Everything is big in Texas
Trains, trucks, sage brush, cotton fields, pecan fields and long roads are our first impressions of Texas. Oh - flat and windy also, both head winds and tail winds. And did I mention dust.
March 18 - Leasburg State Park to Canutillo. Strong head winds made the going tuff today. The guys managed 48 miles and I did 24. We crossed into Texas. Can't say that I am impressed. Miles and miles of not much but small dusty towns that are mainly deserted.
March 19 - Canutillo, Texas to Tornillo - 55 miles. Today we had to ride through El Paso. It was stressful negotiating the city. We had to ride right through the core of the city and it seemed that we hit every red light. We stopped at a Burger King to eat our sandwiches later in the day and to take a needed rest break and I asked the gal what city we were in and she said "El Paso". I couldn't believe that we were still in the city. Side winds and tail winds allowed us to ride fast once we left the city. We followed a route that took us beside the Mexican Border and the Rio Grande. Our secondary roads are surrounded by miles and miles of cotton fields. Finding camping is becoming more difficult. We ended up at a fishing lake campground that was a real dive. That evening, our strong tail wind turned into a wind storm with gusts up to 40 mph. It was pretty scary especially since folks have mentioned that this is tornado season. (Another thing to worry about.)
March 20 - Tornillo to Sierra Blanca. 54 miles. This morning it was so cold that everyone was miserable for the first few hours. The head winds stayed with us all day. I lucked out because it was my turn to drive the motor home. I left the same time as the bikers and pulled over at Ft. Hancock to wait. Good thing I did because Dawn was frozen and she joined me inside for the rest of the way. Our campground in Sierra Blanca was just as bad as the previous night. Got down to close to freezing again. The good news is the guys have now biked 1000 miles.
March 21 - to Van Horn, Texas - 66 miles. I rode the first 34 miles with the guys and it was perfect riding conditions, long straight roadway and flat. We had to go 15 miles along the interstate and with a tail wind, got upwards of 30+ mph. My kind of biking! We are staying the night in Van Horn because it has the only campground. Things are few and far between here in Texas and it will take us a good 2 weeks to get across the state. It has been a lot colder than I had expected and I hope weather conditions improve.
We had an interesting evening last night. A 45 foot long motor coach pulled into the campground pulling a toy trailer. We struck up a friendship and he kept us entertained but best of all is that he invited us to tour his 1.2 million dollar motor couch. His name was Tom Pinske and he was from Minnesota and he had a tool manufacturing business. One of the things that he developed was a tool to cut corrian counter tops. Entering the coach, you walked up marble stairs to a floor that had small filament lighting, (like a disco dance floor), tiger and leopard couches, a kitchen to die for, ceiling lighting that flashed with the beat of music (I think you get the picture) flat screen TV's, tiger sinks and a built in outside BBQ. The previous owner had filled it with bling. Russ said that it was like something you see on the Travel Channel on coaches. Inside his toy trailer he had two $20,000+ Harley's among other things. Anyway, it was fascinating to see.
Cell service and internet are scarce here across Texas. We will try to stay in touch when we can.
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