Day 34 – 36 Charley gets to be a cowboy and ride a steam train in Texas

16th July 

We arrived in Bandera, Texas at around 2pm and I was thrown right inside the world of a cowboy. Justin, the owner of the Twin Elm Ranch that we were staying saddled up a horse for me and we rode out to herd the horses in to the fields. I hadn’t been on a horse for over a year but it came flooding back just like a bicycle.

It was good practice for the bull herding that was coming the next day. For tonight though we had a cowboy feast in store. I cooked popcorn the cowboy way and we were greeted by a Texan band. The EagleRider boys and I loved the spirit and the feel of the place.

17th July 

It was an early 7am start. We saddled up the horses again, and got the boys ready for a long day. We had some more cowboys from the town to help us as we rode down to the field that the bulls were staying in. I have never herded a bull before and it was not the something that comes naturally! Especially when I had a bull staring me down, luckily my horse was an old boy and he was just saying ‘Bring it on’. I felt like me and my horse had a lot in common!

The bulls became as tame as a cat as I got my riding feet back. We managed to get them across the river and in to the pen easily for the rodeo later. We left to go and meet Paul and Tommy to fire some Wild West guns. Rifles and handguns, Paul and Tommy had everything a real cowboy would have used. The Quigley was one of my favorite guns. After a couple few quick draw practises we decided that we need some targets. Leo from the team had just bought a new cowboy hat that I decided needed some more character. Russ and I ended up being a better shot that even I thought and we managed to bring in some great character to that hat!

In the afternoon we headed off to a special event and something I had never seen. 9 year old rodeo…

Check out photos of Charley at the ranch here.

18th July 

We had had a long day in Texas yesterday, but we were up at 5.30 to drive to Austin Steam Train. We had a plan to leave there at 10am with the bikes loaded up on the train so we had to leave early!

We arrived and managed to get the bikes on this beautiful freight train. It was a massive debacle figuring how we were going to get the bikes on, (as you can see from our photos!) but when we had managed to work that out I hoped in the Train Conductors cabin and watched how this massive diesel engine was run. We arrived in Bertram after about 2 hours and what a ride! The bikes were in perfect condition when we arrived as well. It was a quick slip off and back on the road to New Mexico,Taos. The next adventure is going to be extreme!

As always, keep up with Charley’s journey on Facebook and Twitter, and check out photos from Texas in the gallery.