Day 34 Hideaway Lakes - El Paso (65km)

Another early rise as we had still not adjusted to mountain time! Another cold start as well! After a long, tiring week it was a good thing the ride in to El Paso was on a smooth, quiet road with little traffic (Sunday). A quick fuel stop early on to get more food through the system worked out to be a good thing, as we decided on the way in to bypass the airport-based accomodation for the more convenient city centre options - on arriving in the middle of El Paso, we found two extremely expensive hotels & two closed down hotels - we were getting hungry and desperate... we found the address of a good place for pancakes so decided to hit that first & refuel given it was early in the day. On the way we found a good place to stay, which turned out to be handy to restuarants, the favoured bike shop (some new tires) and a supermarket...

After the rest day tomorrow, we set course for the Grand Canyon - to get to which we must go through a number of mountain passes (including the continental divide) and more desert country. However, we can finally pronounce - we are over half way!!

Day 33 Van Horn - Fort Hancock (144km)

Another early start this morning - avoiding the dreaded head winds. We learned that the winds the prior day had been 25-35mph forecast with 45mph gusts & the current measure for the time we were cycling at a point 100 miles north was 51mph!! Anyway, the early start meant it was freezing cold & the boys were pretty jaded from the big day before. After a cool climb at the start of teh day, we stopped and fuelled up on hot chocolates, coffee, muffins, rolls and so on, then rolled out. The sun was a bit higher by then and a good downhill followed to the lunch stop, putting the boys in a much better mood!

The lunchstop was at a diner where they used to have 8 live tigers... signs around the place proudly proclaimed the tigers were comibg back as well!

Today marked the move into mountain time (another hours change). Accomodation for the night was at 'Hideaway Lakes'. A pretty strange place if you are from NZ - about 4 artificial lakes in the middle of a pecan orchard, where you pay $7 to enter and drop a line in the pond. The lakes are filled with catfish. And it was very popular!! On the way we stopped at the grocery store at Ft Hancock where we met the owner who was an ex-WWII navy landing boat driver who had visited NZ during the war.

One day from El Paso!


Day 32 Ft Davis - Van Horn (150km)

Early start this morning because of a warning of very strong head winds. After a 5:30am wake up we packed up everything in the dark and headed out into an immediate climb up to the McDonald Observatory (run by the University of Texas). The climb to the top was the longest and steepest of the trip so far and definately put some space between the team members going up the hill. Once at the top (some 6200ft above sea level) we were rewarded by some spectacular views over the surrounding mountains and plains.

From the observatory it was some 60km (predominantly downhill and with a tailwind!!!) to Kent so we cruised at speeds well in excess fo 40kph. About half way to Kent Dave realised that two od the welds on his front rack had snapped. After a temporary fix of duct tape and superglue we were back on our way. Once in Kent we fuelled up and hopped on the I-10 (interstate) into a very strong headwind! During this time Ben S got his first puncture of the trip (however the self-sealing tube filled the hole & after a quick inflation the bike was backon the road!). As we progressed the wind got stronger and stronger and reduced us to a crawl (of which we rotated the elad man on the bunch about every 2 kms!). Once we got to Van Horn we were three very broken men! After travelling the length of the town we finally found a grocery store then found out that the capsite was back 3kms int ehdirection we had just came. To give you an idea of how strong the wind was we didn't peddle at all back down the main street and were still accelerating at 30kph!

Arrived at the campsite and was too windy to pitch a tent so we booked one of their little log cabins which proved to be pretty comfortable to be on a real bed for a change!


Day 31 Marathon - Ft Davis (Davis Mountains State Park) (95km)

Todays ride had us passing through the biggest town in the Davis County called Alpine. Pretty uneventful riding to Alpine again assisted by a light tailwind.

Once in Alpine we made our way to the local bike shop where Ben B was hoping to pick up a new tyre, but second bike shop in a row didn't have any tyres in the size that he wanted. The guy at the bike shop pointed us in the direction of the local Bakery called 6th street so we though twe would check it out for lunch. Turned out on arrival that the bakery did a buffet lunch which I must say is the first bakery I have ever seen that offered a buffet! They had fresh bread (uncommon here!), sun dried tomato bread, soup, 2 types of quiche and salad. The food was unbelievable and we stuffed ourselves as usual before heading out to Fort Davis.

The road to Ft Davis headed up a canyon that looked alot like a scene from central Otago. In the canyon, on the side of the road, we saw the biggest snake of the trip so far. Those suckers are pretty quick when you startle them so we were pretty happy to be heading in the other direction to the snake!

Once in Ft Davis we picked up some groceries and headed up the hill to the State Park which was quite a nice area with lots of camping. With a warning about black bears, mountain lions and Javelinas from the local park ranger we made our way to our campsite. No chance here of getting any tent pegs in the ground so we had to improvise with large rocks instead!

We ate at the State Park's restaurant that night. Ben S tried chicken fried steak which is like snitzchel, Dave tried Chicken fried chicken (like KFC) and Ben B settled for a vegetarian lasanga.

That night Ben B got talking to an Astronomer who was attending a conference at the ranch next door. This guy sold telescopes to other astonomers (of who there were some 550 at this conference). Once it was dark he let him have a look through the telescope (the telescope looked like a canon, about 10ft high and you needed a step ladder to look through the eye piece!) where they had set it to look at Saturn. I could not believe how clear Saturn looked through the telescope. You could see the rings, it's moons and also the shadow that Saturn cast on its rings on the non-sun side! Pretty impressive!

Day 30 Sanderson - Marathon (90km)

Easy riding day today. Even though we climbed 300-400m there was such a gentle incline that we didn't really notice the slope and we were also partly assisted by a light tailwind. Consequently, we covered the distance in little more than 3 hours with a break in the middle.

When we arrived in Marathon (not named for the distance, rather the fact that it looks like the town Marathon in Greece!) we met a really nice couple. The husband had spent more than 20 years of his life in Australia and had also circumnavigated around New Zealand in a motor boat in the early 1970s. Through his work in the oil business (geological survey) they had lived and travelled in many places around the world so were a very interesting couple. They invited us to spend lunch with them and we went to the local Mexican restaurant for a feed.

That night we camped at the Marathon motel. Given that we are now in desert country it is very difficult to hammer in all the tent pegs. As a result we have spent alot of time straightening our pegs and have to use other means of anchors such as trees and rocks.

Day 29 Langtry - Sanderson (98km)

Left Langtry with a light tailwind. In western Texas it is not uncommon for towns to be at least 100km apart and provide limited services so this was the first day that we had to carry food and water with us. Given that the predominant wind is SE we thought it would only take 3-4 hours so we packed our food pretty lightly. About 45km into the ride a very strong headwind blew in dropping the temperatures in a matter of minutes and almost halving our speed (25km - 13km p/h). About 50km in Ben B got a puncture. Just as he had finished pumping up the tyre he realised that the tub was not sitting right on the rim and just as he was reaching to deflate it the tube exploded!

As the wind was so strong our ETA had increased from about 2-4 hours and our food suppplies were running rather low. Dave had ran out of food and the two Bens had one muesli bar each which they wern't gonuig to touch until the 80km mark! On our maps we were told that there were no services for 100km, but 65km in we passed through a very small settlement that had just opened a store in the last 6 months. This couldn't have come at a better time as we bought some treats and a loaf of bread and ate peanut butter and jam sandwiches which got us through. If that store hadn't been there things would have been quite different by the time we got to Sanderson! No matter how many times you learn those lessons about hitting the wall on the bike we somehow continue to not take enough food. The following day we were alot more prepared!

Day 28 - Del Rio - Langtry (95km)

After demolishing yet another buffet we rolled on out onto wide shoulders, a tail wind and very rough chip on the road! The landscape is now becoming more and more desolite and resembles scenes out of Western movies. We stradled the border for most of the day seeing alot of border patrol cars pass us and even going through our first boder checkpoint. These desert areas are something we are going to have to get used to for the rest of the trip, with long straight roads and very dry scenery (excuse the pun!). We sped through the first 50km to Comstock in well under 2 hours and after a quick refuel we were on our way. About 9 miles up the road we stopped at the highest spanning bridge in Texas, over the Pecos river. The bridge was similar to skippers canyon with high canyon walls and a surprising amount of water for such a dry area.

We arrived in the metropolis of Langtry (population 14) around 2pm and had a quick look around the visitor information centre before chowing down on some hamburgers at the local petrol station (not sure what type(s) of meat were in these burgers, but that was the only thing we could find!). After lunch we went bak to the visitor centre to see what Langtry had to offer. Langtry is a real western town and was originally formed because of the construction of the railroad, but became more famous for a certain justice of the peace who was introduced to deal to petty crime in the area. Judge Roy Bean was some character and became known as the Law West of Texas. He used to use his own rules and sometimes dealt out (from his bar/courthouse severe punishments for the smallest of crimes like hanging).

We camped out at the local community centre where 3 Mexicans lived. They were nice guys and gave us some beers, but we could hardly understand them. It is surprising how much conversation you can make without having to speak many words!). In fact, one of them had been bitten by a scorpion the day before and had a nasty cut on his leg! As there was no grocery store in Langtry all we could find at the gas station were cans of 'ranch style beans' which had to do for dinner!

The weather in Langtry was very hot (30s), even though a passing thunderstorm sent rain our way for about 15 minutes! The low for the night we were told would be in the low 20s so we were in for a rough sleep in our tents!