Fort Hancock to Van Horn, TX (76 miles) 3/23/10

West Texas is between mountain ranges, also known as the high desert.  There are mesquite trees and creosote bushes, and many small bridges going over dry gullies, waiting for the rainy season.  We are riding mostly on small state and local roads, or the frontage road for Interstate 10.  The only traffic we saw was the many white and green Border Patrol vans.  We also saw Homeland Security helicopters flying around.  We are riding close to the border, and the army of security is ever present.

As we rode along, we were slowed down by one of the Border Patrol officers who asked us if we were US citizens.   We called out "Yes!" and continued on.

We have one rider, Shelley, who is a Canadian citizen.  Before she rode through, Amy Derwinski, our Sag captain for today, tipped off the officer to that fact, to play a trick on Shelley.

After Amy left, the officer soon saw Shelley coming.  He turned on his lights, his siren, and pulled out the vehicle in front of her to stop her!  He asked about her citizenship, and then asked for her passport.  When he called her by her name BEFORE opening her passport, Shelley knew that it must have been Amy that tipped him off!  I heard Shelley is planning some kind of retribution tonight!  :-)

For today's ride, we got our introduction to "Chip Seal" road surface that is so prevalent on side roads and shoulders in Texas.  Crews scrape the black top surface,  lay down tiny pebbles and then apply a sealant.  It makes for a pretty bumpy ride on a bike, but we'll be out of the state in only seventeen more days!

.

We rode many miles alongside I-10 on these Chip Seal roads.

We stopped at Sierra Blanca, TX, for a quick lunch.  As we waited for our order, an older gentleman and his adult son asked us about our ride.  When we told them we were on our way to Florida, the older man was speechless!

Just east of Sierra Blanca, we entered the Central Time Zone.  Since Arizona does not go on daylight saving time, this was the fourth time we have changed our clocks!  That meant that we lost an hour on a long day today. 

There were parts of our route that required us to get onto I-10 for 10 miles; there was no other way.  After all that Chip Seal, it was wonderful!  The shoulders were wide and smooth, and most of the truckers would move over when they could.  The last 5 miles was a great downhill where we flew on perfectly smooth surface into Van Horn at 25-30 mph!  Unlike the downhill from Emory Pass with all the switchbacks, this time it was straight.

Our ride tomorrow is from Van Horn to Fort Davis, TX, a 90 mile ride.  We will be spending two nights in Fort Davis for our day off.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/indian_lodge/