Ride Day 33

I started my day out with a healthy breakfast of two corn dogs and a medium cup of coffee. It was still dark out so I waited until it was light enough to go. Of course while I waited I ate more junk. My plan today was to just see how far I could get in the desolate rollercoaster hill country I needed to go through. The temperature was predicted to be near 100. The ride started off well. The road was good the temperature cool and there was no wind. I cruised at close to 17 mph for three hours and made it 40 miles without much problem so I continued on. A light breeze started and of course it was in my face yet again. It did not take long before it was blowing hard again just like the last three days. I struggled to make the miles slip by. The roller coaster road was frustrating to ride on. It was one hill after another and some of them were high and long which with the wind in my face was very tiring and mentally draining. There were no breaks of easy riding for even a short distance. I was spinning my legs in low gears again and doing only 6-9 mph. I rested often. As my miles started to build up, 50, then 60 and so on the next miles just got tougher and tougher to keep going at it. But I was in a desolate place and I kept telling myself to just take my time and I will make it to at least the State Park which was 70 miles. After many hours of sitting in the saddle my bottom was starting to get sore. I stopped at a picnic table and considered stopping for the night but there were lots of hours of sunshine left so I pressed on. The wind was swirling and blowing over 25 mph by now. It was blowing my bike every which way but forward. I started to get angry but did not know what to focus my anger on. I made it to 80 miles, the park was just a few more miles but there were so many rolling hills in those few miles it was breaking my determination. I had to stop and walk my bike up the last few hills. At the turn off for the Park I hesitated. The campsite was 2 miles down the side road and the City of Comstock was “only” 10 more miles. I opted for Comstock. When I crested the first hill and saw the waves of hills ahead of me I almost turned around and went back to the Park. I pulled over and sat down for almost a half hour to see if resting would get me some leg strength back. When I took off again I felt better but the hill after hill after hill quickly drained me again. Finally it was down to only one more mile to get to the RV Park where I wanted to camp. It must have taken me thirty minutes to do that last mile. I made it finally. I was kind of happy that I was able to overcome the mental and physical problems getting here today. I checked into the camp site and immediately rested for a few hours. Then I got up and showered which felt great. I ended the shower with cold water and started to shiver. I was not shivering because I was cold but because I was totally exhausted I think. Then I ate a ton of food and drank more water and gatorade. Now I am writing this and next will be straight to sleep.

Ride Day 32

I stayed at the hostel last night in Marathon TX. I enjoyed my stay in Marathon both the city and the hostel were interesting and different. I met another biker going West that found a live deer stuck in a barbed wire fence while he was riding yesterday. He cut it free but it could not walk away so he just left it where it was resting with the hope that it would recover and live another day. I am glad that did not happen to me. It would be tough dealing with it. He was upset by it. Today I left a bit later than I normally do. I ate another great meal at the same café as yesterday before I left town. I stocked up on water in the café because she offered me iced water. I know it warms up fast in this heat but while riding I got a couple of cooler hits before it got too warm. The ride today was 54 miles of mostly downhill or flat. I started out from Marathon at 17 mph. By the time I was two miles out of town the wind was again blowing hard in my face. I took a different approach to it today. Yesterday I was trying to muscle past the wind and it killed me. So today I geared down to mountain climbing levels and just started spinning my legs. It worked better than yesterday’s method. I got less tired and I still went about the same 7-9 mph as I did yesterday with a lot less effort. The fifty miles went from high arid desert to a greener desert as I went down the hills. I enjoyed the return of wild flowers and green trees. The Texas drought has seriously impacted the desert plants. The fires that burned because of the hot dry conditions can still be seen but the recent rains are returning some life to the landscape. I saw lots of wild turkeys today as I rode along. They were in the scrub near the road and sometimes even running around on the road. There must be a lot of them around for me to have seen so many. I also saw some deer in the washes that had a bit of water in them and some fresh new green growth for them to eat. If I stopped my bike they would race off so I was not able to get pics of the deer. I arrived in Sanderson feeling pretty good despite the fact that my 54 mile ride took me about seven hours because of the strong headwinds. A county worker stopped his truck and we talked for a few minutes while I guzzled some of his ice water he offered to me. He was a nice friendly considerate guy and I enjoyed talking with him. I really like these people that stop to offer water like this.  It helps restore my faith in humanity.   Once in Sanderson, I ate a lunch and checked into a cheap hotel to get caught up on my rest for tomorrow’s tough ride with lots more hills of at least 70 miles or 95 if the wind lets up on me a bit. More later…

Ride Day 31

Last night at the campground I got a bad night of sleep. The campers next to me were noisy well into the night and kept me awake. I did watch the shooting stars show while I was trying to get back to sleep. Getting the tent with the open top was a good idea.  I rode into Fort Davis and ate a big breakfast then hit the road for Alpine 26 miles away. The ride was an easy ride, downhill and flat for the most part. I arrived in Alpine in just over an hour. I stopped at a grocery store and drank some juices and ate some nuts then hit the road again. It was 31 miles to my next stop called Marathon. I expected to be there quickly because it too was a downhill and flat ride. The wind gods had something to say about my high hopes. Almost as soon as I left Alpine the wind started up right in my face. At first it was a gentle breeze but within a few minutes it was blowing 20-25 mph. My speed slowed down to a crawl. My planned easy day of riding was turning into a seriously hard day of riding. I got very tired. I just have not been getting enough rest I guess. I am not recovering quickly enough after my hard days of pedaling to string them together back to back like I have been doing. I had to stop and rest often. I was riding in very low gears and was only going about 6 mph for most of the day. I even had to pedal to go down the hills! My easy ride turned into a five hour endurance test. Five hours to go only 31 miles of flat and downhill riding! My will and my body were pushed to the limits yet again today. I took a few pics but not many because I was so tired. I ended up at a hostel in Marathon after a great cheese burger and shake lunch at Johny B's Cafe. The hostel seems to be a good spot to stay and it is free. Tomorrow if I can get out of bed I am heading to Sanderson. These areas are seriously desolate. For the last few days I have seen very little traffic and between the "cities" there has been very little sign of humans being around. More later...

Ride Day 30

I was on the road well before it was light out this morning because my plan was to ride 90 miles with over 3000 feet of climbing. The weather was predicted to be hot around 84 or more with relative humidity of under 20%. I ate in my room before I left and loaded myself down with 7 bottles of water. The day started well. I made my first twenty miles in just over an hour and stopped there to eat another breakfast. It was a giant wet breakfast burrito that was perfect for me. When I entered the freeway for the next leg of 20 miles the wind was just starting as a light breeze in my face. The light breeze quickly became a strong gusting problem for me. I lost about 8 to 10 mph on my speed. That made it feel like I was going uphill all morning and was sapping my strength. I figured when I turned off the wind would be easier. I was wrong, the wind changed direction just as I did and continued to slow me down and tire me out. The road was very desolate once I got off the freeway. I saw maybe a dozen vehicles all day until I got to Mcdonald Observatory where the traffic picked up. The ride was my most difficult day to date. The combination of headwinds and thousands of feet of climbing just about killed me. I had to use every motivational trick I know to keep going. The ride topped out at about 6300 feet or so and the high altitude was just making it worse. I had to stop and rest a lot because my heart rate was getting too high and my legs were turning into worthless weak rubbery nothings. I had no power or stamina all afternoon. I should have stopped and camped on the side of the road but I pushed on just very slowly. The scenery was all high arid desert scrub with lots of rocky mountains and outcroppings. There was very little sign of humans other than some cattle ranching. Most of the ranches however, killed off their herds over the last few years because the cattle were starving due to drought. I took a few pics but not many because I was so exhausted all day. I finally arrived at the summit and went to the observatory for a while. It is a good place to visit but I was too tired to appreciate it so I rode down the other side of the mountain to my campground and crashed. About an hour later my neighbor and I started talking and he invited me over for dinner. I had already eaten my food but I quickly said yes to more food. I need all the calories I can pack in. We talked over a casual dinner that hit the spot with some grilled veggies and chicken. I enjoyed the company and the food before I went to bed. About an hour after falling asleep the neighbors on the other side came back to their campsite and made a huge racket. It woke me up and ruined my good night of sleep. I watched the shooting stars from my open tent roof and finally went back to sleep. Tomorrow will be a short day of mostly flat and downhill. I need the rest

Ride Day 29

I stayed in a hotel last night and got a good night of sleep so I left while it was still dark out. I wanted to get some miles in before the heat and wind came up. I was 14 miles down the road before the sun came over the mountains. It was all flat riding but I had a slight head wind to fight. I easily climbed over the only hill on my ride today of about 500 feet. Then I stopped after 35 miles to rest and use wifi at Mcdonalds. The drama started about one minute after I sat down. I turned around to untangle my computer cord and when I started to log in I discovered my camera was no longer on my table. I posted it on Facebook then I decided to try to find it. I went table to table asking each person if they had seen anyone go near my table. Two people told me a sweet looking little old lady got up and walked over to my table then went back and sat down again. I approached her and she pretended she did not speak English. I switched to Spanish and she had to talk to me. She feigned any knowledge of a camera but I persisted. I pulled out a twenty dollar bill and loudly offered a reward for my camera if anybody found it. No response from anyone. A few minutes later I saw a sheriff pulling into the parking lot. I told the sweet little old lady that I had called them and she suddenly produced my camera and took my $20 bill. I never said another word. She pointed to the floor and tried to say she found it on the floor. Yea right...at least I got it back. My ride plans are all shot today now. The wind is starting to blow hard in the wrong direction and I am burned out from the drama of getting my camera back. I might just stay here for the night and start again tomorrow. I will decide later after I rest for a while and think about it.

Ride Day 28

I took my time this morning leaving the motel. I enjoyed a Starbucks coffee and bagel before I hit the road. The weather forecast was for sunny 84 degrees and a light breeze SSW. The forecast was close but I think it was hotter than that or at least it felt hotter to me. I lathered myself in sun screen before I left but at the end of the day I found I had missed a spot with the sun screen or I rubbed it off because I got sun burned just in that one spot. I will be much more careful in the future with the Texas sun, it is very strong. Once I got out of the big city of El Paso the riding improved. Traffic disappeared and the road was fairly good even though it did not have enough shoulder if there had been more traffic. It was smooth and flat so I hauled ass at 17 to 24 mph depending on my mood. There was not a lot of change in scenery other than city to country. I saw a lot of abandoned buildings that were falling apart. It looked like most of them were booming before the freeway was built 50 years ago. Lots of small farm houses were falling apart also. Now it is mostly larger farms spaced further apart and they look corporate to me. A changing world takes its toll. I did meet up with some other riders that I last saw back in California. It turns out we stayed in hotels that were right next to each other last night. It is a small world sometimes. We talked for a bit and stopped off to get some drinks together before I took off for the road again. Once I left my friends I flew down the deserted highways in top gear. I really had some speed going and was eating up the miles. After two weeks of mountains as high as 8000 feet this ride seemed like a cake walk. I enjoyed pushing myself hard today. I had one hill to climb of almost 1500 feet but it was a slow climb and was not that bad. A trucker stopped and gave me two small bottles of iced water which was very nice of him and which I seriously appreciated in the heat after almost a hundred miles of riding. After going through the border stop at the top of the mountain (which is famous for Willie Nelson and many others getting cited for possession of drugs) I entered Sierra Blanca and started my nightly pig out on food and drinks. I try to keep it as healthy as I am able to but today I went for pizza. Now I am going to kick back and rest until day break tomorrow. More later.

Ride Day 27

I woke up a bit sore this morning and got a late start for me. At a bit after 7AM, I headed down the road from Caballo to El Paso TX. I had a plan for the day. I would ride without pushing it and when I got to the outskirts of El Paso I would jump on a public bus and ride to the far eastern side of town. I hate riding my heavy touring bike in busy city traffic. It is dangerous and for me pointless. Sure there can be some site seeing but at the risk of getting killed. Not worth it.

So I rode down the freeway for the section they allowed bikes on which was a nice smooth safe ride. Then they kicked me off to a narrow two lane road with almost no shoulder to ride on and a dangerous drop off on the edge of the pavement. There were lots of big trucks going in both directions and I had a cross wind blowing me into traffic. How is that safer than riding on a freeway???? The states need to allow adult bikers on more of the freeway system. Maybe with a driver's license requirement or something because the freeway is way safer to ride on. Or they need to widen all roads so there is a safe place to ride a bike.

I stopped for lunch around 10:30 and ordered a cheeseburger, fries and V8. When I was finished I ordered another burger. The waitress did not believe me and I had to convince her I was serious. They were both delicious and I then ordered a third one. She almost died when I asked for that one. Then I told her no two was enough and she started having a laughing fit. I guess not many people in these small towns mess with their waitresses.

I had a head wind for a couple of hours which slowed me down from 17mph to under 10mph. It really killed my legs and my spirit. I only had one mile more to go to get to my bus stop that I had already looked up on the internet. Then the worst thing happened to me. A big sign that said DETOUR. I tried to go around and get through the closed part of the road but it was impossible to get through so I had to back track and take the detour. In the country a detour can mean a half mile or it can mean 50 miles. This one ended up being about 10 miles out of my way. My tired legs were complaining and my mental state was a mixture of anger and depression or something. When I finally got across the border into TX I could not make myself backtrack to get to my planned bus stop so I went ahead into El Paso thinking there would be a bus stop. I stopped and asked lots of people but nobody knew anything about the bus. I rode on another 10 miles which made my day's ride way too long. Finally I just gave up and checked into a hotel for the night.

I soaked in the tub and showered off all the crusty salt and sun screen. I am windburned which is the same as being sunburned. Not too bad but I was putting sun screen on frequently so it annoys me that I still got burned. If it is going to be this windy here in TX I am going to have to start using zinc on my lips and up my sun screen to spf50.

I feel good now. Did some stretching and realized I need to do a lot more of that. Going to have to work it into a daily routine. Tomorrow I will deal with getting out of the big city. Tonight just sleep sleep sleep...