Day 20. Davis Mountain Campgrounds, Texas to Marathon, Texas.

Day 20.  We thought we would have a fairly gentle down-slope to Marathon, but as it was, we still did some climbing.  The distance was 60.5 miles and the climb was 1,426 feet.  We yet again had rain for much of the trip, and unfortunately at the end while setting up tents.  While we were at Alpine, Texas where we had lunch there was a bit of a strange experience. There was supposed to be a bike shop there, but after quite a bit of looking around we finally found a place that had a faded "Bicycle Shop" sign on it.  We stopped and knocked on the door, despite the closed sign.  An older, sort of disheveled fellow opened the door and we asked him if he had any rain-booties. While standing in the pouring rain he told us "It never rains here" with a straight face!?  Very strange.  He went back into the "shop" to, as he said, play on the computer - while the rain poured!?
They always say how nice Texans are, and here is proof - we saw this on the way our of the campground.  It also told us we were still in the Texas mountains.

There were some interesting places to see along the road in Fort Davis.

 So, it this the largest snake or the most snakes!?  They were not home to tell us.

 This was a neat old fort from before the civil war.  Dana went there and check her blog for pictures.

Mad Doogy's Cantina?  Understandably it is out of business.
We are not starting to see trees!  As we get further east, further south, and at a lower altitude we are seeing a definite change in the environment.  Including a 'welcoming society" of birds rather than cows or coyotes.

We ended today at the pizza joint in Marathon, Texas.  Not a big town and not a big place, but Susan who is the cook/cleaner/etc.  was absolutely great to chat with while some wonderful "personal" pizzas were made!!

Tonight we sleep in tents and listen to the rain.  Hopefully it will go on to water some other place tomorrow.  We will be biking none-the-less!
Paul C