By 1:00 he was almost to Leakey, TX; and today was another good day! In one spot he saw some wild turkeys, so he turned around and rode back up a hill to take some pictures. By the time he got back up the hill and got the camera out, they were taking off. So he's not so sure how well the turkeys are going to show up in the picture.

This night he's staying at Laurel Mountain Cabins, about 1/4 mile off the main road; and he ate lunch/dinner at Hunters Restaurant. Sounds very woodsy, doesn't it? He has a little one-room cabin with a tiny bathroom -- the sink's in the bedroom. There's no phone, but there's a TV that gets about four channels, and it has A/C. The rafter are exposed and outside under the shade trees there's a barbeque grill and a picnic table. (Wish I were there!) When he plugged in his cell phone to charge it, he thinks he blew a fuse because now his bedside lamp isn't working. He was going to check on that.

He enjoyed riding through cotton and corn fields and said he counted over 100 turkeys, 23 deer, two eagles and several jackrabbits. He couldn't believe the size of the jackrabbits; 15 to 20 pounds each, he imagines; the size of small dogs. He also could hear the coyotes in the hills and saw some dead along the road.

By 4:30 he was past 1572, and at 6:00 he pulled into Bracketville where the only motel was an old Army fort built in the 1800s: Ft. Clark Springs. It's now a motel and a recreation and convention center with no telephones in the rooms. (Thanks be to God for cell phones!) The pool is 80' x 300' and is fed by and sits over the springs. In the evening the sound of the locusts was so loud he said it sounded like radio static. The warm wind from the southeast felt like the heater on low blowing against his face.

Sometime during the day he had observed some Mexicans climbing over the fence into the U.S., and the Border Patrol with their blue lights on. The Border Patrol is everywhere in this neck of the woods, with check stations and road blocks set up!

At one point he was stopped by a Border Patrol Officer who warned him not to stop for anyone who might approach him -- except for Border Patrol Officers, I guess. Evidently there have been some cyclists who have "lost" their bicycles. (I'm not sure anyone could figure out quickly how to ride that 'bent anyway!) The Officer told Larry that lots of folks sneak across the border into the U.S., work for a few months, and then sneak back across, sometimes traveling 100 miles on foot each way. There are now sensors in the desert which send reports of movement to the BP Offices. And sometimes the officers will find the body of someone who hasn't made it because of the heat and the lack of water or whatever. Very sad. Larry sensed that the BP Officer was compassionate but nevertheless doing his job.

By 4:30 Larry was at the Comstock Inn -- no phone but satellite TV with 140 channels. We have our priorities! Dinner was at the Owl's Nest because that was the only place to eat in Comstock. Interestingly enough, the Border Patrol Office was in the same parking lot as the Inn. Larry was surprised that it had taken him the same amount of time to get from Del Rio to Comstock as it did from Bracketville to Del Rio. At any rate, he figured that he rode around 66 miles this day. According to my calculations, that makes a total of 1486 miles so far -- not yet half way.

At 9:30 Larry went out on a hill behind the motel and watched the sunset. It was red as he watched it go behind a mountain and disappear.

He stopped at the Judge Roy Bean Museum in Langtry and learned about Roy's "love" for English actress Lilly Langtry. I guess one theory is that the town of Langtry was named by the Judge in her honor. There's an old windmill at the museum. The courtroom there was also a bar . . . so that Judge Bean could serve drinks and justice at the same time. (Doesn't work that way anymore, at least in my experience!)

Larry met with the folks that run the place. They've been there 34 years. He asked the lady who runs the little store what they do for entertainment. She explained that there are 12 residents in Langtry, and once in a while they'll all get together and do something or drive to Del Rio to see a movie. Larry bought some fig bars and Gatorade at the store. Needless to say, I suppose, there aren't many houses in this area, just abandoned deer lease shelters and old abandoned gas stations.

Larry got into Sanderson a little after 3:00 and had a burger and fries for lunch. He says he encountered a few bad hills coming into this nice town. He found the library, which has four computers, so for the first time he was able to e-mail both Darrin and me and look at the Web site. He was impressed! Larry read somewhere that Sanderson was the first community in Big Ben country to have internet service -- 1995.

He's at the Desert Inn in Sanderson tonight, where again there's no phone. But it has AC and TV! He did about 90 miles today and thinks that leaving really early in the morning is the way to go! The elevation in Sanderson is reportedly 4000', and the surrounding area is mostly sheep ranches. He can't imagine anything but sheep would want to live there anyway. There are some schools in town, a couple churches, two or three convenience stores and a restaurant. For your information, Sanderson is the Cactus Capital of Texas. And Larry says there are, in fact, lots of cacti here. He picked up a copy of the Terrell County News Leader, which is four pages of mostly advertisements. Here's the news: Next weekend the town of Marfa will hold the Marfa Lights Festival with dancing in the streets, a watermelon seed-spitting contest, country and Cajun music at the courthouse, 15 to 20 booths selling Marfa memorabilia, a knife and gun show, and a parade that will be bigger and louder than ever. They're also going to have experts there who will try to explain the cause of the Marfa Lights. The Sanderson Eagles will play football tonight on the football field. (Good idea, huh?) They're rated #1 in the country for six-man teams. (I'm guessing there are probably two six-man teams in the country!)

The average home price in Terrell County is $26,000. Ranch sizes in the area have decreased over the years. Most ranches used to be between 50,000 and 100,000 acres. Because of inheritance most ranches are now only 25,000 acres. The deadline for getting your six-dollar swine ear tags is November 7th. (Happy 75th Birthday, Dad!)

About 20 miles west of Sanderson the terrain changed. He was riding through big, open farms with mountains off in the distance. He saw some deer; one dead in the road. And he saw 15 or 20 Prong Horns (Antelope). They have white butts which Larry said really shine when they run! And somewhere along the way he saw several ultralights. The Southern Pacific Railroad runs adjacent to Highway 90 going through Sanderson Canyon, and Larry saw one train that he says must have been two miles long. Marathon wasn't interesting and the motel didn't seem inviting, so Larry traveled on. Alpine, which folks refer to as the Texas Alps, was a nice town which reminded him a bit of Mt. Dora.

After riding ten hours and 110 miles, he made it all the way to Marfa. And since the only place to eat there was Dairy Queen . . . twice in one day . . . he had popcorn chicken, potatoes, root beet and an ice cream cone. After the rain stopped late in the evening, and it was really dark out, he rode back east to observe the Marfa Lights. He'd heard about this phenomenon for years and was glad to finally get to see them. He called while he was out there and described the sight for me.