrees, a blue sky, and for the first morning in days, no wind! The ride today was a short one to Sanderson, Texas, where we also lost about 1300 feet of elevation. As I write this at 2:40 pm, it is 81 degrees in Sanderson with a forecast high of 85 degrees. As far as the wind, it did come up late in the ride but it was a gentle tailwind for part of the way and then a gentle headwind for about the last 10 miles as we rode into Sanderson. All in all, it was a perfect day for the 55 mile ride!

A shadow selfie as I was leaving this morning and looking back at our camp site at the Marathon RV Park in Marathon, Texas. There were more than twice as many tents set up as are shown in this photo. It was a perfect wind free day to start our 55 mile ride to Sanderson, Texas.

Typical scene about 5 miles east of Marathon, Texas on Highway 90.

Looking back toward Marathon on Highway 90.

Another Highway 90 view.

The bird is a red headed roadkill cadaver pecker, more correctly known as a Turkey vulture or the common red headed buzzard. He? was just starting to lift his wings to take flight when I snapped the photo.

More pretty scenes as we are descending toward Sanderson.

Hmm, someone should notify Target that there is another opportunity for them to expand!

Texas lore has it that this hill was named after a well known 1800's Texas saloon gal who called herself Nipple Hill.

As we dropped elevation closer to Sanderson, more shrubs and trees were leafing out. Also note the wide road with wide shoulders. The roads and shoulders are chip seal which makes the road surface smoother than the shoulder due to traffic compaction. Fortunately there was very light traffic on the road that allowed us to ride next to the edge of the white stripe on the roadway, dropping onto the shoulder whenever a car approached.

Typical landscape immediately before entering Sanderson, Texas.

Hmm, I did not know that Sanderson, Texas considered itself the Cactus Capital of Texas, although I did see some Prickly Pear cactus along the road.

We are staying in Sanderson's High School's gym tonight and the school is preparing our dinner and breakfast. Tonight Bubba has the head of the area Border Patrol as an after dinner guest speaker. I will report anything interesting he may tell us tonight in tomorrow's blog.


LINK to Day 22 of my 2015 C2C blog.