Welcome!
Quick, put on your helmet, and join my husband and I on our virtual bike tour of Texas as we …. (dramatic music)
We left the oasis of Balmorhea by first light to beat the Texas sun. (If you’ve been following this series, you know this is just pretend. We really left our Midwestern neighborhood and rode the bluffs and valley roads along the Illinois) Here’s a cell phone pic of our real ride in the early am.
See my husband, Dave riding toward me and the moon still up in the sky to the left? It was a beautiful morning.
But, on our virtual ride along Route 10 in Texas, heading to San Diego, there’s no pretty river in sight, nor shade, for that matter, and, instead of oaks and maples lining the road, it’s desert brush and sand as far the weary eye can see.
After 38 miles of pedaling, we ride into the one-road town of Van Horn, population 2,435…
Van Horn, TX; population 2435. Click pic for source.
Kind of a humble welcome, considering the eloquent intro in the visitor’s guide:
“The story of Van Horn, Texas, is the story of the frontier…of independence, opportunity, and wide open spaces…”
Not to mention the lovely picture on their website:
Click on the purple letters to join us for a walk along the main street of Van Horn We’ll be looking for a place to park our bikes, and fill our empty stomachs.
We quickly find a local sit-down. It’s cozy and cool as we flip through a traveler’s guide together and sip our cokes. The guide tells us the mountain in the photo above is “El Capitan” in the Guadalupe Mountain Range, 63 miles to the North.
Here’s an 1899 view of it. See the carriage, front lower left?
El Capitan, taken by U.S. Geological Survey, 1899. Guadalupe Peak to the right is "the highest point in Texas" according to Wikipedia. Click pic for source and information
and a more modern view:
click pic to see more pics of the area from photographer, Treye Rice
Here’s a map showing the Guadalupe Mountain range and Highway 10, the road we’re virtually traveling:
click pic for source and more info.
And here’s some of the wide open spaces we heard tell of in the travel brochure:
Texas hill country, Treye Rice, click pic for source
Mountains and “wide open spaces”, a nice combination AND a nice reminder of these cool sips of refreshment from God’s Word, perfect verses for the road-weary Christian:
“He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.” ~~ Psalm 40:2
Three Mile (left) and Five Mile Mountain (right), near Van Horn, TX. Click pic for source.
“In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.” ~~ Isaiah 40:3-4
"All men are like grass..." from Enchanted Rock State Park, TX. Treye Rice, photographer, click pic to see more
“All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” ~~Isaiah 40:6b-8
Do you know the One who made the mountains? Click pic below for a quick introduction:
Turkey Peak, another lovely photo by Treye Rice. See below for source.
To see more of Treye Rice’s photos from Texas and other parts of the world, click HERE
Gloriadelia 
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