Nuts

My routes and destinations over the next few days will likely be subject to a few things. Today was proof of that. When I woke this morning, my plan was to end the day in El Paso. However, that changed when I received a very quick and favourable Warm Showers response from David in San Elizario. About 25 km south of El Paso.

The location of the Siesta RV Park made resuming my ride east very easy. I simply turned left from th RV Park and found myself on Route 28 which I followed for much of the day.

In terms of landscape, the route was pretty varied. At times there were clear signs of an extended drought. Other sections were incredibly green. And still other sections saw me cycling through sections shaded by trees of an initially unknown nature. It was clear that these were not wild trees but rather crops of some sort. Of what I was unsure. I stopped for a few photos, hoping that maybe someone would be able to identify the trees in question. That ended up not being necessary as a “Do Not Pick Pecans” sign led me to believe that these were pecan trees. I certainly would never have guessed that.

Remarkably, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pecan before – well, other than in a pie or a Turtle (Ooooh, I love Turtles). I may have opted to somewhat disregard the sign and in the process borrowed a pecan that was lying on the road. It would seem nobody noticed or cared.

In addition to pecans, today’s ride also revealed cotton fields, polo players, and a cornfield maze. Oh, did I mention it was also a hot day? A very hot day. Certainly one of the hottest days I’ve experienced in a while. On top of all of that, I also managed to enter Texas today. A couple of times.

To be honest, I’m not exactly sure where I first entered Texas as there was no sign. It was the “Welcome To New Mexico” sign that made it clear that at some point I had apparently left New Mexico.

My second entry into New Mexico led to my first official stop of the day. Not surprisingly, the stop was at Subway. The town was Santa Teresa. And the timing of the stop was somewhat ideal not just because it was almost noon but because the heat was really making its presence felt. Not in a bad way. I still like the heat. That said, I don’t believe the temperature reading on my cycle computer was entirely accurate.

When I left Subway, my plan to arrive in San Elizario by 5:00 was still on schedule. The lack of WiFi meant that I couldn’t inform my host of that so I continued on. I figured I’d find WiFi somewhere near El Paso.

About 35 minutes after leaving Subway, I officially crossed into Texas. While this was technically my second entrance into the state, the lack of a previous sign made this one more official. I find it a bit funny that the sign clearly once read “Proud Home of President George W. Bush”. That part of the sign has since been covered up – sort of.

About ten minutes after entering Texas it became very clear that I was once again riding along the Mexican border. The giant fence was a dead giveaway. The lack of such a fence along our Canadian border make sights like this seem a bit odd. I know the fence is there for a reason but it doesn’t make seeing it any less odd to me.

As I made my way along the fence it would seem I somehow missed a turn as I soon found myself with a choice of either getting on a highway or getting on the bridge to Mexico. Neither seemed to fit my itinerary. A quick consultation of my map confirmed my navigational error. Fortunately, the backtracking required was minimal.

With my course corrected, the remainder of my ride was very straightforward. However, there was a bit of detour required. Well, perhaps not “required” but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to stop in at Wendy’s for a Frosty. I mean, I passed up a similar opportunity yesterday in Las Cruces. I wasn’t about to do that two days in a row.

Today’s Wendy’s was about 15 km from my destination but about 2 km out the way. Not an insignificant detour but one that I found acceptable today.

It was shortly after 5:30 when I finally arrived at the home of my Warm Showers host and met David. He has a great set up with a lot of room for camping and campground style washrooms. David is registered with the ACA (Adventure Cycling Association) and is included on their official maps so he gets quite a bit of cycle traffic coming through. It turns out, he would be hosting two cyclists tonight. The first was Dennis from Russia and he was already there when I arrived. He started his ride in Colombia and is on his way to San Diego.

Dennis was having some mechanical issues with his rear wheel but sadly I was unable to offer any solutions. Fortunately for him, David has arranged a ride to El Paso for him where hopefully the bike shop will get him back on the road quickly.

The rest of the evening was spent in the kitchen enjoying dinner (gorditas) and conversation with Dennis, David, and David’s parents. It was a very entertaining and interesting evening. And the gorditas (which I’ve never had before) were very enjoyable.

By 9:00 I returned to my tent. I’m hoping to get an early start tomorrow because high winds in forecast threaten to make reaching Van Horn a bit of challenge. Not that I need to get to Van Horn tomorrow but it seems like a manageable distance if the winds aren’t too bad. If the winds don’t cooperate then it could be a bit of an ambitious goal.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 115.10 km
Ride time: 5:06:31
Average speed: 22.53 km/h
Maximum speed: 41.41 km/h