El Paso to Fort Hancock

The plan for today was to take a “recovery” (easy) ride, going at a slow pace on flat ground and not racing to the motel as there won't be much there except sit in gusty crosswinds and pelting sand. Though I did hear a rumor that there was a chili pepper store across the street that I may check out as I didn't have time to stop in New Mexico on the 88 mile day two days back. We slept late, until 6:45am or so and didn't head out until 7:45am which was one of our later starts. Again, the weather was great, blue skies with a bit of westerly wind to help us along.

Down the road we traveled, out of the city and back to farmland and small towns mostly without services. We stopped at a mission six miles out that was rebuilt twice since 1680 when the Rio Grande flooded. It was built by the Piro Indians and Spanish. The adobe and plaster mission is still an active church today. It was fascinating to see the old beams with painted designs on the ceiling made out of cypress and curved cottonwood salvaged from the original building .

When I went to get back on my bike again, Oh, oh, flat tire in the front. (That makes flat #6) We found two goat head thorns embedded in the tire which punctured the inner tube. Susan, the mechanical engineer, quickly fixed it and we were on the road for another ½ mile and oh, oh, the front tire was flat again.(That makes flat #7) This time I found four more tiny thorns and a little hole through the tire which we patched with the silver liner from an energy bar that I had in by bag. The thorns were probably in the gravel of the parking lot at the mission. This time I changed the whole tire myself ( with a little direction/reminder from my friends.) We hit the road again and traveled to a second mission that was originally built as a fort in the 1640's, destroyed by flood in 1829, and rebuilt again in a different spot. Michelle, our guide, caught up to us and rode with us the rest of the day.

We headed to a small cantina off the beaten path for enchiladas with green chili pepper sauce that were delicious. If we didn't have specific directions, for this little eatery, we never would have found it as it was nestled back away from the main road in a small neighborhood next to a school.

After our leisurely meal, we headed out again and Michelle got a flat. I may invest in a suitcase of tubes and may even check out some CO2 cartridges for filling up at the rate I am going . Those little hand pumps aren't the easiest things to use. I have the distinct honor(?) of having the record number of flats so far. Luckily Liz has a pretty good pump that has a small lever that you can put a foot on but it still takes around 200 pumps and time and energy to fill it up enough to get moving again.

By the way,I did my blog from yesterday before dinner so I neglected to tell you what we had for dinner. Last night we had corn breaded fried catfish, macaroni and cheese, broccoli, sliced tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, and black raspberries with a crème sauce.

After I got in today and took my shower, I spent more time cleaning and lubricating my bike　As my shifting was getting cranky in a few of the higher gears that I was attempting to use today. I also looked for more thorns that might be embedded in my tires and had Michelle,the bike mechanic, take a look at two gashes I had on my tires to see if they could be repaired or if I needed to change the tire. She recommended that if I had an extra tire (which I did) to change it and keep the worn one as a spare that could be patched with electrical tape if need be. By the way, if you are on the road and don't have anything to line your tire with, people have suggested using a dollar bill, which is thin enough and durable enough in a pinch. So, I　ended up taking the tire completely off, removing the tube and putting on a new tire. We shall see tomorrow if I did everything OK. I HOPE SO!

While I was working on the bike, the wind started picking up to 40-50 miles in velocity, gusting and swirling sand about so everything and everybody was gritty. I may need to take another shower before I go to bed. We moved the chairs for and set up for dinner to the other side of the motel for dinner and brought the van and trailer around to help block off some of the wind. We went to dinner in shifts, every other person held the seat next to them while the other gal got their dinner so the chairs wouldn't blow away.


For dinner tonight, we had spaghetti with homemade bread from the Dutch oven, Caesar salad, and mini brownies for dessert. We had a quick map meeting so we wouldn't blow away.　Tomorrow will be an over 75 mile day with some long gradual climbs as we go over the smaller part of the Sierra Blanco Mountains.
Have a great day everyone!
Robin