Big thunderstorm last night! Hard rain and lots of lightning flashes. We were snug in our motel.

Lunch on the road to Sanderson.

Yucca in flower.

We ride off into fog following the thunderstorm.

Retired sea captain Sheppard named the town Marathon because the setting reminded him of the plain in Greece. Our choices for dinner were the Gage Hotel or the pizza place. The Gage is a historic building. Gage was a big cattleman. The present hotel was his home and office. The public rooms are beautiful. The restaurant, we were warned is pricey, so we continued on for pizza. The pizza lady drives a wildly painted old Mercedes with a large plastic owl glued to the trunk lid.

We took off early this morning to try to avoid the wind. There's nothing between Marathon and Sanderson except a lot of Texas, so we stopped at the grocery store for sandwiches to eat on the road. There was thick fog for miles. We eventually broke through into the sunshine and enjoyed a fast, generally downhill, run for 45 miles before stopping for lunch. The last ten miles seemed very hard as the wind found us.

Sanderson was a railroad town. The last attempted train robbery was in 1912. Two robbers boarded the train, expecting to escape on horseback after the crime. They weren't the brightest. The express agent in charge of the baggage car offered to hand one of the robbers the most valuable package on board. The robber put down his gun to accept the package. The express agent picked up the gun. No trial was necessary as the agent killed both robbers.

It's nice to feel popular. We stopped for a drink as we rode into town. A woman rushed up to us to urge us to stay at her motel. Continuing on, the competing motelkeeper flagged us down in his car to give us a coupon to stay in his motel. I think Steve's room was $34 - we splurged on the king size bed and spent $40.

Texas dogs don't ride in the truck bed. They ride on top! We later saw the truck driving down the highway with the other dog standing up on the roof.