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Day Twenty-Two:
It was 54 degrees this morning, so Larry waited till the sun came up before he took off.
He thought maybe he'd blown a fuse in his hotel room as the AC wasn't blowing cold air.
Then he opened the door . . . heat was not a factor today with the high in the middle
80s and the wind out of the northeast most of the way.
Sunday's ride was flat but he could see mountains on either side of him off in the
distance. The mountains to the north sported greenery almost to the top, but the
mountains on the south were barren. From the time Larry left Marfa until he reached
Van Horn he could see ferocious storms in the distance; it was raining like crazy, and
lightning was striking the mountains. When he first spotted the storms, they were about
50 miles away but came as close as 15 miles from him near the end of the ride. About 20
miles west of Marfa Larry saw a sign that warned that there were no services of any type
for the next 75 miles. So he stocked up on enough water to cross the Sahara and enough
food to cross the ocean: six bottles of water, two large bottles of Gatorade, two
bananas, two fig bars, a Power Bar and some peanut butter cheese crackers. (All supplies
were gone by the end of the day except one-and-a-half bottles of water and a bottle of
Gatorade.) From there on it was a rather desolate area. All day he only saw about 15 to
20 cars and maybe 25 to 30 trucks - no cyclists.
As he rode through Antelope Valley he'd see 15 to 20 prong horns at a time every few
miles. They were curious and watched him while he was riding, but when he'd stop they'd
run off. He also saw several Air Force Tethered Systems blimps, the ones that are about
half the size of a regular blimp, with the radar equipment in the bottom like the ones we
see in the FL Keys. To the south of the road was open pasture land with cattle, sheep and
goats. To the north were beautiful irrigated pecan groves. The power lines parallel to
the road made noise like a loud mosquito.
The town of Valentine was filled with what appeared to be a lot of abandoned homes that
were made of mud and straw. Where the stucco had fallen off, Larry could see the straw.
Nevertheless, there were people living in some of them. He saw a big ranch with what had
been a beautiful home that was abandoned, along with the abandoned cars, trucks and farm
equipment.
Larry ended his 75-mile riding day with two pretty good climbs coming into Van Horn.
The altitude in Van Horn is 5000' which didn't seem to be bothersome to Larry except that
he had a bit of a headache, so he took some aspirin at the end of the day.
For dinner Larry ate at Chuy's Hall of Fame, a Mexican restaurant (with other food too)
that has made the "All Madden Team." Just a note of interest for those of you out there
who are football fans: the place is filled with photos of John Madden, Troy Aikman,
sports banners, signed jerseys, etc..
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Day Twenty-Three:
On Monday Larry left Van Horn and for the first 12 to 15 miles had steep climbs. He got
on back roads and rode toward the Rio Grande ("Eagle Flat") which was flat like Belle
Glade, FL or Louisiana. This area was very green with pumps and irrigation. He even
saw cotton growing in the pecan groves. On 192/20 there were cotton fields as far as
Larry could see toward Mexico, along with some corn and other veggie fields. The plots
of pecan trees were huge, but the trees themselves were about half the size of pecan
trees we see here in our neck of the woods.
He saw lots of wild life again this day: quail with the curled feathers coming out
of the tops of their heads (Gamble Quail?); a whole field full of bison; jackrabbits
with great big ears; and roadrunners that were about the size of a crow but not as
heavy, with big tail feathers and sharp beaks. He also saw trains, trains and more
trains: one about every 15 or 20 minutes. And there were again thunderstorms off
in the distance to the northwest.
This day Larry rode on the Interstate quite a bit which was concrete so he could
feel the thump, thump, thump in the road. There were also bump strips in the "bike lane"
so he rode out in the regular lane of traffic when he could. Riding on the Interstate
was fine; the pain was carrying the bike over the median to get on the Interstate
and then carrying the bike back over the median to return to a parallel road when it
was available.
He again ate all he had packed because there was another 70-mile stretch with no
services, except that water was available in Sierra Blanca. And McNary did have food.
Here's a warning for anyone planning on traveling through this area: the motels,
restaurants and service stations take cash only. Neither AmEx, VISA, Mastercard nor
any other form of credit card is welcome in these parts!
On this "rough day" Larry made it to a motel north of Clint, a 100-mile ride.
Traffic the last ten miles was atrocious. The traffic in Ft. Hancock was terrible,
and the motel there was raunchy so he moved on. Fabens, a little Mexican-type town,
had a hotel; but Larry would have needed to haul the bike inside and upstairs so he
moved on. (Fabens supposedly had a population of 8,000 but Larry's not sure where
all those people are.) A Border Patrol Officer took Larry by truck to a Wells Fargo
ATM in a grocery store so he could get some cash and then drove him to Loop Drive.
He left from there and headed on to Clint. The motel in Clint had no phone but had
a TV with four channels!
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Day Twenty-Four:
Larry left at 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday thinking that he could get through El Paso this
morning before traffic heated up. But by 6:30 there was plenty of traffic, and there
were no bike lanes in this city, which Larry said was very stressful. It took him
three hours to get through El Paso as he averaged five miles per hour. He had to go
around the south, west then north side of town. There was "one hell of a climb" going
out of the north side which took him 30 minutes, and he had to take a break after that
ordeal. Larry crossed the Rio Grande Valley area twice today.
He then got on 20 which turned into 28 in New Mexico! This became a good ride with
cotton and chili pepper fields and beautiful pecan trees arched across the road for 12
miles through one area. The road twisted, turned and was narrow but flat, and the
adobe houses through this here were interesting. Water is allotted, Larry learned.
And this time of year is irrigation season, so a whole pecan grove will be saturated
with water two inches deep. The trees therefore are thick with leaves unlike most pecan
trees. He spent 26 or 28 miles on this road into Las Cruces. The high today was 85
degrees, and Larry rode about 50 miles.
Larry found a Kinko's where he was able to do some computer work, and he found
a bike shop in Las Cruces where he finally was able to purchase those much-needed
brake pads. The guy at the bike shop said he'd only seen a couple other
short-wheel-base 'bents come through; and he was surprised Larry hadn't used up
any tires.
Lunch was at Player's Pizza where he had a mini pizza, the thin crust that he
likes, with hamburger and mushrooms. For dinner Larry had the best ever Chinese food
delivered to his room at the Best Western: sesame chicken, fried rice, springs rolls,
and broccoli in lobster sauce all for $5.95!
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Day Twenty-Five:
After a nice free breakfast of eggs, sausage and toast in Las Cruces, Larry headed out,
traveling west on the Interstate. The Interstate is great except for the bump strips,
the debris along the side of the road, and the big trucks that cause a suction that stirs
up the debris. Larry's eyes were red again by the end of this day, he thinks from the
dust, etc., but he couldn't find the medicine that he bought previously at the drug store!
He had to get off the Interstate three times today to get onto the frontage road.
There were three or four big hills on Wednesday's ride, but the downhills were nice!
The mountains are getting bigger, taller and more jagged, not as rounded as they were in
Texas; but they seem to be more scattered out, and the roads are placed nicely between
them. Larry saw Florida Peak to the south which is 7295 feet. Obviously not in Florida!
He also saw pheasants today; and there were doves all over the place, not ring necks
like we have here but with white wings.
Larry took 549 into Deming where he found another motel with no phone. (He could have
ridden farther this day, but after Deming there was really no place to stay for too
many more miles.) The town has a Super Wal-Mart right next to K-Mart. And there are
two boot makers in town, one that makes purses and wallets out of old boot tops.
There was a huge thunderstorm in the east that Larry began watching after he stopped for
the day. It hadn't moved at all from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. when I talked to him. Larry
did some laundry Wednesday night. While he was at the laundromat the attendant put some
horse blankets in a washer and then left. The washing machine proceeded to shake and
walk across the floor toward the middle of the room, so Larry turned it off and unplugged
it. When the attendant returned, he told her what he had done. She told him it does
that all the time, and then she went to get someone to help her put the machine back
in its place!
The new brake pads are working quite well. Larry had gotten used to not being able
to stop on a dime and had forgotten how good pads work! He reports that his back tire
is beginning to show some wear. His GPS shows him the altitude, and he says it's
averaging around 4600 feet - 4300 feet at the bottom of hills; it rarely gets over
5000 feet.
He had dinner at the hotel buffet: green beans, mac and cheese, chicken strips
and some little round cake-like biscuit that was sweet. The high today was 91 degrees
but the humidity is only 32%. The total ridden today was 52 miles.
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Day Twenty-Six:
Thursday was "hot and desserty." It was very dusty and Larry saw a few dust devils.
He also saw signs on both the Interstate and frontage roads that warned of dust storms.
Visibility can be reduced to zero at which point you're advised to get off to the side
of the road and stop! The mountains today reached clear up into the clouds which made
it look as though the clouds were sitting on the mountains.
He got to Lordsburg early so he decided to ride on to San Simon, AZ where he found
a 22-dollar motel . . . without a phone. But the AC worked quite well in this small
room with an even smaller bathroom. He also had a TV and a little fridge here.
For lunch he stopped at Arby's and had smoked turkey on pita bread - doesn't sound
like Arby's fare to me - curly fries and a drink. His dinner was crackers and tuna
from the combination service station/convenience store. The alternative was a
week-old hot dog.
Larry says that riding on the Interstate is kind of boring. But near every town
there's about six or eight miles of frontage road. He talked with a NM Trooper,
Russell, outside of Lordsburg. He warned Larry about the trucks not getting over,
and Larry told him about the log trucks that he hates.
Not much wildlife to report on today, except that he thought he might have seen
a turkey, although it was too far away to really be able to tell. It was not a
buzzard. This area is very barren although there are green valleys here and there.
Again he saw pecan trees and now pistachio trees. He tells me that the pistachio
nuts grow in pods. Learn something every day! 83 more miles down . . .
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Day Twenty-Seven:
Larry left San Simon at 4:00 a.m. on Friday and stopped for almost an hour for
breakfast in Wilcox where he had a cheese omelet, hash browns and OJ. He rode the
Interstate which was bumpy. The rumble strips aren't in line, which is a pain because
it makes them even more difficult to avoid. But Texas Canyon was beautiful with
rocks all over the sides of the mountains, some precariously balanced on others.
When he was at one rest stop, which was at 4800 feet, he could look up 800 feet at
the rocks. This didn't make him very comfortable; and he figured if a rock fell,
it would wipe out the place. Some rocks were as tall as a three- or four-story building.
He rode three or four 5%-grade climbs and had a four-mile downhill where he didn't
even touch the pedals. This area is prettier than West Texas; the valleys are green,
and he could see farms in the distance.
After riding about 70 miles he got into Benson, AZ around 12:30 where he found a
Super 8 Motel with a phone! There were storms in the northwest towards Tucson and
Saguaro National Park. The sunset Friday night was beautiful. For dinner Larry
had chicken wings delivered to his room. Larry read an article in the paper about a guy
who owns a farm that's been in his family since the 1800s. It has a natural spring
that produces 80 gallons of water an hour, quite a valuable commodity in these parts,
which the owner uses for watering his livestock and crops. A couple years ago when
there was a forest fire in the area, the government, without asking the owner
for permission, sent a helicopter in to dip water from his holding pond. They
dipped more than 40 times and took more than 1,000 gallons. Afterward he was told that
he'd be compensated, but that never happened. Again this June there was another
fire, and the government again, without prearranging, attempted to steal the guy's
water. So the farm owner shot some holes in the helicopter's bucket as they hovered
over his property. The guy was arrested for firing the shots. Now it's in court.
The farm owner's attorney contends that dipping into his holding pond and taking his
water is no different than breaking into his house and stealing his TV. Agreed?
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Day Twenty-Eight:
Saturday started off badly and went downhill. Immediately after leaving Benson at
5:00 a.m. Larry was in the hills. The road was under construction and rough in
places as they were putting some sort of wires in the road, and Larry had to ride
inside the barricades. When he called me he had stopped for breakfast and reported
that he'd seen lots of big cacti with flowers, some two to three feet tall and 2 ½ feet
around . . . with stickers.
It was hilly south of Tucson, which was not a nice place to ride. Seven miles
south of the city he had to get off the Interstate because the traffic was terrible.
Traffic was backed up and people were trying to pass on the shoulder/bike lane. So,
like El Paso, it took him three hours to get through the city. He hates the big cities
because there are no provisions for bikes. After riding 48 miles he was "pooped."
After making it to the Best Western he showered and slept for a couple hours.
Lunch was a sandwich at Weinerschnitzel (SP?). From the motel he could see Mt. Lemmon
which is so big that it looked closer than it really was. He can fully understand why
people get lost in the desert. Not only did this motel have a phone, it had Internet
access so he was able to check his e-mail.
Today he saw roadrunners, rabbits and squirrels but no trees. Makes you wonder why
the squirrels are out there, doesn't it?
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Week #5
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