Central Time Zone and a good chunk of Texas

We decided to take a "rest" day on Saturday in El Paso.  I was having some unnerving clicking noises coming from my bottom bracket (the part that connects the two crank arms (the things that your pedals are attached to)).   A quick trip to the local Crazy Cat Bike Shop and they had it tightened down and got me set up with a mirror for my helmet!  I stopped by the grocery store on my way back with a half dozen doughnuts and some Noosa yogurt for my sweet wife.  We washed it all down with coffee and headed out to catch a movie!  We decided on 10 Cloverfield Lane and were thoroughly entertained!!  Another 10 miles and we were at our warm shower host in San Elizario (25 miles for the day).  David was a terrific resource on riding in the area and had a really cool setup.  Lots of camping spots, lights, a sign, a guest register, and lots of outdoor cooking options.  We slept well, ate well and prepped for our longest day of the tour yet.  

Things started well.  We had friendly winds, good roads and fresh legs.  We got about 40 miles behind us before noon.  We stopped by the Tiger Truck Stop in Esperanza for some chocolate milk and chiles rellenos.  We climbed up out of the Rio Grande Valley through Sierra Blanca.  Everything was still peachy.  With winds at our backs we cruised at about 20 mph along a deserted access road right next to I-10.  We had Van Horn in our sights- it was going to be our final destination and Sarah's first century (100 miles or more).  This achievement wasn't going to be quite as easy as we thought... Just as we started our decent into the city (8 miles out) the frontage road abruptly ended.  We scratched around at our smart phones for a while and decided that we really didn't want to get onto the interstate proper.  Google told us to back 4 miles and take a parallel road into Van Horn.   In the end we decided that the "safest" bet was to take the back road and not gamble on I-10.  

Sarah descending on the abandoned mine road.

To save time (sunset was in about an hour) I decided that it was a good idea to jump a gate with our bikes and bike through an abandoned mine to get to the parallel road faster.  That just left a barbed wire fence, a bunch of sand, cacti, and a couple train tracks before we made it!!  Bad news is that the road was dirt.

Shadowfax leaning against the barbed fence (tracks and mine in distance)

With going back out of the question we pushed onward down the dirt road.  Our worst fears were soon realized as the road became unbikable.  Steep grades led to coarse loose gravel, which in turn led to the road basically being a dry stream bed with 6-8 inches of loose sand.  The sun was setting and we had only come half a mile.  The next 3 hours kind of sucked.  For the next 2-3 miles we pushed our bikes more than we biked them.  Spirits remained high however as we saw the glow of Van Horn grow brighter.  The last 4-5 miles yielded a packed dirt road with only occasional dismounts for sand.  The night will certainly be memorable and it certainly built character.   We feasted at Wendy's (only open restaurant in Van Horn).

Sarah coaxing her Bike down a 20%+ grade of loose gravel.  FUN!!

I am writing this now at Mando's in Marfa, Texas.  We had a mostly pleasurable 75 mile ride with some elevation gain but also the same friendly winds as the day before.  The only downside to the day was the last 20 or so miles being on horrible pavement...  Nothing to compare with the unnamed road we spent 3 hours on the night before.

A Prada store in the middle of the desert!

Sweet sweet Marfa

-WJT