4.) Houston, TX to Big Bend National Park

We leave Houston in a misting rain. This rain continues until we get to San Antonio. We stop by Cycle Gear in San Antonio so that I can buy a pair of cycling pants. Dennis Kirk has screwed me again by not delivering when they said they would. Do not even get me going about Dennis Kirk! I suggest we all have annual Dennis Kirk Catalog Burning Ceremonies in our home towns! I think we should burn Dennis Kirk in effigy!

We take I-10 from Houston to San Antonio to save time, then we peel off onto US 90. There is not much to see in this area of the Lone Star State. Pretty harsh on the eyes, to say the least.

We do learn the treacheries of riding with fresh Continental TKC-80's at highway speeds. This photo of Jim was taken right after he shoveled the defecation outta his shorts on account of a mini tank slapper caused by the fresh knobby tires!



The Conti's are very squirmy when new, but do settle down after a couple hundred miles.

We ride late into the night and set up camp at about midnight under the bridge that crosses Lake Amistad right outside Del Rio, TX.



While setting up camp, we find a heinous kinda spider sorta insect that we have never seen before. What is it? I would really love to know, because it ain't no garden variety spider. Great. Just can't wait to have these guys crawling all over me through the night.



The wind is very blustery that night. In the morning we wake to find our campsite to look like this:



A few miles down the road on US 90 is a beautiful bridge that crosses the Pecos River.



Believe it or not, this sign is actually posted on the shoulder by the bridge. Guess the government had some extra budget to blow...



This is a view of the same river looking north. There is a nice turn out at the head of the river that makes it a good rest stop.



The road between Del Rio and Sanderson, TX is pretty boring. It is flat scrub brush without many geological features. Just a highway grind, with no gas, no food, no houses, no nothing. The roads are straight, with no curves, and the crosswinds out of the south are very high. When you pass through cutouts in the hills ever so often, the bikes whip violently on account of the changing wind direction. Not a pretty place to ride. Kinda like this:



Hurrah! After about 200 miles of nothing, one approaches Sanderson, TX with excitement. There are actually some hills to be seen!



As one passes Sanderson, TX, making his way to Marathon, TX and the entrance of Big Bend National Park, things get better and better. Scenery definitely improves and road conditions become more attractive to motorcyclists. When we arrived at Big Bend, there had just been some rain, so many cacti were in bloom. The following snapshots were taken at the northern entrance of the park.











More, and more spectacular, Big Bend photos and videos are included on the return portion of this adventure.