two-wheeled thoughts: Fairfax Downey

Posted on July 8, 2011 by pagesofjulia

two-wheeled thoughts
I got an amazing wealth of bicycle-and-women-related quotations from Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry’s Extraordinary Ride, by Peter Zheutlin. I shall be sharing you with them here periodically. Two-Wheeled Thoughts will not always be feminine but will always be bicycle-related, of course.

On that simple machine she rode like a winged victory, women’s rights perched on the handlebars, and cramping modes and manners strew on her track.
–Fairfax Downey, as quoted in Around the World on Two Wheels

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Comfort Guts ‘n’ Glory

Posted on June 13, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Just a quick note to let you know that if you’re interested, my race report is up from the 12-hour mountain bike race I did two weeks ago. Thanks!

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Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry’s Extraordinary Ride by Peter Zheutlin

Posted on June 13, 2011 by pagesofjulia

I ate up the story of Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, better known as Annie Londonderry, like the tale of adventure it is. As I said earlier, this story combines sports marketing, women doing outrageous things, bicycles, travel, and history. Nowhere to go wrong there, unless in writing badly or boringly – which Zheutlin thankfully does not.

Annie was a working-class young mother of three living in the tenements of Boston in the 1890’s, when she decided, out of the blue, to take on the challenge of riding a bicycle around the world in under 15 months. She had never ridden a bicycle before, and her decision to set off on this journey is rather mysterious. The origins of the idea are rather unclear: she claimed that two wealthy Boston businessmen had made a wager that a women couldn’t do such a thing (following the around-the-world ride just recently accomplished by a man), and that they were offering a substantial purse upon her successful completion, but it does not appear that there were any such businessmen or any such wager. At any rate, Annie acquired a hefty women’s bicycle, a new name (the Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Company became her first sponsor), and set off.

Annie doesn’t appear to have planned very well. She set off first for New York, from Boston, then Chicago, then back to New York, then across the ocean to France. If your knowledge of geography suggests that this is not the most efficient route for circumnavigating the globe, you are correct.

In Chicago, Annie abandoned the attire that was appropriate at the time for ladies: high collars, long sleeves, full skirts with copious undergarments and petticoats and corsets and… lots of things I’m not familiar with. She first went to bloomers or split skirts, and eventually (I believe on her second visit to New York) gave up on even the bloomers and went to a “men’s riding suit”, meaning pants that more or less fit her – ack, shocking! She also picked up (in Chicago) a “diamond-frame” men’s bicycle – meaning, with a horizontal top tube, making skirts impractical or impossible. Her bike lost some 20lbs in this transition, and her wardrobe change lost a lot of weight, too.

The most fascinating parts of Annie’s story are the inconsistencies, erm, not to say lies she told throughout. She changed the terms of the wager repeatedly; she gave a plethora of personal biographies to different newspapers, ever-changing and not once (at least not that is documented) telling the truth. She never mentioned, for example, that she was a married mother of three; this would have made her leaving home unacceptable in her society. Annie told outrageous stories of violence, adventure, and near-death experiences during her journey, many or most of which appear to be false. And most egregiously, perhaps, she did not ride a bicycle for the majority of her trip at all. She rode, as stated above, around the northeast United States, and then across France, and from there took trains and ships almost exclusively (with a series of short, recreational or social rides for exhibition or touring purposes) from France to the Far East. She then shipped to San Francisco, where the riding began in earnest again; she rode south to El Paso and back up to Chicago, Boston, and New York, most likely with some miles by rail interspersed, but overwhelmingly by bike.

Annie claims to have won the wager, making it back to Boston under the 15-month deadline, and to have secured the $10,000 purse; but who paid it? Never mind the details, she would have told us. Although she didn’t ride anywhere near all the miles, she did a lot of riding, and appears to have finished in awfully good shape, even for a man of her time (and goodness knows, unheard of for a woman). She was a colorful character, and while not above criticism, what she did do was a remarkable accomplishment. If she cheated and rode “only” 10,000 miles, I would still give her a high-five and my respect. By today’s standards it’s easy to disparage the ethics of her, um, liberties with the truth, and the journalistic ethics of the many papers who covered her story credulously (and her own later career in sensationalist journalism). But Zheutlin does a fine job of setting the stage for the reader, reminding us that these were the journalist standards of the times.

Interspersed into this story of Annie’s wild ride and her telling of tall tales, Zheutlin gives us snippets of the history of the women’s suffrage movement, the history of the bicycle in American culture, and the revolution in women’s clothing reform that was deeply intertwined with bicycle riding (I wasn’t aware of the close relationship there). I found the author’s Afterword, in which he discusses his research process and his relationship with Annie’s memory (she is his great-grandaunt, although he only learned of her existence after her death), especially moving and interesting, and I wish this aspect would have played into the body of the book. As I’ve said of several nonfiction books I’ve read before, I enjoy the author’s voice, and her/his experience in research and writing. To me, this is part of the story, and leaving it out can be a disservice, leaving the story incomplete, or at worst, even dishonest. I don’t accuse Zheutlin of dishonesty of course; I’m just saying his role in Annie’s story being told is an important chapter, in my opinion.

I really enjoyed this story for its crossover elements into so many chapters of history: women’s rights and clothing standards, bicycles, travel, journalistic trends, even tidbits of various world cultures. I also appreciated Annie as an outlandish and wild woman, cyclist, and teller of tales. And I took pleasure in Zheutlin’s quiet comments on his research processes. If you’re a stickler for honesty, don’t expect to find Annie entirely likeable; but I think you’ll still be impressed by her story, and learn a few little-known details of our history as women, cyclists, and Americans. Check it out.

Thanks again, Fil!

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another book beginning: Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry’s Extraordinary Ride by Peter Zheutlin

Posted on June 3, 2011 by pagesofjulia

There is a book beginning coming up. Bear with me.


This beautiful book was a gift to me from my old friend Fil. Fil has bought me a number of bicycle-related books over the years:


Six Days of Madness tells all about the golden era of six-day bicycle racing in the United States in the 1900’s and 1910’s. It’s got a bunch of racer profiles and stories from specific races. I found it fascinating.


Bicycle Racing in the Modern Era is a VeloNews publication, recapping 25 years of the magazine’s coverage of cycling – road, mountain, track, and cyclocross. (Which 25 years I’m not precisely sure, but it was published in 1997 if that helps.) It was great to read about all the hot new stuff, after it was no longer hot and new. It was also great to read a summing-up of what’s greatest in bike racing WITHOUT being inundated with the greatness of Lance Armstrong. I believe, from memory, that he rated one article in the whole book! That was refreshing. (Yes, Lance Armstrong has done amazing things, but this Texan, for one, is sick of hearing about him.)


Along with Annie Londonderry, this time, Fil gave me both volumes of Incidents of Travel in the Yucatan. The former book references our shared interest in cycle touring; the latter references our shared interest in Mexico, and my (limited, hopefully to be increased upon) travel in the Yucatan peninsula.

Fil gives good gifts! Thank you, Fil! But this is supposed to be a post about a book.

Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry’s Extraordinary Ride tells the story of Annie Kopchovsky, a Jewish immigrant living in Boston, who took on the, ahem, extraordinary challenge to become the first woman to ride around the world on her bicycle, as Thomas Stevens had done a few years before. Aside from being a feat of athleticism, adventure, and international travel, and aside from being an outlandishly independent-woman sort of thing to do in 1894, it was most likely the first time a woman had undertaken product endorsement and sports marketing. She became Annie Londonderry when her first sponsor appeared: the Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Company.

Sports marketing, women doing outlandish things, bicycles, travel, and history! All in one story! I am excited.

The prologue opens with a quotation.

The maiden with her wheel of old
Sat by the fire to spin,
While lightly through her careful hold
The flax slid out and in
Today her distaff, rock and reel
Far out of sight are hurled
And now the maiden with her wheel
Goes spinning round the world

–Madelyne Bridges, Outing magazine, September 1893

This is, of course, not properly the beginning of the *book*, but I’m hoping you’ll allow me to take liberties, because this quotation struck me.

I have a good feeling about this one.

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The Long-Awaited, Much-Anticipated Julia Jenkins 26v29 Official Opinion. (preliminary.)

Posted on May 27, 2011 by pagesofjulia

This one is for my bicycle friends. My bookish friends are welcome too, of course.

Last night I rode my friend KD’s Epic 29er for the first time, at our local Memorial Park trails in town. I’ll have KD’s 29er for two weeks, which will be a great demo period (thanks KD!!). The question is this: now that I’m ready to replace both my hardtail and full-suspension mountain bikes, I need to decide whether I want to stick with the (standard, traditional-for-decades) 26-inch wheel size that I ride now, or move over to 29-inch wheels (which have gone from new-and-trendy to awfully ubiquitous). So, I’ve been fortunate to get KD’s 29er for some test rides. I have a 26er Epic, so there’s a fair comparison there (though hers is much newer and higher-end, thus my desire to upgrade).

Here’s the background: I am, if not change-averse, very cautious about changes and upgrades in technology and gadgetry. I was the last person I knew to get a cell phone; an email address; a facebook account. (And I have a website and a blog, yes. When I adopt, I do tend to do so wholeheartedly. But late.) After years of working in bike shops and racing bikes, I’m out of patience with gearheads – people who get super-psyched about upgrades and fancy equipment. It’s really a lot more about the engine than it is about your gear, people. I’m an anti-gearhead.

Thus my reluctance to “drink the kool-aid” or “go over to the dark side” or some might say, “get with the times” and get on the big wheels.

I know that 29ers hold momentum better, but I know they accelerate more slowly. I know that 29ers roll over obstacles better (any obstacle is smaller relative to a 29-inch wheel than it is relative to 26), but I also know that they’re less nimble in tight, twisty cornering scenarios.

I rode at Memorial last night just as a test ride, to get the bike set up for me. We adjusted the reach and the rear suspension a little. The real test will come this weekend at Comfort. Comfort trails beg for a 29er: wide-open, rocky, and technical. Great opportunity to roll over things with the bigger wheels, and not really any tight twisty stuff to challenge them. Memorial, meh. I’m not a huge fan of those trails these days; they’re pretty eroded and rooty (not to mention trafficked). And then of course, if I wanted to really challenge the 29er, I should take it to Lake Bryan trails, ha. Super twisty and tight; the joke is you’re looking at your own butt half the time. But that’s another story.

Very quickly during last night’s ride, I found myself liking it. It’s true that the big wheels gave me more confidence and rolled over things easier. There’s a slightly different rhythm or timing to the body English in the twistier sections, but it didn’t slow me down any; in fact it only took a minute to adjust, and it still felt right. The bike, ideally, should be like a 26er, just on a different scale. (KD is my perfect bike-trading buddy because we ride the same size – like, precisely, down to saddle height – use the same pedals, everything. So her bike definitely fits me. And this in a world where we worry about millimeters.)

But I made another odd observation: I was fighting it mentally. I didn’t want it to work! I guess I’m even more change-averse than I thought. Am I just hanging onto the thought of 26 inches because I have for so long, and I don’t want to admit I was wrong? Surely I’m not that prideful. I was looking for places it didn’t work. But I didn’t find them. And I’m sure I’m not going to find them in Comfort. In fact, I’m planning on taking both Epics (26 and 29), but I’m already feeling like the 26 might not see any dirt.

I guess if I really want to push it I should take the 29er to Bryan… and I do have the bike for another weekend.

So what do you think, friends? I want a ti hardtail! Thinking about the Ti Mariachi. And then maybe a Spearfish like Husband? Love the color… Then I’ll need a new singlespeed at some point… this is the fun part. 🙂

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hemingWay of the Day: on bicycles

Posted on May 4, 2011 by pagesofjulia

It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and can coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motorcar only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.

from Battle for Paris, printed in Collier’s on September 30, 1944

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from today’s issue of Shelf Awareness

Posted on April 15, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Today I just want to pass along two items from today’s Shelf Awareness newsletter. The first is about Houston, and the second is about the bike business! (You can read all of today’s issue, and more, at the Shelf Awareness website).

In the latest segment of its Houston by the Book series, the Houston Press profiled Brazos Bookstore and Jane Moser, who “manages the day-to-day operations, scheduling appearances, and–most importantly–buying the books. While she admits that it indeed is no picnic, it’s a job that clearly brings her a good bit of joy.”

In 2006, when previous owner Karl Kilian was ready to step aside, Moser, who had been a children’s bookstore owner, was one of 25 Houstonians who “came together and formed an LLC and bought the store. I was one of the people who worked on the deal to get it together…. I had been a customer of this store for years, and knew the owners. So when it came up that they were trying to put a deal together, none of the people who bought it wanted to run it. They just wanted to save it.”

Moser added, “Everybody loves the idea of a strong, independent bookstore in town. People like the idea, but now we’re in a changing age, and people are going to have to support the sale of physical books as well, or we’re going to lose these opportunities for meeting the authors, etc. That serendipitous experience of walking in a bookstore and seeing a book you didn’t know you needed, or meeting an author you didn’t know about before, or seeing another book by an author, or seeing a cover that just grabs you–those are things that just aren’t yet possible online.”

Christopher J. Zane will be the opening plenary speaker at the American Booksellers Association’s Day of Education at BookExpo America on Monday, May 23, Bookselling This Week wrote. Zane is a 29-year veteran of the retail bicycle industry who bought his first bike shop at age 16 and has built Zane’s Cycles into one of the largest retail bicycle stores in the nation. “His unique approach to marketing includes strategies that stress continual learning, the lifetime value of a customer, guerrilla marketing, and cost-controlled customer service,” BTW reported.

As the morning plenary speaker, Zane will share insights on the lifetime value of one customer to a store’s bottom line, and discuss unique approaches to customer relationship marketing, understanding the psychology of today’s customer, and acquiring the tools to build lifetime relationships in the B2C and B2B markets.

(The above content belongs to Shelf Awareness.)

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Ouachita Challenge

Posted on April 11, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Friends, I’ve had a hard time getting around to writing this race report. It didn’t go all that outstandingly well for me, and I’m a bit embarrassed and humbled. And I’ve been struggling with how to describe my experience without doing too much whining or making too many excuses. I’m not a fan of excuses. I think they come naturally to all of us, myself included, but I TRY to refrain from singing them too loudly or constantly, because such behavior, in others, strikes me as an annoying failure to take responsibility for one’s own performances. I find that the best, the fastest, the strongest bike racers out there (and the best people in general) are those who quietly allow their performances to speak for them rather than trying to explain themselves into a better light. I’m not the best, the fastest or the strongest, but hopefully I’ll get better.

Okay so. Let me start with a brief explanation of events leading up to the Ouachita Challenge, and I’ll try to go as light on the excuses as possible.

The story starts last fall, when I burned out (after a very busy, fairly successful spring season that I tried to carry through summer and fall) on bike racing and gave myself permission to take a big, fat break. This big fat break quickly became the longest I’d ever been off the bike, and I trained for and ran a 5k with my Pops which was great, and it was generally good to have a break. But these breaks are hard to come back from! which may be why I don’t take them much. I had some issues with motivation and some issues with the major infected saddle sore of my career. January and February saw me fitfully riding amidst difficulties. The spring in general was a bit busy because I took a grad course on top of my usual work, etc.

The Husband and I signed up together to race the Ouachita Challenge, back in December or thereabouts. This is a big-deal marathon mountain bike race in the Ouachita National Forest in northeast Arkansas. Registration opens at 1am on a Tuesday or something and sells out in about 10 minutes, so you have to plan ahead. We got our spots secured months ahead of time and from there largely counted down woefully while observing what good shape we weren’t in. In the final month before the race I got sick twice. Imagine a sinking feeling in your stomach. Yep.

We drove to Arkansas in two days, taking time to stop off in Tyler to ride the trails at the Tyler State Park. I’d never ridden these trails before (being thwarted by rain the last time we tried). They’re great fun! Swoopy, fast, flowy, and really beautiful. I had a good time there. We headed into Arkansas on Saturday to ride part of the course.

By this time I had worked myself up into a state of panic over this race. I was heading into what might be the biggest, hardest event of my career, in what I felt was the worst shape of my career. I think the worst part, though, is the fear of the unknown: I knew nothing about the trails we’d be riding, so I really didn’t know how bad it would be. I was pretty terrified.

So to pre-ride, we tackled what we were told was the hardest, most technical part of the race. It was fairly demoralizing; Blowout Mountain is, well, it’s a mountain, and we don’t have those where I come from. It was also pretty technical, periodically covered in rock gardens that I did not find to be rideable. Chris and our buddy Rob might have been more upset at the unrideable rock gardens than I was, though – I am fairly familiar with race courses that require me to get off my bike occasionally, but these tough guys aren’t, so much. What I was most worried about was the climbing! I was gasping for air and continuing to feel terrified.

Race morning I felt resigned to do what I had to do. I didn’t have any feeling of excitement or anticipated enjoyment or even competitive spirit; I just felt that I needed to steel myself to a grand slog of pain. Chris and I had pre-ordered commemorative 10th anniversary event jerseys (not cheap) and I was determined to NOT wear my jersey unless I finished the event. Maybe it’s silly, but this was actually a pretty big piece of motivation for me.

So. After that long intro, I wonder if you’re still with me. I think my race report will be the shortest part of this race report! It went: paved road, followed by dirt road, gently climbing, maybe 8-10 miles. First singletrack, more climbing, less gentle. First checkpoint: I see Rob’s girlfriend Lisa; she cheers for me; I’m doing less badly at this point than I’d feared. I give her thumbs up. Then we hit Blowout Mountain, and yes, it’s at least as bad as it was yesterday. Argh! Come down Blowout: fun! I like to descend, and this is some fun, flowy descending, just enough rock to be interesting without having to slow down too much. More climbing. (I don’t know the names of all these mountains.) More suck. Then we hit the road again (paved, then dirt) – this is the transition between the Ouachita Trail (famously technical, climby, and hard) and the Womble Trail (famously fun and flowy). We have epic headwind; people are suffering; but I actually pass a few people here, feeling okay. Apparently I’m not entirely reformed from my roadie past, because at this point I feel like: please give me another 50 miles of headwind-road and NO MORE CLIMBING. (Later I hear Chris felt the same way at this point. Houstonians have much more experience with headwind than we do hills, let alone mountains!) Hit the Womble Trail, which I’m told is the fun part; ride some Womble feeling like okay, this is fun trail, but I am TIRED. Hear we’re only halfway done. Feel unhappy about this news. More climbing! I know climbing is relative: if somebody from Austin tells you something is “flat” and you live in Houston, you should not trust this data. Maybe the mountain-dwellers feel that the Womble is not so climby but I was hurting. I cramped starting on Blowout Mountain (early in the day) and by the last 15 miles of the race, I was cramping in my fingers, toes, back, abs, arms and of course every muscle in my legs. I think my kidneys cramped. I drank about 2 1/2 gallons of water over the course of the day, most of it electrolyte-enhanced, and ate a fair amount too; but it was the hottest day I’d seen all year (it hit 95 degrees) and it just wasn’t enough. Also, I was nauseous at the start line (I was getting sick again, but it was probably mostly nerves) and all the way to the finish – all day, nauseous, and therefore not eating or drinking as much as I would have liked. I hit a checkpoint at which I was told I had 14 miles to go, and I really thought I was closer to the finish than that, which is demoralizing. Those last 14 miles were really a mental battle. I had to get off the bike and walk out a cramp once or twice; I was talking to myself (I’m pretty sure it wasn’t out loud). I was thinking about that stupid jersey, of all things! The last, oh, 2 miles or so are small town roads (mostly dirt), and I felt that I was close, but still just had to tell myself to grind along…

There were time cut-offs at several check-points on this race – not unusual for marathon racing. But this was the first time I’d been concerned about them. I failed to put a watch on my handlebars when we left Houston, so we stopped on the drive up and bought me a little digital bracelet-style watch for $5 at a gas station. I wanted to watch out for the time cut-offs (if you’re going too slow, they don’t let you finish), and I also wanted to finish in 8 hours. Well, I made every time cut-off, but by less and less at each one. In those final miles, I knew I would be allowed to finish, so I just had to make myself do it. As I approached the school where the race started and finished, I looked at my watch and saw 3:58pm (since we’d started at 8, 4pm was my 8-hour time). I crossed the road to the school… and the volunteers said, “just up that hill!” What!! A HILL! Argh! I got off to walk up the hill. I couldn’t ride. What can I say, I’m a weakling; I’m fat and out of shape. I had done so much walking all day (up the sides of mountains, through rock gardens) that my cycling shoes (old and worn, but also just not intended for walking this much) had chewed the skin off my heels in silver-dollar-sized spots. Walking hurt, but I couldn’t ride it. So I’m hobbling up the hill to the finish… with an audience (great)… 3:59… and they’re yelling, “30 seconds to make it under 8 hrs! 20 seconds!”

walking up TINY hill to finish. photo courtesy of Lisa. thanks Lisa


Well, I made it. I think my official time was 7:59:49. Not only Chris, my loving and caring Husband, but also our friends Rob, Holt, and Lisa had waited to see me finish. This meant a lot; Rob and Holt had finished their race just minutes under 6 hours, so they had really spent some time there to show their support. I wasn’t able to say it at the finish, of course, but it was very touching; I really felt the love. I hobbled around the finish area til I thought I could sit without cramping, and I got out of those shoes immediately.

It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I really feel like it nearly killed me. But I wanted to be able to wear my jersey! And now, I can! (I wore it the very next time I got on my bike.) This race was harder than I thought it would be. Worst shape of my racing life, yes. But I think even in decent race shape, the climbing of mountains is extranormal for a power-based, anti-climber from Houston, TX like myself. I’m not sure I’d do this race again unless I was prepared to travel to train on actual mountains ahead of time. But I’m so very glad I did it. Even at an embarrassingly slow finish time, this is an experience no one will take away from me. Next up: I want to run a half marathon this year! Glutton for pain, that’s me. Thanks for bearing with this unreasonably long write-up. See you on the road or trail.

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a promise of things to come

Posted on April 6, 2011 by pagesofjulia

Hello friendly blog-readers. I hope you’ll forgive me for some place-holder posts this week. Briefly, I’ll tell you what’s going on…

Last weekend the Husband and I traveled to Arkansas to compete in the Ouachita Challenge, a 60-mile marathon mountain bike race on the Ouachita and Womble Trails in the Ouachita National Forest. I’ve raced, oh, 6 or 8 marathon mountain bike races, but I have to tell you, this one is in another league. It honestly nearly killed me, but I finished it, and I’m not recovered yet! I do intend to write up my experience, although I don’t know where my race report will end up just yet. Maybe here; maybe over at my personal/cycling website, maybe even in The Racing Post, who knows. I’ll announce it here when I get to it.

The next thing is that this coming Saturday marks the end of my semester-long class in Database Searching. It’s been a really great class – it’s kept me interested and engaged and actually looking forward to Saturday morning classes, which is saying a lot. I’m so glad I’m taking it. But, that said, the final paper and presentation due this week are stressing me out a bit. I feel the need to devote my time to schoolwork this week rather than to much blogging.

I did read Love You More by Lisa Gardner on the trip, and we listened to two audiobooks: The Pied Piper by Ridley Person, and Shoot Him If He Runs by Stuart Woods. So, I have a few musings to write up for you when I find the time. I’m also about halfway through The Mapping of Love and Death by Jacqueline Winspear now (I still get to read on my lunch hour, you know!) but that one is scheduled for next Monday the 11th, in sync with Book Club Girl‘s read-along.

So this is my plea: stick with me for a few days of hecticness, and next week, I’ll be back on track!

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trip recap

Posted on February 22, 2011 by pagesofjulia

I’ll try and keep this as brief as possible. I had a blast! I just want to give a few highlights and let you know where we diverged from the “potential vacation” posts you saw. (Not much.)

Friday night we were in Austin with Bart & Emily, who have hosted us for similar outrageous fun in the past. They’re great hosts! By the time we got into town they had a great dinner all ready for us… I think there was barbecued chicken, leftover brisket, dirty rice, and cornbread with Lil Smokey sausages in it. (Don’t ask.) Bart homebrews, so we had some awesome beer to drink on draft off the back porch, too. There was a caramel pecan porter that was like a dessert, and also a lighter one, I guess it was a wit? We went out late to see two bands play: Smoke and Feathers, followed by the Mother Hips, at the Hole in the Wall. Smoke and Feathers reminded me of a male-vocal Portishead, which was creepy but cool. They ALL had pretty impressive beards, too. There was a theramin! It was great. Mother Hips apparently have a Grateful Dead connection, and the lead guy kind of looked like my Pops. That was cool, too. Then we went back to the house and watched part of a Led Zepplin documentary. Great night.

Saturday we ate some Mexican food and hit the road. The Eola School was really cool! Just this one guy runs four businesses at once. He brews beer (was pouring a German blonde and a smoked porter – I don’t like smoke on my beer so we stuck with the blonde which was fine); he cooks burgers & fried foods; he offers hostel-style lodging (bunk beds, BYO bedding); and he’s renovating a historic schoolhouse building from the 1930’s, if I remember correctly. I give him full credit on all counts! It was well worth our detour.

Sunday we headed out into nowhere to visit the Chinati Hot Springs. It was a beautiful location several hours down a dirt road, with several clean, built-out tubs fed by natural hot springs, and rustic cabins with a community kitchen where we made our dinner and breakfast.

on the drive into Chinati


Feeling refreshed, we got up Monday morning and drove through Ruidoso and Presidio, through Big Bend Ranch State Park, into the towns of Lajitas, Terlingua, and Study Butte (one largish area) for the rest of our week’s activities.

Tuesday we hiked Lost Mines. It was a really great, scenic, steep hike of about 3 hours, out and back, to a peak with an outstanding panorama. It was moderately challenging and beautiful and well worth it. The Husband’s new gadget gave us altitude readings (not something we use in Houston! our local bike rides have elevation changes of 15-20 feet if we take the freeway overpasses) that explained why I was a touch out of breath.

Wednesday we rode some of the Lajitas trail system, which is a lot of the race course that we’re familiar with. That was nice to see; it was a casual ride (before people started showing up for the mountain bike festival), just the two of us, on familiar trails.

A few of our friends showed up Wednesday night, and the rest on Thursday. Thursday morning we got up early to do some logistics: we caravaned with some friends to leave a car at one end of our point-to-point ride in Big Bend National Park. We rode from the north end of an old jeep road down to a (different) hot springs right on the Rio Grande. This was our hottest day, in the upper 90’s, in the blazing sun with no shelter, and it was a rough and climby ride, and I ran out of water, so it was a doozy! But we had outstanding views, good company, and burning legs – it was a great day. And Tobin makes a mean margarita. The hot springs were less appealing than we had expected after such a long, hot day, but it turned out lovely all the same – these hot springs backed right up to the cold Rio Grande, so you could just hop the little wall (like a swimming pool and hot tub, but muddier) to change from hot to cold. It was a nice, relaxing day.

Friday we rode some more Lajitas trails, this time in a group, and then went back into the national park for a night hike to a waterfall. I banged my head on a rock 😦 but I survived and it was otherwise a beautiful evening with breathtaking sunset, as always out there.

omg sunset! Big Bend National Park

We went back to the cabin for a big community dinner involving burgers, chicken, sausages, bratwurst, mac’n’cheese, and beer. Ahem! Heavy. This was in preparation for Saturday’s epic.

We decidedly not to do the capital-E Epic ride on Saturday. We had been beaten by such hot temperatures, and were hearing such frightening tales of what the Epic involved, that we bailed in favor of what I’m calling the mini-epic. It was still a great, long, hot, challenging, FUN ride at just under 6 hours – the Epic would have put us well over 8 hours, I think. What a day! I was definitely weak out there at some points (like on the climbs! did I say we don’t have those in Houston?), but I really enjoyed the creekbeds, strangely enough, and actually had a real burst of energy at the end, and rode the last couple miles fast, hard, and happy. THIS is what we drive to the desert for.

Saturday night ended with all the necessary ingredients. We drank Real Ale Fireman #4 (thank you Real Ale for sponsoring the festival!), hung out with all our friends, saw some live music, danced, and hula hooped. The Husband grilled some delicious chicken and we collapsed in exhaustion.

Sunday, sadly, saw us making the Epic (capital-E), slightly hungover drive back into Houston. I think we made it just under 12 hours including stops. Sigh. For once I was not ready for our trip to end, even missing the little dogs. But! There’s always next year. See you in the desert!

(all photo credits to the Husband. good job Husband!)

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