Southern Tier across the USA Part 4 - Del Rio TX to Coldspring TX

Monday 19^th May

The route continued east on Route 90 from Del Rio as far as Brackettville, a nondescript small town where I had lunch. From here it branched off along minor roads into the Texas Hill country – this is what the elevation profile looks like:

There were no further services for about 50 miles after Brackettville, so it was a case of having to get down to some hard pedalling through this fairly challenging terrain, with little time to stop and admire the scenery or take photographs. The only photo I took all day was this one crossing the Nueces River

It was around 8pm by the time I arrived in Camp Wood, a little town which had a comfortable motel:

Distance today 81 miles, total so far 1455.4 miles


Tuesday 20^th May

Another day spent battling the hills, with few opportunities to stop for refreshments along the way. From Camp Wood there was a big climb:

followed by a steep descent towards Leakey, a touristy sort of place evidently very popular with motorcyclists. I had a nice lunch at a Mexican restaurant there. This cactus-covered car was an ornamental feature in the main street:

There followed several more big climbs:

At the top of one peak I met these 4 cyclists who were also doing the Southern Tier ride, but in the opposite direction. The oldest of them was 77!

There was plenty of good scenery along today's route:

I decided to keep on riding as far as Kerrville, where there were plenty of motels, but it did mean quite a late finish, around 9pm.


Distance today 87.5 miles, total so far 1542.9 miles


Wednesday 21^st May

There was one more fairly big climb out of Kerrville, then it was pretty much downhill all the way today, but unfortunately the headwind had returned so progress wasn't that swift. I had a brief stop in Fredericksburg, an attractive town with a lot of boutique shops selling German style food and other goods.

I arrived in Johnson City around 4pm and decided to stop there as it was another 40 miles to the next accommodation, in Austin.

Distance today 60.3 miles, total so far 1603.2 miles

Thursday 22^nd May

From Johnson City the route became hilly again, as it passed through the Pedernales State Park. There were no services until I reached the outskirts of Austin, where, after crossing the Colorado River, I rode into the city along the Lance Armstrong Bikeway:

Austin is a pleasant, lively city which seems to be very cycle-friendly. It's the home of Lance Armstrong and I visited the bike shop he owns, Mellow Johnny's, to have my chain replaced, having now done over 1600 miles. This was done quickly there, at a very reasonable cost. It's an excellent cycle shop and I could have spent ages there looking at all the fancy bikes and accessories.

The name Mellow Johnny is a tongue in cheek reference to Maillot Jaune, in case you hadn't realised.

I had a ride around the city centre, and saw the State Capitol Building which is very impressive. It's taller than the Capitol in Washington DC.

There's a memorial nearby to the heroes of the Alamo:

Austin has its own cycle hire scheme:

I visited the popular Easy Tiger bar, which had a fantastic selection of beers, including many from Texas:

And enjoyed a good meal at the Texas Chilli Parlour, a renowned local institution:

Distance today 50.1 miles, total so far 1653.3 miles.

Friday 23^rd and Saturday 24^th May

It was time for a break from cycling, having ridden for 23 days out of the last 24. Also I have now reached the half way point of the ride, so felt justified in taking a couple of days off to visit Houston, about 160 miles away, and well off the cycling route. I took the Greyhound bus there, it's a 3 hour journey each way.
I met up with my friends John Adams and Helena Cheng and we took a ride up the Chase Tower, Houston's tallest building, to view the skyline:

There's an interesting sculpture by Joan Miro outside:

Another Chase Bank building nearby had a beautiful Art Deco interior, one of the few original buildings left in this very modern city:

It was time for a drink in the Flying Saucer, another excellent bar serving a huge selection of beers:

Then we headed to the Crowne Plaza Hotel at Brookhollow, about 10 miles north west of the city centre, to attend an enjoyable and interesting weekend of events hosted by Gulf Coast Mensa as part of their Annual Regional Gathering.

Sunday 25^th May

I caught the 1145am bus back to Austin and by about 3.30pm I was reunited with my bike, which I'd left there over the weekend. Setting off again I rode through the eastern suburbs of Austin, then through Montopolis. The route soon returned to narrow, quiet country roads through rolling farmland, and by the time I reached Bastrop it was getting dark so I decided to stop there, in the Tropicana Motel:

Bastrop's town centre is better preserved than most US historic towns, and there were some good buildings there:

Distance today 38.7 miles, having got off to a very late start. Total so far 1692 miles.

Monday 26^th May

Having enjoyed dry weather, and mostly clear blue skies throughout the trip so far, the dark clouds that greeted me this morning were a clear indication that rain was finally on the way. From just outside Bastrop the route went about 10 miles through the dense pine forests of Bastrop and Buescher state parks, large areas of which were devastated by fire in 2011 but are now starting to recover:

Shortly afterwards the rain started, and by the time I reached the small town of Winchester, about 25 miles from Bastrop, it was raining so heavily that I was forced to seek shelter. Unfortunately it was a public holiday and the town's only store was closed. At least there was a verandah with a canopy to shelter underneath, but it would have been nicer to get inside and have some food and drink! The thunderstorm persisted for about 3 hours and by the time it ended it was around 4pm. I rode another 15 miles into the next town, La Grange and found accommodation in the Oak Motel, which had a special register for all the Southern Tier cyclists who had stayed there; it was clearly a popular stopping place on the route, and indeed the owner was very friendly and welcoming.

La Grange is a pleasant little town with plenty of fine old buildings and an imposing city hall dominating the town square:

Distance today 40 miles, total so far 1732 miles

Tuesday 27^th May

The forecast was for more rain, and there were thunderstorms throughout the night. It was raining when I awoke at 6.30am, so I went back to sleep and woke up an hour later; the torrential rain continued. It was still raining another hour later so I decided to stay another day at the motel. This proved to be a good decision, because the thunderstorms continued well into the evening. It was frustrating to be stuck in a small town with little to do, but still better than being out on the road and getting soaking wet, in an area with fairly big distances between motels or other accommodation.

Wednesday 28^th May

The sky was very overcast and gloomy at 6.30 and it seemed certain that there was more rain to come, but I decided to press on nevertheless. I was now somewhat behind schedule, having covered only 78 miles in the last 5 days.

The weather improved gradually through the morning and it turned out to be quite sunny for much of the day; at least the rain held off all day apart from a couple of very light, brief showers; the terrain was reasonably flat, there wasn't much of a headwind, and I was able to make good progress.
Round Top, 20 miles into today's route, was a pretty little village:

Later on, the small town Independence had this interesting mural:

Around 2pm I reached Navasota, (pop 7500) which had a busy railway line running alongside the main street:

There's a monument to Rene de la Salle, one of the pioneering explorers of the Mississippi River:

Navasota also had a working cinema, which seems to be rare in US small towns:

From Navasota the route followed SR 90 which had a good surface and a wide shoulder. 10 miles further on, at Anderson. I saw this street sign which I would have liked to add to my collection:

It was getting towards dusk by the time I crossed the long bridge over Lake Conroe:

But there were no motels until Coldspring, another 30 miles away, so I had to keep going. Fortunately there were service stations every 15 miles or so along the route so there was plenty of refreshments available to keep me going. I eventually reached the motel at Coldspring after dark, around 9.15pm after a pretty long day's ride.


Distance today 130 miles, total so far 1862 miles

Southern Tier across the USA Part 3 - El Paso TX to Del Rio TX

Tuesday 13^th May

Another day which should have been easy – flat all the way – but which proved really tough due to a continuous headwind.

Heading east out of El Paso along route 76 to Fabens, where I had some decent tacos for lunch, then along route 20 which runs alongside Interstate 10, there was little of interest on the way. It was just a long hard slog to keep going against the wind, and by the time I reached Fort Hancock, which had a reasonable motel, I was glad to stop.

Distance today just 54.8 miles, total so far 988.5 miles

Wednesday 14^th May

The headwind continued all day, and the entire day was spent either on Interstate 10, or, in some sections, a service road that ran directly parallel to it.

At least the road surface was good, there was a decent wide shoulder on the interstate, and the large trucks thundering past were generally very considerate in giving me a wide berth.
There was very little in the way of services during the day's ride. The only town on the way was Sierra Blanca (pop 530) which had a service station where I had lunch, and this historic church:

Later I passed the time zone marker and arrived in the Central Time zone:

Around 4pm I reached Van Horn, which had plenty of motels, and a number of restaurants to choose from. I had a drink in the very well preserved historic El Capitan hotel, which had a really nice bar:

...followed by dinner at the Van Horn Cattle Co Steakhouse. A name which sounded very Texan.

Distance today 66.2 miles, total so far 1054.7 miles

Thursday 15^th May

This was another day where there were little or no services for a very long way. Heading east from Van Horn, remaining on the service road parallel to I-10, there was a service station after 20 miles, where I made sure to get plenty of food and drink to last me for the next 70 miles, as there were no further services until Fort Davis.

After the service station, the service road ended and the route rejoined I-10 until the ghost town of Kent, at 38 miles, where it left the interstate and joined route 118, a quiet, lonely, narrow road which began climbing immediately and continued to do so for another 30 miles, to an altitude of over 6000', then it continued to undulate for anothet 10 miles before descending to Fort Davis, at 5000':

Just before reaching Fort Davis I passed by the Mc Donald observatory, one of the largest telescopes in the US:

The motel at Fort Davis was in a pleasant setting with a scenic backdrop:

The town centre had some good historic architecture:

Distance today 90.2 miles, total so far 1144.9 miles

Friday 16^th May

In the morning I noticed that one of the spokes in my rear wheel had broken. Fortunately there was a bike shop at Alpine, 24 miles along today's route and I made it there without further problems.
The route to Alpine continued along highway 118; there was some fine mountain scenery on the way:

Despite the unassuming facade, this proved to be an excellent repair shop owned by a very helpful and competent bike mechanic, John, who fixed a new spoke for me and trued the wheel very quickly.

However there was a further problem. I went for lunch in Alpine and on returning to the bike, found that the rear tyre had gone flat. It turned out that the valve stem had separated from the rest of the tube. So it was back to John's shop again, fortunately close by, to purchase yet another innertube and have it filled with slime sealant.

Eventually I was on my way again. From Alpine the route rejoins route 90, and continues on it for the next few days.

I decided to stop at Marathon, which I reached around 4pm, as it was another 55 miles to the next town. I had a drink in the very pleasant Gage Hotel, then found some good, and free, accommodation in the quirky La Loma Del Chivo hostel, which offers free accommodation to long distance cyclists:

                                                                      Gage Hotel

                                                               La Loma Del Chivo

Distance today 60 miles, total so far 1204.9 miles

Saturday 17^th May

It was a gentle coast downhill for the 55 miles to Sanderson, the next town, and I made good swift progress.

Despite styling itself the “cactus capital of Texas” didn't see many cacti there, nor indeed anything of much interest. So I continued along this very quiet section of Route 90, which had very few facilities along the route. I stopped at Dryden, which had a very small general store, for some lunch:

The scenery continued to be rugged, with mountains and cactus-filled canyons:

During late afternoon a headwind developed and my pace became considerably slower. It was almost dark by the time I reached the next available accommodation, a rather basic motel at the tiny hamlet of Langtry:

Distance today 112 miles, total so far 1316.9 miles

Sunday 18^th May

The winds from the east continued all day, making progress very slow and hard. Along this stretch of Route 90 there are quite a few canyons:

The railway line runs close to the road and I saw some very long goods trains:#

After about 20 miles the route crossed the Pecos River:

I had lunch at Comstock, the only services along today's stretch, and while I was there I met 2 other Southern Tier cyclists, Niki and Rory, who were travelling in the opposite direction:

The headwind seemed to get worse as the day wore on and for most of the time my speed didn't get above about 7 mph. It was late afternoon by the time I crossed the very long bridge over the Amistad reservoir:

I reached Del Rio, the day's destination, at about 7.30pm, after a tough day. I covered about half the distance I managed yesterday, yet it seemed a much harder day due to the headwind.

Distance today 57.5 miles, total so far 1374.4 miles