Day 19

Marfa to alpine

We were all pretty tired from the punishing previous day but at least we woke up warm.

Rolled out of town and found out the Marfa lights where we could have camped for free was 10 miles out of town so glad we didn’t have to ride there the night before.

We had a headwind again but the wind wasn’t as strong as the day before. I was feeling better than nick and Chris so pushed on ahead.

The scenery got a lot better as we rode up into rolling hills. I’d never been so happy to climb as the hills broke up the wind. I still had a broken spoke and my wheel was wobbling really badly. I was afraid riding on it for 50+ miles had trashed the rim.

Got into alpine and called the local bike shop only to get an answering machine message that said they were only open Tuesday through Friday. It was Sunday. Luckily as the message went on it said if you’re a cross country cyclist leave a message and they would try to help as they could. I explained my situation on the message and waited for Chris and nick.

Since it was Sunday morning not much was open so we rolled to McDonald’s. While we were eating I got a text from Jeff, an employee at the bike shop, who said he could be to the shop in 30 minutes! I finished up my food and headed that way.

Jeff got to the shop and started going over my wheel. He realized he didn’t have a long enough spoke so he had to roll home to get one. Luckily he had one at home. He very thoroughly went over my wheel and got it completely back to true. I was blown away that he was whiling and happy to come in on a Sunday just to help me out! Bikeman in alpine Texas real class act. http://www.alpinebikeman.com

Nick and Chris in the mean time had gotten a hotel room that had three beds so that was nice. We did laundry and just generally did errands. It was nice to do a short 30 mile day. Those guys had napped while my wheel was getting fixed to.