The destination was Tankersley, Texas. If you have never heard of Tankersley, you must live beyond 50 miles from San Angelo. Seven of us saddled up Saturday to visit the town and look around. You know we were curious as it was cloudy, misting, forcasted winds of 20 mph; but the temperature was a nice 72 at 8 a.m.
Cycling. The sport that women do not mind showing up in identical clothing. Liz and Christine in one of their favorite jerseys.
This picture illustrates three stories. The overcast day, road kill being cleaned up by our sanitation department helper (may have to click on picture to see the buzzard), and the third--I got caught riding down the middle of the highway.
As I was approaching the above field, I saw trees in neat rows and thought I was coming upon pecan orchards which are plentiful in this area. As I came more closely, the neat lines of trees were MESQUITE trees. Only in Texas would one have a mesquite orchard.
This portion of the ride would have been great had the wind not been in our faces. From San Angelo to Knickerbocker is a favorite route for some of the fast riders as it has fairly good roads with low traffic.
The one-time-town of Knickerbocker was our first re-group stop. Christine and Liz rolled in at their Sunday stroll pace. Why waste a ride going so fast that the country side is a blur?
As a matter of fact, no one looked like he's in a big hurry. Re-group allowed for some nice chats, fluids, and snacks.
While at Knickerbocker, we were entertained by a peacock. It was being harrassed by the two below rascals.
The peacock was honking away at the dogs. And as soon as I left their "territory," they went back to harrassing the bird. It finally had had enough, and flew to another yard across the road.
Spring Creek is not too far from Highway 67 and has a nice park. We marked the location as a stop on our return from Tankersley, Texas.
The wind was finally at our back, and off the group sailed.
BUT
We got to the intersection of 2235 and highway 67 and there was no town, no marker, no visible sign of a road that might lead to a village or even a ghost town. I asked where Tankersley was. I was told "Right there!" I looked at where they were pointing (it was Velma who was spoofing me) and there was just a stand of mesquite trees. I had looked at the map before the ride was called, and Tankersley was supposed to be at this spot. Everyone assured me that Tankersley did exist and they set out to prove it.
OK. The joke is on me. There really is a Tankersley as proven by the Texas Highway Department.
Even when Tankersley was a real town, it was never very big. A little history that was dug up about the town is as follows.
According to the Handbook of Texas, the land for the town was donated by R. F. Tankersley in 1864. A post office was granted in 1910, although it was discontinued in 1963. Tankersley's zenith was reached in 1946 with 75 persons. Increased mobility drastically reduced the town to only 20 by 1953.
R. F. Tankersley
On the way back, we pulled into the Spring Creek Park.
While at the Park, it was only natural to sit under the shade trees and
HAVE A BIKER'S PICNIC!!
After the picnic of energy bars, trail mix, nuts, a banana, sports drinks--and social hour, we pedaled off only to stop again at Knickerbocker.
(Did I catch Christine snacking again?)
Checking their watches not believing the laid back ride. Once back on the road, everyone made up for down time.
Wind was to our back once again and I was stopped in the road. Christine and Liz came up wondering what was wrong.
Nothing was wrong. I had spotted some more flowers along the road that I wanted a picture of before all the flowers fade.
One more small hill to go.
And across the equalization dam back to the beach to end our 40 mile ride.
Hi! I've been reading your website for some time
ReplyDeletenow and finally got the coyrage to go ahead andd give you a
shoput out from Atascocita Texas! Just wanted tto
say keep up the excellent work!
Keep this going please, great job!
ReplyDeleteI know this if off topic but I'm looking into starting
ReplyDeletemy own blog and was wondering what alll is needed tto
get set up? I'm assumiong hawving a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny?
I'm not very internet smart so I'm not 100% certain.
Anyy tipps or avice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
Hey thhere this is kkind of of off topic but I was wanting to know if boogs uuse WYSIWYG editors
ReplyDeleteor if you have to manually code with HTML. I'm starting a
blog soon but have no coding know-how so I wanted to get advice from someone with experience.
Any help would be enormously appreciated!
You made some good points there. I checked on the net
ReplyDeleteto learn more agout the isue and fpund most people will go along with your views oon this website.
naturally like yur wbsite however you need to take a lok at the spelling
ReplyDeleteoon everal of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling issues and
I find it very bothersoome to inform the truth however I'll certainly come back again.
Please be advised that comments submitted by "Anonymous" goes straight to spam. Please use your real name to comment.
ReplyDeleteHowdy just wanted to gjve you a quick heads up and llet you know a few of
ReplyDeletethe pictures aren't loading correctly. I'm not sure why
bbut I think its a linking issue. I'vetried it iin two different internet browsers and both shnow the same results.
Appreciation to my father who stated to me on the
ReplyDeletetopic off this web site, this web site is truly amazing.
I kniw this site provides quality dependding articles and
ReplyDeleteextra stuff, is there any other site which presents these kinds of stuff in quality?
If you woud like to get much from thuis article then you have too apply
ReplyDeletethese techniques to your won weblog.
Heya i am for the primary time here. I found this board and I to
ReplyDeletefind It really useful & iit helped me out much.
I hope to present one thingg back annd help others like you helped me.
These are really wonderful ideas in about blogging.
ReplyDeleteYou have touched some pleasant points here. Any way keep up wrinting.
Hello, I think your site might be having browser compatibility issues.
ReplyDeleteWheen I look at your blog in Ie, it looks fine but when opening
in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to
give you a qukck heads up! Other then that, wonderful blog!
It's remarkable for me to have a web page, which is good
ReplyDeletefor mmy knowledge. thanks admin
I aam actually gratefvul to the owner of this wesbsite who has shared this enormous article at at this time.
ReplyDelete