Feb.11 Tuesday 2014 Road Trip! On to Lajitas Texas

Well, we're on the road and the thrill has worn off after about 2 hours and the pups decided snoozing was more exciting,

We woke up this morning. To winter weather alerts that continued from the night before. It wasn't bad at home, but as we headed out highway 20 the weather got pretty icy. The roads were not bad. However when we stopped for gas the station lot was like an ice rink.

Outside of Big Springs the windmills were still. The skies were thick with cold damp weather.

They have a bunch of them out here. You can barely see them through the icy mist.

In Midland the pumps were running and the refineries were doing their thing. Going through Midland 

brought back memories of Laura Bush's book. It's the story of her life in Midland and going on to marry President George Bush and their life together. I enjoyed it. It was just a good story about life.

We are into the west Texas mountains. They are long and stretch out forever. That's what you can do in the great state of Texas. Cause there is a lot of room to stretch.

We have decided to stop in Alpine. It's getting late and we would still have 83 miles to get to Lajitas. The sun is setting and we first thought the bushes here were purple sage. It was sage but the color was from the frost forming on them

You have to be quick out here to get a sunset photo. There is very little pollution and tonight 

No clouds either. We waited and came up on what we would be a great photo to end the evening.

The sun went down fast and it only gets darker around here.

Feb 16 Sunday

Stepped out of the camper and there was the moon about to close up shop.

The bus below was across from us. The couple are from Fort Worth. I took a tour of the bus. 

They have lots of plans for it. It only goes up to 55 miles on the highway. So I hope they wherever 

They travel they don't get in a hurry.

A parting shot of Crystal and Mike beside his truck he bought in 1985. 

And this is their pup dog Rubio. She's 14 and moving slow. She is a sweetie.

It was good to see her. When we first met her she was sooo small.

We are headed home now with lots of new memories of a place that doesn't change much.

It's good to know friends are out here and really enjoy their lives in a really unique part of Texas.

Feb 15 Saturday more riding

This morning everyone is getting ready to roll. Some are doing a ride they call the Epic Ride. It's 55 miles of off road. Whew! Jim has the camera so the next shots will some that he and Mike took.

This trail looks easy and anyone could ride it. However it does get snarly at different points.

Every now and then you will find these boards that will tell you about the history of a particular

Area. This is a story about the Candelilla plant. This is where the wax for lip balm, crayons, and chewing gum first came.

Jim's reading the sign above. Wow, it is in the middle. of nowhere

Barry Bisho,  RBM mountain bike mechanic and rider extraordinaire is working some of the  

Stops for the festival. This days stop is in an old abandon mess hall for the miners of the area.

Theresa,who works with RBM as well and happens to be Barry'ssweetie was helping as well at the festival.

Jim and Mike ran into these ladies at the mine. They didn'get their names, they were from Dallas.

They met up with Crystal, Mike Long'ssweetie for many years

That evening at the RV camp there were lots of festivities. They were selling raffle tickets, had bike rodeo games going on, beer from local breweries and selling dinners of fajitas. Later in the evening 

A local band would be playing.

  Meet Donna and Bill, they were camped behind us in a Casita trailer. They sat with us around the camp fire the previous evening and now were waiting to win some goodies when they'd called out their raffle ticket number. 

Now this is Wiley. We've known him for many years as a Rep. He has a cycling team called

Super Awesome. Their mascot is a Unicorn. Pink seems to be the color of choice. He had a small school bus painted pink that he had to retire. Now he has one of those shuttle buses that you see at the airport. It still has TSA on it. Wiley always has some tale to spin. Good guy

Doogie isn't going to miss a thing. He is a pretty good poser as well.

With the band playing in the background, this is a perfect way to spend the evening

Finally after all this time, here is Crystal and Mike Long together .

Tomorrow we pack up early and hope to be headed home by 9:00. It's been a good trip.

Feb 14 Happy Valentines and Happy Anniversary Mr. jimmy, I love you!

This morning we had a great egg sandwich breakfast that Mike whipped up. Then we all got ready to ride. Jim is riding with Mike and I'm going to see how much farther I can get down 170.

When Jim and I rode out yesterday we never noticed these BlueBonnets on the side of the road.

They went along for several miles.

The out droppings along the road change constantly. Deep red rock to this limestone. Years ago we heard that these type of formations are called Hoo Doos. They are also called a tent rock, fairy chimney or a earth pyramid they form at the bottom of an arid drainage basin. 

Back at camp we all road into together. The guys came from one directions and me the other.

It was very windy and hot. We made some lunch, then just settled back for a snoozy afternoon.

Later in the evening everyone is starting to move around. Jim, Mike and I made a dinner of 

Bor de Leah chicken, spinach, baked potato and bar b que beans. Ended the evening sitting around the fire. Several people would come by to chat. Great conversations. We also topped it off with ice cream! Jim and I have been married for 28 years, it's quite an adventure being married to Jim.  Those who know him, know why I say that. Such fun we have.

Feb 13 Thursday

 We have a lazy day start and finally get on the road around 11:00. Jim road out with me. We had forgotten how much climbing there is on the road out here

Lots of movies have been made out here. If they need a desolate setting this is the place

These are the building that have been used for some of the movies.

It is hard to imagine that there is a flood gage out here. But here it is

The Rioi Grande is running strong this year. It's been about thirteen years since Jim and I have been here. Back then it was desperately low. It makes me smile to see it flowing so well. What is more 

Facinating is the hills on the other side is Mexico. When they talk about that wall they want to build to keep our borders safe you can only think to yourself...Yeah, Right.

Riding back to camp this is a shot of Lajitas. The last year we were herea rich guy from Houston bought the town of Lajitas. He envisioned a rich person's hideout. Lajitas was  out of a set of an old western movie. Wide dirt road down the middle with a row of buildings with a wooden boardwalk. The guy closed the RV camp, camp grounds and a funky general store down the hill. There was a Lone Star beer drinking goat named Clay Henry at the general store. He put in a 

$30,000.00 Golf course, which flooded because he built it on the flood plain. Interestingly enough it hadn't flooded in 92 years. Since then he has gone bust and a new group of investors have done a pretty nice job. The old Lajitas is definitely gone the new people seem to be embrassing the regular people. Especially the mountains bikers. The group here have delveloped incredible trails. They say if you like Moab, then you better check this out.

Mike got in pretty late so we opted for dinner and went to the Resturant in Lajitas. It is a beautiful 

Place. The food was marvelous. Here is Jim and Mike with Georgia who is from Main. You probably 

Are wondering as well. How did she get here. Well, she wanted to move to Texas and found herself in Marfa. People there said working in Lajitas she would make a better living. She was working hard and always had a smile.

Back at camp and we plan our morning. Jim is going off road. Me, I'm gonna head out on 170 to see if I can ride any farther. The wind really made it hard to ride very far this morning, but when I turned around, boy did I fly.

Feb 12 Wednesday Apine to Lajitas

We ate a Penny's Diner.

Here is Jim with my favorite breakfast, biscuits & gravy. I swear  this breakfast helped me ride across the states this last summer

Bonnie and Doyle work at Penny's Diner and put on a great spread.

We are in the mountains of Big Bend now. This is called Cathedral Mountains it stands 6800 ft.

This particular mountain is quite long. If you look just right you can tell why it is called Elephant Mountain. It stand at 6230 feet.

One last mountain we came across that was worthy of a sign. Hen Egg Mountain at 5000 ft..

if you look into the distance you you the road winding down through the land. This area is called 

The O2 Flats. It is between Alpine and Study Butte. It runs through the O2 ranch land. Fast 

Motorcycles and Hot cars like to run this road. It is fast and flat. We've heard over the years they would love to have a race on it. The only  problem is, it is the only way to get to Study Butte from Alpine

Diggity and Doogie are ready to be there. We are just about to get to the RV camp

We have landed and this will be home for the next few days. This is a Mountain Bike Festival.

We brought my road bike cause you don't wanna see me off road. So I will get some climbing in

On the highway 170.  We are excited for the festival, they they have over 500 registered. If you look at a map to see where this is. Then you will realize this is a really special place for Mountain Bikers to ride

In Terlingua there is the Starlight. Terlingua is known for their chili cook off which is held the first weekend in November. If you were to see this place you cannot imagine 10,000 people coming to watch the cook off which usually 300 to 350 people compete. Back to the Starlight it has changed

As well. This time of year they have a Word Off where people come and recite their poetry and stories.

It began as the Chisos Movie Theater, constructed for the mercury miniers in the 1930s. It was abandoned in the late 1940s, ultimately causing the roof to be sold as scrap. In the 1960s it became an outdoor gathering place, music and theater venue, and dance hall. In 1991 it got it's roof back.

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Tomorrow Jim is going to ride with me on the road. Plans are Mike Pluto will be in and he will ride off road.