Good times and fascinating conversations in Langtry, TX

We rode into Langtry when it was 101' F in the shade. Hot.
Ate and drank at the Langtry Depot; met some nice people too.
Stayed in Keith's "warm showers" trailer, and were glad to have AC; and then a solid building to sleep in (rather than our flimsy tent) when the nasty cold front, lightning, wind and 50+ degree temp drop happened the next day.
Took a nice walk on the day off, checked out the Roy Bean museum, the cactus garden, and, of course, we ate again at the Wagon Wheel, with Sharon and company.
Keith not only dropped off another couple of cold beers the next day (in addition to the sliced cheese and apple he brought us the day before!), but he also took us for a quick tour of the Pump Spring, "the point" overlooking the Rio Grande and over in to Meh he Co, some "sink holes" etc. Nice drive/walk, except for the cacti we got stuck in our shoes - and one nasty one in my toe!
Before leaving Keith's trailer, and Langtry, this morning we went by the US Post Office (it's in the Constitution!) and then to the Wagon Wheel, one more time. Sharon fed us again, and we had some fascinating conversations with Sharon, the owner (who's name I am forgetting, unfortunately), a couple other customers - incl truckers, who asked us questions they had been wondering about for a long time, but had never had the opportunity to get answers to ("Why do cyclists ride in the lane, then move over when they hear us comin'?" Broken beer bottle glass, truck tire debris - flat tires etc) We said goodbye to Meredith and Fletcher when they rode by (a young couple bike touring the other way, who we had met briefly at the museum the day before.) We also talked to a retired football coach turned preacher named Ray who was self-proclaimed "right wing, for TX". Said he had put out a sign on his church during the last Presidential election which read "Vote for the Mormon capitalist, not the Muslim communist"; said he got a lot of attention for it. Said people told him he'd lose his tax-exempt status, since he was clearly telling people who to vote for (which is illegal, for churches, to maintain their tax-free status). He almost immediately said he had been "rooting for your Governor"(in WI) when he was busting the public unions there a couple years back. I couldn't really think of things that I disagree with more. And those certainly seemed like offensive things to say to a stranger; they seemed more like 3rd or 4th date kind of things to say, not first date intro kind of stuff. Nonetheless, I kinda liked the guy.
But I am now trying to think of equally offensive things that I could have said to him, and frankly, I don't find it easy. (And not that I would have either; I think that's rude. If we had had more time? Maybe. Certainly with the woman from the Chamber of Commerce [Safford, AZ?] who accosted us during our lunch and besides preventing us from eating till our sandwiches got cold but went on and on ad nauseam - I couldn't help myself. I responded, forcefully but respectfully.) There is no Fox News Corporation for people who are less "black and white" than people like Ray, for people who understand that there is almost always "gray" in many decisions, in life. For people who don't follow in lock step with Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes' world view. For Democrats and others. For those who think that the problem with so many American Christians is that they are very un-Jesus-like. There is no comparable "hour-after-hour lineup of blowhards repeating the Republican line" - for thinking people. We're just not like that, as humans. We question, we deliberate, we understand that we may be wrong; that we may very well change our mind when presented with new information.
Could I say that, for example, George W Bush and Dick Cheney were draft-dodging rich boy drunk cowards that turned into chickenhawks after they failed to heed all the warning signs and implorings from the outgoing Administration and CIA operatives and prevent the massive attacks on 9/11/01 - and then lied us into unnecessary war in Iraq, tortured people (illegally, immorally -and very un-Christian?), and have bankrupted our great nation with their deregulation and "tax-cut and spend" policies? I could say that. But the problem is that there is a whole lot more truth to that statement than the "Muslim communist" sign Ray put in front of his "tax-free because you don't tell people how to vote" church.

Fascinating people in TX, fer sure.

Anyway, that's what we did first. Then we rode our bikes 50+ miles.

(And for the ultimate irony...I was sitting in the "Icon Bar and Grill" near Amistad reservoir writing that blog post, thinking about how one might fairly call me an iconoclast, every now and then, writing about my conversation with a guy who takes everything as "black and white"; who says he doesn't deal with gray at all - he just turns to the Bible for all his answers. I kept thinking about the book "The year of living Biblically"...and so many questions! Maybe I'll go visit him in Leakey, on Sunday. I do like talking to all kinds of people after all...even ones that are sure they are right [even when they are most certainly, demonstrably not] - and that everyone else will eventually realize the error of their ways and come over to his "extreme", "right wing, for TX" view of people and the world.)

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Year_of_Living_Biblically