Today was officially my first real “fun day riding” in this tour. I didn’t have any gear issues, no flat tires, no mountains, decent roads and a tailwind almost the entire day. There were a few spots where the crosswind was treacherous, but not enough to put a damper on the day. I never thought I would say that riding 75 miles was a good day 😊. It did seem like we rode forever looking at the same mountains. We entered the fourth state of the trip today: Texas. We will be in Texas for 19 days!
If riding 75 miles wasn’t fun enough, Janet and I walked about 3.2 miles round trip to take a picture of the Rio Grande river sign. We were crossing a bridge in thick traffic, so we could not stop on the way in. To say the river bed was dry is not an understatement. We were hoping we might see a welcome to Texas sign, but no such luck. And speaking of luck, my Spartans ran out of luck today. I was able to get to the hotel in plenty of time to see them lose to Syracuse. Am I disappointed – sure; but this trip is about the bike, seeing the country and fulfilling a bucket list item. There are worse things in life than losing a basketball game. I am forever Spartan proud!
Stats from the day:
Start city: Columbus, NM
End city: El Paso, TX
Miles: 74.96
Total miles to date: 852.43
Pedaling time: 4 hours, 22 minutes
Avg. speed: 17.2
Feet climbed: 787
Fatigue factor: 2 out of 10 (10 is the worst)
Wind: start: WSW 12 mph; end WSW 26 mph
Road condition: 4 out of 5 (1 is the worst)
Temperature extremes: 49 at ride start, 66 at ride finish
We passed a lot of this plant along the side of the road. We are guessing it is cotton, but if it is, we have no idea what it is doing growing along the side of the road.
A biker on the way up to lunch stop.
Janet and Semone ahead of me.
Random decorations in the middle of the desert.
Janet snapped this photo of Semone and me at one of our water breaks.
This is the sign that Janet and I walked the 3.2 mile round trip to photograph. And below that bridge is where the Rio Grande flows when water is available. Since the mid-twentieth century, heavy water consumption along with large diversion dams on the river has left only 20% of the natural discharge to flow to the Gulf of Mexico.
Note the small amount of water in the Rio Grande at this point in the river flow.
This small fair area was in Texas immediately after we crossed the Rio Grande. In the distance the mountains appear hazy - that is sand/dust blowing. There were wind advisories this afternoon with gusts to 50 mph.
