Periodic Progress Report Southern Tier Cross-Country Bicycle Tour

Date(s): Oct. 13, 1999
Day: Wednesday
From: Fort Hancock, TX
To: Van Horn, TX
Lodging: Eagle's Nest RV Park
Segment Mileage: 73.9
Cumulative Mileage: 1251.2
Actual Riding Time: 5:21
Average Speed: 13.7
Weather: Sunny, warm
Temp: high 80's

Today started out uneventfully. I left camp at the Community Church early, just behind Janet, Lynne, and Bob. Spike, who is usually the first to leave, agreed to ride sweep in place of JimN. After 3 weeks, the leader can ask others if they would prefer to ride sweep, to be the last to leave, and to make sure everyone makes it into camp. Oliver got a slow start due to a flat tire, the first on his BOB trailer. He said it was due to a piece of metal. I passed the first group of three just out of camp, then rode alone on some very quiet back roads, cruising along at around 15 mph.

As I approached I-10, on which we will ride occasionally today, I saw Jim, Spike, and Oliver cruising down the highway. They had inadvertently taken I-10 earlier in the route, cutting off about 5 miles. Spike returned to the offical route to do his sweep run, and Oliver, Jim and I met at the next store, run by a family that had been passing through earlier in the year. The crankshaft to their truck broke, then the engine blew a rod. Stranded, they offered to lease the store for a year until they could save enough to move on. His first words to me were "You're coming from San Diego right? Headed for Florida?" He's seen a few cross country bikers come through, including Mike who passed by yesterday. I don't know whether or not to believe him, but he said that last night he saw a meteorite land, blazing through the atmosphere until it hit, causing a bright flash.

About a mile past the store we stopped to ask a highway worker about a frontage road that was supposed to go all the way to Van Horn. The workers said we weren't going anywhere, as there was a chemical spill just ahead. Sure enough, there was a road block just ahead. We are now sitting beside the road waiting for the spill to be cleaned up. The latest word is that it wlll be cleaned up in an hour or two. So much for getting in early to cook dinner.

LATER: We didn't serve dinner until around 8pm or so, the latest dinner yet, mostly due to the time change, plus the nearly 2 hour wait for the cleanup of the chemical spill. We are now on Central time. The road crew finally let us through after several of us had sat under a storm water culvert for about 30 minutes. It was the coolest place around as there was no shade at the road block. The rest of the day's ride was very difficult. There were long stretches with no stores, and most of the later part of the ride was along a frontage road parallel to I-10; very straight, boring, and noisy from the trucks. There was a long uphill stretch with a steady headwind that seemed to take forever to complete. We were all thankful for the short, fast downhill into camp. JimN and I shopped for the day's provisions, and Suzanne, Bruno, Cyndi, and Jimmy all helped to pack things back to camp, another RV park right next to the freeway, another night for earplugs. Jim and I fixed an OK macaroni and cheese dinner with lots of fresh and frozen vegetables mixed in, mostly Jim's idea. He's my cooking partner now that Tod has returned to England.

Tomorrow is going to be another long day, 90 miles to Ft. Davis, near McDonald Observatory, a day that includes some difficult climbing. It is said to be one of the hardest days of the trip. We'll see if I have the energy to climb the 1/2 mile road to the observatory after riding 70 miles.