Day 17: El Paso TX to Sierra Blanca TX

Not all camp sites are beautiful.  Last night we stayed in our 1st RV park, Mission RV.  On the east side of El Paso there are not many campsites.  We were lucky that an RV site would take a tent camper.  The good news about the site is we had a shower and were able to do some laundry.  

If I had an RV I could have gotten service...

Today was interesting day scenery wise.  The ride was in very southern Texas, almost Mexico.  As you might imagine it is mostly desert and farms.  What was interesting is the number of modern ghost towns.  I have a few examples below but just about every town on the map along the route was totally shut down and even those still will open businesses had many boarded buildings.  During the ride I met a guy who basically lived on this bike named Dewey.  When I asked him how long he has been traveling he said since December 1st.  He said he was on his way to Washington but as far as I could tell he was going the wrong way.  Anyway, Dewey said the carnage is a result of I-10.  In relative terms, I-10 is a new road and all these little towns worked when traffic needed to take smaller roads to drive across Texas.  When the traffic stopped the towns died.   I don’t know if this is 100% the reason but sounds good to me. 

Acala TX, nothing


McNary TX, nothing

This is the town we are staying in...
There are some houses, but no shops or restaurants

There were other nice things along the way...

This sign had me worried for a while...

Bessy is good for 0 ft.

My first cows in Texas



Left Side:  When I pulled up to look
Right Side:  After watching for a minute they lined up to watch me.

Early in the ride for the first 30 miles the wind was behind me and the roads were very good to ride.  I thought I would finish by noon.  About 2 hours in the wind shifted, the roads turned to $#%& and the ride became a grind.  Add to this all the climbing was in the last 20ish miles.  I am surprised it was as hard as it was, my legs are getting tired.

Today’s ride stats:

 Start Time:  8:51 AM Mountain Time      Finish Time: 4:06 PM Mountain Time

Elapse Time: 7 Hr. 13 Min.                       Ride Time: 5 Hr. 54 Min.

Distance: 82.4 Miles                                  Average Speed: 14.0 mph

Climbing/Descent: 1863/1083Ft.              TSS:  155

Average Power: 153 Watts                        Normalized Power: 161 Watts

Calories:  3252                                            Ave/Max HR: 115/135 bpm

The down time today was lunch with Sandy and a long chat with Dewey.  No flat tires!!!

For food it was a special day, Sandy brought me 3 hotdogs and a soft pretzel (we shared this) for lunch.  I also had a banana during lunch.  Along the ride, I had one Cliff bar and 4 Oreo cookies (Oreos are my favorite ride food).  Dink wise I finish 3 water bottles and had a Gatorade at lunch. 


For tomorrow, we are planning an active rest day.  A small-town call Van Horn is 35 miles from our location.   I hope to get out around 8:30AM, cover the 35 miles before lunch and spend the rest of the day in town.  Let's hope the town has something to see/do. 

One to leave this post with


Comments

  1. DaveNCathiMarch 5, 2021 at 6:46 PM

    Happy belated birthday! Be careful in those abandoned towns-- they look kind of creepy! I love seeing the horses (of course). 🐎

    ReplyDelete

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