Thursday March 26, 2015

This is unheard of two back-to-back days of 120 ks. Why? Well we had the best tail-wind ever!!

What a wonderful nights sleep. I slept like an exhausted log. We got up and had the hot breakfast provided at the Days Inn – omelette, a bagel and oatmeal (that was my breakfast) Ralf had waffles, omelet and a bagel. Of course we also had the mini muffins with streusel on top.

We were on the road dressed in leggings and light jackets, but I did wear my merino wool jersey as it was chilly when we left at 8:30.  The first 10 ks out of Van Horn were uphill on Interstate 10. The shoulder was wide and for the most part clean, and not too much debris. I was amazed at how easily we were climbing the hills, we were motoring at a steady 18-20 kph. Could we really have this good of a tail-wind after yesterday’s horrendous winds. Yes we did kilometre after kilometre of tail-wind.

We also gained an hour of time when we crossed into Mountain Time Zone.

We took the service road (Frontage Road) which ran parallel to US 10 for the majority of our ride. Just before coming into Sierra Blanca we saw two touring cyclists. We chatted to John and Sue for about half an hour. They want to cycle in New Zealand and Australia. We told them we had a great time there and about the books Peddlers Paradise, that we had used while we were in New Zealand.

As we came into Sierra Blanca a large tumbleweed rolled across the road. At Sierra Blanca it was only 10:45. We had lunch at Subway and decided to carry on to Fort Hancock. It is basically downhill all the way to El Paso.

After we left Sierra Blanca we continued on Frontage Road, the directions on the ACA maps told us to go to the end of the road and then cross Highway 10. We passed the sign that said the road is a dead end and carried on to the dead end, where we discovered we could not cross the Highway because of the barriers along the centre median. Do we go back 7 ks or go down the highway for 3ks on the shoulder on the wrong side of the road. It was a bit scary, but we carried along on the shoulder.

After we came off the Highway we followed the farm roads to Fort Hancock.  We were stopped by a Border Patrol Officer that if we carried on this road it turned into a dirt road.  We thought we were on the wrong road, but I asked him if there was a right turn, which would take us to Fort Hancock.  Yes he said, that would take us to Fort Hancock.  We could see Highway 10 and the traffic, but were on our safe farm road.

We are within 1 km of the Mexican Border.

As we were coming into Fort Hancock we noticed a touring cyclist with a trailer. We stopped for a chat. He had a lovely border collie with him (Joe).

We had a great chat with Josh, who is promoting his not-for-profit organization to put a free toy store in Towns and Cities across the US. His website is www.longbikeride.com. Check him out he is a really interesting guy.

We are staying in a hotel again tonight, although it wasn’t a tough ride, we figured we deserve a comfy bed again.