The Adventure
Challenge was to start the next day, Saturday, but I wasn’t keen to use up fuel and tyres
racing around Big Bend, so I took a few little rides around the area to have a
look at the sights.
The day started
very windy and continued getting stronger, blowing dust up everywhere and
giving a thick haze over the surrounding mountains. It wasn’t pleasant to ride
in. Some guys that were camping nearby rode a couple of BMW 450 Enduros and I
saw them parked outside a small Mexican cantina so I stopped to say hello. I
had already met Bob in the campground where we had a good chat about bikes and
travel. He was very excited about my trip and after we spoke, he came over and
handed me $30.
‘This is for a tank
of gas for your trip’.
‘I can’t take
that, that’s too much. I don’t expect that type of help’.
‘I just want to,
please take it. I think it’s amazing what you’re doing and I want to
contribute.’
I had come across
so much in-kind generosity in the US, with beds, meals and tour guidance, but
hard cash was really surprising and I was humbled. Bob was with two friends,
Phillip, a friend they had met a few years ago on a bike trip, and Bob’s good
friend Jessie. We had a great talk and lots of laughs, swapping travel stories
and anecdotes from the places we lived. As the only Aussie around I felt like a
bit of a celebrity and everyone wanted to hear about my trip. After an hour or
so we headed off and I saw Bob again in the campground, but Phillip and Jessie were
not around. Bob and I went up to the big verandah to get out of the wind and
had a couple of drinks (he had beer, I drank water)
I was hungry and had been in contact with the organisers of the eventsand
invited to the Saturday night banquet and show.I rode to the
place called Study Butte (pronounced stoody boot) and easily found the hall
with fifty or more bikes out the front and side. I walked in and introduced
myself and the door ladies were expecting me. They took my $15 and directed me
to the food where I picked a selection from the buffet and sat at a table.
Sitting there were three women, two of whom I had met on one of the short rides
today, at the head of a trail. I was looking for Study Butte and had gone the
total opposite direction. Teach me to look at maps. I stopped at a sign to look
at my maps and a car pulled up with Julie and Angela. They were here to see a
friend Amy, who was sitting at the table at the banquet, and told me how she
had lived in Australia and they were camping on her property near Terlingua.
Amy and I started
talking and for the first time in a few days I could talk easily without having
to make myself understood by correcting my words to American English. Amy had
lived in Canberra for three years and she was tuned in to the Aussie lingo. It
was a fun night with lots of presentation for those that finished the
challenges and I met lots of interesting people from far and wide in the US,
all of them passionate about their bikes and riding.
As the temperature dropped,
fortunately so did the wind, I rode back to my tent and arrived to find it
still standing and with only a little bit of silt inside. Not a bad effort for
an ultralight that weighs less than 500g to stand up to that pounding wind all
day.
I slept well and
woke early, packing up straight away and snacking on a muesli bar and some
water. I could stop for a coffee or a bigger breakfast along the way. By 8am I was packed and started Ziggy to warm her engine. The wind was still cool and
I had worked in it with my beanie and riding gear to keep me warm. Only a few
cars ambled by and apart from that, all was quiet.
I was a bit
surprised that everyone had talked about the roads west of Austin but no-one
had mentioned the road I was on. This was the most stunning, twisty, undulating
and sometimes scary road I had ridden in the US. Blind corners and blind rises
where the road could go to the left or right but you couldn’t tell till you
arrived. It was raining ahead and fortunately I only had the wet roads and not
the actual rain, making the trip a bit slower and even more fun!
I came across an old movie set
And a great idea for rest areas
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