Today was another “rest day” at
54 miles from Marathon to Sanderson, so, for the second day in a row, we had a
leisurely morning and a late start to the ride. For those unfamiliar, Sanderson
is the location of the trailer park where Llewellyn Moss lives in No Country
for Old Men, a real gem of place.
I’ve appreciated the chance to
sleep in the last two days. My parents, who rise early and never adjust to time
changes, have been waking up between 3-4am every day. I, who consider my love
for sleeping second only to my love for eating, have had some trouble adjusting
to the schedule. My typical morning routine involves hitting the snooze button
for an hour, luring myself out of bed with the promise of McDonald’s breakfast,
then operating in a daze until about 10am, none of which works on this trip. While
my parents are good about physically staying in bed until our agreed-upon
wake-up, the moment my alarm sounds they shoot out of bed and busy themselves with
getting dressed, reviewing the map, and loading the car, before I’ve even had a
chance to remember what town I’m in. But I digress…
The breakfast at Eve’s B&B
this morning – Ahh-mazing. We knew it’d be good, but it was hands down the best
meal of the trip. We had blueberry ricotta pancakes topped with fresh
blueberries and lemon curd, with a goat-milk yogurt and fruit parfait on the side.
All homemade from locally sourced products. I ate so many pancakes and have
vowed to make “boozy cherries” a staple in all breakfasts moving forward. This
place. I’m definitely coming back.
About 15 miles out of Marathon,
we noticed two cows standing by the side of the road, on the wrong side of
their fence. As we approached, one of them started running along the road…
after me? with me? away from me? I assumed the former and started to panic – my
dad’s bike pump wasn’t going to fend off that sucker. Today was the first day I
rode without the handlebar bag that houses my bear spray, and it figures it’d
be the day I was mowed down by a docile farm animal. But he stopped charging,
returned to grazing, and everyone survived unscathed. The rest of the ride was
scenic and enjoyable, despite a bit of headwind, and we passed the time by singing
Huddie Ledbetter, CCR, and Jim Croce. We have an 88-mile ride to
Comstock tomorrow, with what I hear will be a 20mph headwind – yikes. Going to need a lot of tunes to get me through that one!
My mom
taught me if I don’t have anything nice to say, to say nothing at all, so I
will not be commenting on the town of Sanderson or the Desert Air Motel. All I
will say is that I’m not terribly worried about the ride tomorrow because, if I
can survive a night in this motel, I can survive anything.
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| Breakfast at Eve's |
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| Attack of the cattle |
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