Daily Miles: 60
Total Miles: 1949
Avg: 12.1
Max: 30.7
Time on the bike: 04:57:07
“Wow, are you the biker?” this early 20-something, wide eyed, short blonde haired girl practically yelled at me as I walked through the visitors center at 8:00 AM to immediately use the restroom.
“Yeah…that’s me.”
Her eyes flared up wider. Oh my god! That is so cool. Where did you start from?”
“Florida,” I said, trying to walk away. There was something brewing in my bowels and it needed to escape ASAP.
Her eyes practically bulged out of her sockets now, ready to spit out any minute and skyrocket across the room. The veins in them throbbed with pulsating blood under extreme excitement. She stared at me with a ferocious kind of concentration, like she was studying the creases of my sun-worn face, or staring deep down into the bellows of my soul.
“Wow! That’s so far! I bet you’re tired, right? Jeeze, I would be so tired. I don’t think I could do it. I mean, I probably could do it but that’s a lot of work and excersize. Are you in a group? Are you riding with other people?”
“Nope. Just me,” I said, forcing a laugh; a little ‘ha ha’ to get this conversation moving along and over with. I waved and turned to walk away.
“Do you ever get lonely? I imagine it would be really lonely out there without anyone to talk to. I would be so lonely. I’d probably just have to talk to myself all the time to stop from going crazy. I don’t know how you do it but that’s amazing.”
I almost rolled my eyes and said, “It can be a little lonely at times but that’s okay.”
“Well, good luck on your journey!”
Finally! I said thanks and rushed to the bathroom. What happened in there will forever stay in the visitors center bathroom. Let’s just say that whole chicken I ate in Del Rio has found a new home in Langtry.
Two tons lighter I emerged outside to a cool, overcast sky and a bunch of wind, mostly blowing in my favor. The ride was nice and the scenery was wide open. I really enjoy the American Southwest. There is just something entrancing about wide open desert spaces. I think it’s because it makes me feel so small. When things looks so vast, any self purpose we have immediately vanishes into all of that open space. It’s humbling and intimidating. And mostly, it’s a good feeling.
I arrived around 3 in the afternoon to Sanderson. It’s a little bit bigger than Langtry but not much. This is where people live that really want to get away from it all. I’m at a crappy RV park that allows camping. There’s a few small trailers here also and the couple in one of them has a small kid that keeps screaming, and in turn the parents scream back at the kid, which promotes more screaming by the kid. It’s a positive feedback loop of screaming and the dog eventually got involved, and now there’s screaming and barking. It fills the canyon and the pink sky overhead, which would be lovely if it weren’t for the droning noises.
Some lady that lives in a small cabin on the property was throwing away her trash and stopped over to talk with me.
“Can’t stand those Mexicans over there. That one lady keeps on spitting out those larvae children of hers. One after another just popping right out. Those children are little devils, let me tell you. I was hanging my rugs out to dry and those little squirts came and knocked them in the dirt. The mom watched the whole thing and said nothin’. Can you believe that?”
“That’s not very nice,” I said.
“So you know what I do? I just pick up and throw their shit away. If something is lying around I just pick it up and take it the trash. I’ll show them. Those fuckers.”
I sat and stared at this woman. Her hair was grey and long and she had a cigarette hanging out of the corner of her mouth. She talked with a cough and a raspy voice, a deep cackle earned from years of chain smoking menthols.
“Where you cycling from, anyway?”
“Florida,” I replied.
Her eyes got real big and she smiled, almost laughing. “Well, good luck with that!”
She walked away laughing and talking to herself. The dogs continued barking in the distance and the moon crested over the canyon wall to the north. It’s a full moon and it’s bright. It lights up the RV park and the trailers and the gravel and my tent. The moon is silent and I like that. We should all take a hint.
