Last time I blogged we were staying in Fort Hancock. A piece of trivia...
Fort Hancock is where Andy crossed the border into Mexico after his escape from Shawshank State Prison, and sent a post card to Red on his way to Zihuatanejo
Andy and Red would have a tough time today as the Wall spans the length of the farmlands here.
Our ride was 75 miles with a 2000 foot climb. We passed a lot of abandoned farms - seems the irrigation here is from the Colorado River and it has been in drought for a long time.
We had to get back on the interstate (I thin it was I 10) and climb though some mountains. They peaked at about 5000 feet.
When you are riding you are saying to yourself - how the hell am i going to get over these damn things! The last 10 miles was a big climb followed by a quick descent. There was construction on the Interstate and we were told we could by-pass the construction by entering a closed weight station and going to the left of the construction.
What they didn't tell us that there was also construction on our side of the construction and I hit a ditch that was at least 18 inches wide. I am lucky I did not injure myself. A bunch of people fell and either hurt themselves or broke a wheel rim. The bike mechanic was quite busy....
At least 40% of the riders lost a tube, rim or tire today.
We arrived in Van Horn Texas and camped out. It sucked. It dropped to 40 degrees and as we changed to Central time - it was pitch black until 8 am. We had another 75 miles ride and again encountered 20 mph headwinds. Tough day for most people. Not sure how I made it - as half the people elected to get a sag into the finish line.
My new friend John M from Steamboat was slightly ahead of me and we took the strategy of stopping every 3 miles to rest. Proved to be a good strategy.
Again not a lot of photos to take - except the Prada store....
Someone took an abandoned building in Valentine Texas. They painted it and named it the Prada Store. If you get close up they have a display of Prada shoes on the inside. Pretty cool art. Everybody stops to take shots of it.
It also is the only store in Valentine. We had lunch at the library with lunch being catered by the high school travel club. The school K-12 has 80 students. Amazing 100% of the graduates go on to college. Obviously they are quite product of this stat.
We are staying in the rec center in Martha tonight. Forecast for tomorrow is 45 to start and 65 degrees to finish. Total ride of 65 miles with possible thunderstorms. And we camp for the next two nights as we have another rest day after tomorrow's ride (I have no idea what day it is today). Trying to get in the local hotel - but everything is booked as they are building a pipeline in the area and every place is No Vacancy.
Oh well...
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