I forgot to include our visit to the Hallie Stillwell Museum next to the Stillwell Ranch Store and RV Park before dinner yesterday. Mrs. Stillwell was remarkable woman managing a 200,000 acre ranch after her husband died. As I entered the museum hanging on the wall was a life sized portrait of her holding a rifle in a western outfit. On the table below were some photos of her late in life and she looked like my mother’s twin.
In my haste to leave Sunday I forgot a bar of soap. The Stillwell store had Dial soap but it was expensive, $3.50, but I needed soap to take a shower. Another item I didn’t think to bring was lip balm and the store had that too. The sun and wind dried my lips out quickly. The showers were free and much appreciated.
Once again we were up before sunrise with the previous evening’s cooking team preparing breakfast and putting out supplies for lunches. Because of the wind I dressed warmer than yesterday with a long sleeve jersey under a blue Descente jacket. Rolling out the long downhill from US385 on FM2627 was now a long uphill back to US385. The wind wasn’t as strong on the uphill but present. Turning left at US385 it was about 2 miles to the Big Bend National Park entrance. When I got there I chatted with the ranger before continuing. I misread the route map thinking the road was relatively flat from there to Panther Junction, the park headquarters. I thought the climbing would be from Panther Junction to Rio Grand Village. About a mile from Panther Junction the climb became more noticeable. When I reached Panther Junction I took a rest break. Unfortunately Marty had a flat ire about 1/2 mile from Panther Junction and spent his time fixing it there. While resting and talking with Chris from our group that was when I realized my mistake about the route profile and looked forward to a mostly downhill ride to Rio Grand Village. While I was eating a bagel and talking with Jeff from our group Anthony passed by and we starting talking. Anthony is from Houston and manages 3 pizza restaurants. We talked about food suppliers and I told him retired for Sysco. An interesting conversation.
Rested I got back on my Canyon Endurace bike to ride to Rio Grand Village. Not long after leaving Panther Junction which was busy with people (maybe because of the upcoming eclipse) the road started down. The sky clouded up while I was stopped at Panther Junction and it got chilly riding. I was glad I wore the Descente jacket keeping the wind chill at bay, mostly. I could see sunshine in the distance and eventually rode into it. The 20 miles from Panther Junction to Rio Grand Village went pretty fast going through a tunnel before reaching Rio Grand Village. I rode the brakes a lot because of the rough chip’n seal road surface.
When I reached Rio Grand Village I rode around to several areas looking for the van and trailer but couldn’t find them. I asked the people in the store if they knew where they might be but they had no idea. They suggested looking in the group campground which I had not seen and that’s where I found them. Our campsite was dirt and some grass, much more tent friendly than the rock area at Stillwell. After setting up my tent with some help, Gary passed out $2 in quarters to pay for the showers at the store. I was pleased that I got all of the shower done in the allotted 5 minutes. Back at the campsite Buzz and Beth cooked a Lebanese entree which was a hit. After dinner and conversations I got in the tent to sleep. The next day was going to be hard pedaling.
