(January 25)

Day 31 - Fabens TX - Anthony NM

Sunrise | Sunset

I know...not many pics lately. But that's because it is SO cold I seriously dislike taking off my gloves to work my phone camera :)

 

 

As predicted, today was better than Windageddon '17 from yesterday :) So much better I can confidently say I kicked the stuffing out of bike travel today!

 

There was still wind. I mean, come on, it is West Texas. But it was only about half of what it was yesterday, so it felt like I'd been given my parole. The first 20 miles or so into El Paso was pleasant not only for the peacefulness of the miles and miles of pecan groves lining the road, but also because there were THINGS TO SEE. In fact, it was a shock when I rounded a corner and BOOM...civilization: a strip mall up ahead.

 

Call me crazy, but I like the energy and variety of riding through a big city a lot more than the endlessly flat, featureless, devoid-of-literally-everything (including plant life), straight-as-an-arrow roads I'd been riding on for a week. Even dodging cars and constantly stopping at red lights was a welcome change.

 

I needed to ship something back home so my first stop was a retail UPS location. After boxing things up I learned that, indeed, I couldn't actually ship the items at this locaton but only at the main airport UPS terminal.

 

Time to Google-map my way through the heart of El Paso. For the most part all was well, but when I found myself going through a dark, underground tunnel with a shoulder 6 inches wide I knew there were limits to just what Google considered bike-friendly.

 

Shipping odyssey successfully accomplished, I then realized I'd gone so far off my planned main route that it would be a roughly 20 mile detour to go back down south, through the mountains and then back north up the west side of the mountains. NO WAY was I backtracking 20 miles!

 

So, studying my map I found the Anthony Gap; a route up and over the mountains into New Mexico that was going to be a long way until I reached civilization but, at least it was forward movement.

So, off I went at about 1:30pm. I'd located a horse farm in Anthony NM that would rent me a room for the night in what they called "the bunkhouse." That was crucial because otherwise there were no campgrounds or hotels untl Las Cruces...about 25 miles further.

 

And, of course, because I wanted to race on to Anthony, two things promptly occured: the wind came back with a vengeance. Back to 6mph while going West. And, literally as I was taking a pic at the "Welcome to New Mexico" sign, another flat on my front tire. Texas was definitely sending me a message.

 

And, then, Anthony Gap was a climb! More slowness. So, by the time I'd made it up and over the pass, the sun was setting. Pushing on I found my way to the farm in the dark over dirt roads.

So, there it was. My very first "Sunrise to Sunset" travel day. Only 61 miles, but almost 7 hours on the bike. But, I made it not only to my planned destination, but also accomplished quite a lot in the day. The conqueror returns!

 

P.S. Two random observations -

1) First the first time I caught myself talking to myself. Out loud. I'm not sure what that is a sign of, but I'm thinking it might be bad or it could be good?

2) There are few things more unpleasant than having one's nose run CONSTANTLY ALL DAY. The combination of riding into the wind + the cold means nothing I've tried can keep my nose from constantly running. Every part of my right sleeve (which I spit over) and the surfaces of my "cockpit" (phone holder, map holder, Garmin) are covered with snot trails. Gross and, apparently, inevitable.