Bikeless in Fort Davis, TX - Wed 3/7

It's a strange feeling to be stranded in a small town without a bike.  Randall drove us to the bike shop in Alpine 25 miles away this morning but the bike mechanic couldn't find an axle to replace our broken one.  Tandem axles are longer than regular bike axles.  I eventually located a tandem bike dealer in east Texas he said he will ship an axle overnight.  So if it fits we should have a bike by tomorrow afternoon.

So we spent the rest of the day touring historic Fort Davis.  The courthouse is 100 years old and there are many buildings from the 1800s.  The actual fort has been preserved and restored and gives fascinating insight into frontier army life.  I found it interesting that there was no wall around the fort like there always is in the movies.  With 400 soldiers, there was little threat from small bands of local Indians.  The fort was really just a staging post for army maneuvers.

We had near gale force winds and dust blowing today but being on foot it wasn't much of a problem.

In the local pizza joint we met another cross country biker, Martin, from Zürich, Switzerland and shared notes.