Thoughts,Trivial Pursuit and Thanks

El Paso TX to Van Horn TX
May 2, 2015
128 miles

Early morning dash through El Paso

In my planning phase this day mapped out as the highest mileage day. In planning I tried to keep rides around 75 miles or less. The difficulty came with our desires of what we wanted to see and the availability of places to stay.  Royce and I prefer the country over the city. In some areas there are large gaps in services, thus the big mileage days. Yep, you got it....another big ride day. I wanted out of El Paso early and fast. I started at sunlight and started on my course. I guess I was naive to think I would be out of the city within 10 or 15 miles. Again maps just do not give the visual feedback. It was 30 miles before I got into a suburb of El Paso. Still looking down the road I saw stop light after stop light. Eventually the lights disappeared into the Texas desert.

Royce stayed back and took care of some logistics with the plan to park along the route and ride back to me. It seems that a navigational mishap landed Royce at the Mexico border. Following some explanation and a few laughs later, Royce got turned around at the border and back on track to me. We had a great ride together and had lunch in Fort Hancock. Royce rode out a bit with me after lunch. I altered the route on the fly. Originally  I had routed through some farmland to avoid getting on I-10 for about 5 miles. Since I had to get on it at some point I ditched the farmland route. I was glad I did. As the day wore on it was getting hottier, windy and dry. Since Royce had turned back I only had the water I had on my bike until he caught up to me. I learned early in this great adventure through the California Desert, if you see water buy it.  I carry just over 60 ounces on my bike, but it does not last long in these conditions. About 80  miles into the ride I see a lonesome  truckstop and store. I also learned in that California Desert that you buy the gallon of water, because it is a lot cheaper than those little bottles. Usually
I am low enough on water that between restocking and drinking it, I can pretty much use the full gallon. In this case I only needed about half the water. How good would it feel to just pour this over my head. Oh it felt so good. So good in fact that I felt inspired more than ever to get on the bike and ride in 90 degree weather on I-10. By the time Royce caught up to me I was dried out and ready for another drenching. Royce emptied cold water from the ice chest and ah, a new ritual is born.

So refreshing

 Royce moved along ahead of me up to 100 miles. At that point he was going to go to Van Horn and then ride back. In his travels he found that the frontage road we had been on ended abruptly and I would have to re-enter the freeway. This meant that I would have to get back on I-10 and Royce would be unable to join me. Furthermore, he discovered that we had crossed into the Central Time Zone. That just meant that I would be an hour later than we had originally thought. Royce was a champ.As usual when I finally rolled into the motel after 7pm he was waiting for me in the parking lot. He secured my bike and had dinner waiting for us in the room. I love that guy!!!!