Day 22: Sanderson, Texas

We waited until after the sun came up for our ride today, that meant breakfast at 8 AM for a short 55-mile day.  We were helped a lot by an easy terrain and a strong tail wind.

Jeff started at 9:15, and was done by noon, 22 mph average speed. Lisa and Bruce decided to take a side trip to the historic Gage Hotel in Marathon, which is a spectacular oasis in the middle of the desert. Lisa rode at a more leisurely pace and chatted a while with Udi until we decided we just had to go faster for a while; Ken was long ahead of us and Jeff was even farther ahead.  We caught up to Ken finally.  Once we got up our last incline, it was smooth and fast sailing downhill, with a tail wind to Sanderson High School.  It took Udi, Ken and I until about 1:00 to get in, but still really good time.


We saw very little life besides a bit of sparse traffic and a few cattle, and oh yes, lots of turkey vultures.  These birds are not the most beautiful of the species, but they are abundant and they are the garbage men of this area.



The senior class (all 9 students) of Sanderson High School had lunch prepared for us, this was also their concession stand for a tennis tournament being held at the school today.  Lisa had a famous Frito Pie--saying all the calories she had just burned off were probably put right back on with the dish of Fritos, covered with spicy chili and then a nice dollop of melted cheese sauce.  For dinner, we had a real treat--some of the best beef brisket (tender, slow cooked since 8 PM the night before), sausage, delicious sweet homemade creamed corn, and salads.  As if that were not enough, for dessert, they wheeled out carts of homemade pecan pie, peach cobbler and cheesecake AND homemade vanilla and strawberry ice cream--OMG, we gave them all a standing ovation!  We were giddy from the sugar high!

We were honored to have one of the Border Patrol from the Sanderson Unit as our guest speaker, and we gave him a ton of questions to answer.  They have a heavy marijuana smuggling problem from Mexico at this time, accounting for many 70% of their total detentions, along with some of the usual problem with illegal immigration over the border.  It was an extremely interesting discussion.  Some of the riders went on a field trip to the Border Patrol station, but since we had heard the officer talk and answer lots of questions, and since we had gone on this trip 2 years ago, Jeff and I and lots of others decided to stay here and get to bed.  We have an 81.5 mile day tomorrow, followed by three days of 70+ mileage in a row.  Trying to hydrate tonight to prepare--it will also be hot, in the upper 80s and the wind does not to be favorable as it was today. Goodnight all!  Thank you for reading our blog and hope you continue to do so--comments and questions are always welcomed!