Looks like my schedule, such as it was, has changed. I was planning to take Brünhilde east, all the way to Miami.
But her back tire is shot from 3500 hard miles, and she's got a new home just up the road. It would be cruel to press
the old girl any further. She can winter in West Texas while I fetch supplies back in New York. If I leave the bike in
Marfa, I'll need a battery charger. Ghost town or not, I manage to find CycleTek.
CycleTek is owned and operated by Ralph, a highly self-sufficient individual who also happens to know a lot about
KTM's. I'm twenty miles from the Mexico border and the desert stretches for more than one hundred miles in every
direction. Other than Terlingua, the nearest town is Alpine some eighty-three miles to the north. So it stands to rea-
son that Ralph has a trickle charger with a US cigarette lighter adapter in stock. I pay the man forty bucks. Brilliant.
Ralph is kind enough take me out in his Polaris on a tour of the grounds. Starting on the valley floor,
we follow this road,
up.
The view looking north.
Sometimes Ralph gives offroad tours for bikers and campers using this well-conceived structure as a meeting point
or campsite. Those lucky enough to camp here get this view south. We continue on,
down this superbly treacherous road.
Ralph points out some Cholla,
scourge of the Chihuahuan desert. I thank him for the charger, then double back to Lajitas for my gear. Suddenly,
my trip is almost over. I don't know if I'm disappointed or relieved.
But the new plan makes too much sense, so I adapt.
