March 31, Monday, Day 25: it's Flat!

43 miles from Del Rio to Brackettville TX. Yes, still in Texas; we don't move on to Louisiana until April 12.  It's a big state!  

Remember my groaning about the hotel in Sanderson?  The mother/son owners couldn't have been more caring of our group.  Not only did they bring us some delicious Indian food for dinner AND breakfast, they drove 110 miles early this morning to catch us at our hotel in Del Rio to return some items our riders had forgotten in their rooms.  The mother told us that in Bombay bicycling was a necessity, and that she had always wanted to do a long bicycle journey. Now too old and infirm to do so, she takes great pleasure in seeing us women do what she had wished to do.  Here they are, with mama holding the bike of one of our riders.

Back to the flat story...

Flat refers to the lack of significant "terrain features" as our guide likes to call the big hills. It also refers to the blowout of my rear tire - a good sized cut in the sidewall and the tube - from what, who knows... 

No sooner had we put on a new tire and tube, and I rode a mile, than the same tire went flat again.  Faulty valve on the new tube. I sat out there in the sun on the shoulder of Route 90 and changed it all myself!  (big accomplishment)

Riding on from there was a lot less exciting. Because we are not far from the border with Mexico, there are a lot of Border Patrol vehicles out.  This one is dragging some giant truck tires to smooth out the surface of a dirt road that parallels the highway. The next day, the Border Patrol officers will drive slowly down that dirt road looking for footprints in the dirt possibly indicating some illegal border crossers.  Low tech, but it must work or they wouldn't do it?

Our accommodations for the night were billed as old army barracks. One more "modest" hotel and I thought I would scream. Phew!  Fort Clark was an army base for 100 years from 1852 to just after WWII.  It has been rehabilitated into a park, two golf courses, residences, a hotel, movie theater, post office, museum, etc. owned by a membership association.  Lovely.  Below are pix of the "barracks" and the spring fed giant swimming pool. 

It is a warm day in the mid 80s, some humidity, green grass, birds, maybe the end of the desert riding!  I am starting to anticipate being back in Florida in a month. 

March 30, Sunday, Day 24: Too much payback!

Hopefully our very last day in the desert in Texas. 110 miles with the same high winds as yesterday from Sanderson to Del Rio Texas.  We did cross a river that had water in it, the Pecos River. Amazing! 

Lunch was in the middle of nowhere, which the café memorialized in the T-shirt below.

There are at least two other groups cycling the same route as we are, on pretty much the same days. Below is Bubbas Pampered Pedalers, a "Coast 2 Coast" company hosting a group of 40 riders with five support vehicles and Bubba himself talking with our guide Carol.  They do a lot of camping along the route, so "it's all good" didn't ring quite true with me. 

The wind was truly punishing today as evidenced in the two pictures below.  A quick nap before a bunch of us helped get our bikes up on top of the van and we drove to our, again, not so charming motel.

A little after sunset the handful of riders who completed the entire route arrived at the hotel, having been on the road for 12 hours.  They are an awesome group.

March 29, Saturday, Day 23: Payback

Remember that really nice day we had yesterday? Oh did we pay for it today 20 to 30 mile an hour headwinds for 55 miles from Marathon to Sanderson, TX.  Exhausted. Now in a dump of a motel that doesn't even have a shower head on the pipe in the bathtub.  Boo hoo.  I shall live.  Here are my riding buddies (I am the third from the left fiddling with my facemask.)  We formed a paceline which allowed us to ride 12 to 14 miles an hour for half the route and saved us a lot of energy. 

Below is a shot of the town of Sanderson where we are staying tonight.

It used to be a switching point for the Southern Pacific Railroad crews, but that as well as mohair and wool production declines have caused most of the town to be abandoned buildings.

I guess all we can do at this point is continue to laugh.  Keep those cards and letters coming! Or rather emails and blog comments. I now know why soldiers on assignment overseas love to hear from friends and family.

March 28, Friday, day 22: Best day so far

60 miles from Fort Davis to Marathon, Texas. It was sunny, the wind was behind us, and the route was mostly flat to down hill. I coasted the last 20 miles!  Found out that the infamous chip seal roads are best taken at 25+ miles per hour!  I can now go downhill at 35 miles an hour without scaring myself to death.

Scenery was Texas hills, then back to the desert. The road paralleled the railroad tracks and I saw an extra long train, two engines in the front and two engines in the back.

OK, the route wasn't so interesting. 

Tonight we are in the Gage Hotel, wow, two nice hotels in a row!  I got a single room tonight (no roommate);  The room is named "the dead horse."  The cap I brought with me is  from Dead Horse Point in Moab Utah. Am I seeing a theme here?

I started the day thinking about mental toughness, needed when the body is tired, the wind is in your face, the roads are rough and you still have 40 miles to go.  Fortunately it wasn't needed today; but sure will be on another day.

We ended the day with a delicious dinner and a lot of laughter!

The last three pictures were taken at a nearby bed and breakfast where five of the group were staying. It reminds me of Red Fish Blue Fish at Universal Studios. Very cute and comfortable.

March 27, Thursday, Day 21: Darkest place in the US

Today is a rest day which several of us spent part of at the McDonald Observatory which has these amazing telescopes to see far into space. It is reportedly the darkest place in the US and the highest elevation in Texas at nearly 7000 feet. 

It was windy and chilly up there which led to the emergency purchase of a souvenir hoodie. 

Other than that, clean the bike (I pulled a thorn out of the rear tire - guess the slime in the tube worked, no flat), do my nails, sit by the pool, eat a lot, talk to Dan who is skiing in the new powder today at Alta in Utah!

March 25, Tuesday, Day 19: Point A to Point B

From Fort Hancock to Van Horn, Texas, this was a day of riding to get from point A to point B. Most of the ride was either on or alongside interstate 10.  Feel sorry for us because the headwinds were 38 miles an hour gusting 47. I rode as part of a seven woman paceline (One behind the other, we continuously trade off who is leading).  Unfortunately, our pace was only 7 to 8 miles an hour.  The only nice thing we saw was this momma/baby horse couple.

I did learn about "Mexican Coke", that is Coca-Cola which is made with cane sugar as opposed to high fructose corn syrup for Coke bottled in the US. It tasted like the Coke I remember as a kid!

Thunderstorms tonight, timed perfectly just as the last rider came into the hotel. Should be sunny tomorrow with wind at our backs!

March 26, Wednesday, day 20: a happy ending today

Breakfast Texas style:

The route from Van Horn to Fort Davis started with 38 miles on Interstate 10 then more miles on Texas' famous chip seal roads.  The shoulders on the highway are generous, so the trailer trucks zipping by at 80 mph are not too bothersome.

FYI the ratio of big trucks to cars is 3:2 at 8:30 in the morning. 

Chip seal roads as near as I can tell are some kind of tar with rocks embedded.  Sure increases rolling resistance.  

(I could bitch about the headwind again too...)

We ended the day at the Indian Lodge in Davis state park. Comfy, clean, great food, beautiful setting.  Nice view from my room, past the WomanTours van. 

March 24, Monday, Day 18: Tourist Attraction

52 nice flat sunny miles from El Paso to Fort Hancock, Texas.  Sightseeing along the way at the San Elizario mission where we said a prayer for the safe travel of our group.  The town of San Elizario has been spruced up, has a little history trail, some art galleries.  Apparently large groups of women cyclists are an unusual sight in this town. The museum director came over and opened the museum for us.(Actually we were more interested in the restrooms than the museum exhibits.). People drove in from out-of-town and stopped to talk with us. School children waved and liked our bikes.  We went from being celebrities in a restaurant to being a tourist attraction.

Billy the Kid is also famous here as well as in Silver City.  Apparently he broke into a jail here to get a friend of his out.

We ended the day with laundry, dinner, pecan pie (no picture, ate it too fast) and a beautiful sunset.

March 23, Sunday, day 17: Texas!

Today was 58 miles from Las Cruces New Mexico to El Paso Texas. It might have been a lovely ride were it not for the extremely strong headwinds and crosswinds and the dust that got stirred up in the agricultural areas.  We all looked like bandits with bandannas and scarves across our faces.  Nevertheless, it was possible to hear birds again. (When we were riding through the desert it was absolutely quiet. Very spooky.)

This map shows you where we will be for the first part of Texas. El Paso is the first bubble on the left.  Here the Rio Grande is completely dry.

Here we can look out over the border into Mexico.

We stopped for lunch in El Paso and became kind of celebrities. The restaurant staff wanted to know what we were doing. Someone from the next table overheard us talking about it and asked if she could take our picture. So here we are!

March 22, Saturday, day 16: The Rio grande?

88 miles today from Kingston to Las Cruces New Mexico, mostly flat and downhill, whee!  The map below shows our 5 nights in New Mexico.  Las Cruces is the fourth bubble from the left.

The Rio Grande used to be a full flowing river. Below, this picture shows it is just a trickle. The combination of agriculture and industrial use along with a drought of several years has almost dried it up.

Here is an example of the agricultural use of the water from the Rio Grande. These are pecan trees which apparently like having their feet wet.

Other crops grown along the Rio Grande include chili peppers, cotton, alfalfa, and Wheat.

And of course, the day would be incomplete without food.

Overall, it was a good day for energy and endorphins, in direct contrast to yesterday where the E was for exhaustion.

March 21, Friday, Day 15: Emory Pass

Another hard day riding.  From 6000 feet to 8228 at Emory Pass and then to this tiny town of Kingston.  It's all downhill now to Florida!  Well, not quite, but this is the highest elevation on the tour.

This is the Chino copper open pit mine, only part of it.  Started in1920, it operates 365 days a year.

Our lodging for the night is, shall we say, rustic. More than that, you don't want to know. Only game in town.  They are cooking us a turkey dinner and a full breakfast.

March 20, Thursday, Day 14: R&R

In Silver City, NM, where copper mining is king--the silver mining ended in the late 1800s. The other claim to fame is that Butch Cassidy's hideaway was nearby.  It is a small town of 10,000 people with THREE bike shops.  Well, thank goodness for that!  A new saddle (another one...), shorts, shoes, cleats, gloves, socks and slime.  The slime refers to tire tubes that are filled with "slime" that provides self-sealing for the all-too-frequent punctures caused by thorns and little wires from steel belted tires.  Who knew?

It is nice to have a rest day.  I slept 10 hours last night, and hope to do the same tonight.  Having a "Day of the Dead" beer was certainly appropriate!