Day 16 - Mile 820 - 899 (79 miles, 1173 ft ascent, 340 ft descent)

El Paso - Sierra Blanca, TX

Daily Route

Daily Elevation

We woke up in El Paso and was pretty happy to be leaving it.  Riding through the city yesterday was not too fun.  Today we travel on State Route 20, which I am hoping will be a more pleasant ride.  The plan was to leave at 8:30 AM, and that is what we did.

Getting ready to ride.

The roads at the beginning of the ride wasn't too bad since it was Saturday morning.  When we got on SR 20 ti was a little busy and a smaller shoulder, but we have definitely been on worse.  As we got further east, away from El Paso, the traffic thinned out and the shoulder actually improved.  All was going well until I noticed that Tim's rear tire looked low.  We stopped and put more air in the tire and then continued.  That air lasted about 2 miles when we added more air.  2 miles later we just decided to change the tube. We were only 2 miles out from our first scheduled rest stop, a Dollar General in Fabens, TX.  The rest of the group continued on as we worked on the rear flat.  15 minutes later we were back on the road, and just over 10 minutes later we were back with the group in Fabens.

And then, at mile 18 it was my time to have a slow leak in the front tire.  With Bill's help, we changed it within 10 minutes.  As we were riding I decided to give Patrick a call to see if he could meet us at our next rest stop to proved me with new tubes since by now Tim and I have used 2 of our 3 spare tubes.  Luckily he was just a few exits from Fort Hancock, our planned next stop.

Jackie and Jim over my shoulder on the way to meet Patrick

About 30 minutes later we will all with Patrick in the RV having a break just before mile 44.  We took a nice 45 minute break before heading back on the road and onto Interstate 10 for the next 34 miles.

Mary entering Interstate 10

Jackie and Bill entering Interstate 10

Riding the Interstate today wasn't too bad since we had favorable winds, but it is a little nerve racking when we are riding the shoulder of a road with an 80 mile per hour speed limit.

Tim trying to catch Mary and Jackie on Interstate 10

This sign was a little worrying since it meant that there was a hill with a pretty good grade just 2 miles ahead.

Warning! Climb ahead.

It was quite a climb, but only lasted 3 miles.  Once at the top, it was all down hill into Sierra Blanca for 8 miles.  When we got there we were surprised to find no one at our lodge for the night.  I road back to the auto repair garage.  The owner called his friends, the hotel owner.  They were in El Paso and did not have our reservation.  They said that they would return in 1.5 hours if we could wait.  Patrick hooked up the RV to the park right next door to the Sierra Blanca Historic Hotel and we relaxed for a while.

Partick and Mary

Jim

Tim and Mel and Bill

After a bit we made dinner, spaghetti and meatballs and spaghetti and mushroom sauce with fresh baked bread and salad.  After dinner the hotel owners arrived and we checked into our rooms.  It was nice to be in a bed and since we only have 35 miles to ride tomorrow, we can sleep in.

As soon as I took a shower and got into bed I felt exhausted.  By 9 PM I had to go to sleep.  This day's blog was actually written the following night as I sit here doing laundry in Van Horne, Texas.  Oh well...I guess I spoiled the surprise that tomorrow we make it to our overnight town of Van Horne.  If you are short on time, you may now skip tomorrow's blog and go ahead to Day 18. ;-)