Time Warp

El Paso TX to Del Rio TX

Today I took a train ride on the Amtrak. It was a good opportunity to take what I learned from the first 2 weeks of travel and make sure I was doing the best thing I could to take care of myself. So this was a "make adjustments" day by cutting off 1 map from El Paso TX, to Del Rio TX. Fortunately, the conductor allowed my to store my bike in baggage ( oddly enough it was his call this morning to do that because I'm not traveling the "normal" way). Even more oddly enough, there was no reason not to let me do it. The door onto the train was right next to the compartment of storage with NOTHING in it! So I am spending 9 hours on a train and cutting off 430 miles of even more nothingness.

So what I really didn't know was how much slower and more challenging it was going to be with the 40-50 lbs. of weight. Turns out 3-4 hours a day! That's fine, but it has started to interfere with me having enough energy to ride, work and still have fun doing this. That's why this quick little train ride ( which I've never done, may never do again ) is a huge help. It leaves me with 4 weeks and 4 maps. I can now average 65-75 miles a day and I should be able to get myself out of the heat by 2:00 in the afternoon now. It's also skipping an incredibly difficult Map 3, which for the record I never liked from the day I saw it. The train, for the most part, is taking the same route as the bike. It's very pretty and great through west Texas, but the parts where you have no services for 120 miles and are warned "be prepared to sleep on the side of the road" I am not going to miss or regret missing on the bike. There are 3 places on my maps that say "no services for 50 miles, be prepared". I still have 1600 miles to go and I know this will end up being a great decision in the big picture.

My seat mate today is Luther. Luther is a 68 year African American born in Mississippi. I have about a 1 second delay with British accents, but this ride has eclipsed that. I'm exhausted trying to interpret what ever he's saying and I already have a head ache 2 hours in. Overall, Luther does deserve the respect I'm trying to give him. He's a Vietnam Vet and done Firefighting and Criminal Justice work over the years. He's telling me stories about Rodney King that's his neighbor ( LA police beating ), how he couldn't bring his revolver on the train, how he thinks OJ didn't do it, and oh yeah, how we didn't really go to the moon. He sounds pretty sure of that one. He's got his spit cup and just flashed me a picture of his daughter's brand new Mercedes 300. I can't keep up, my head's exploding. He keeps trying to make some kind of sense of how or why I would ride a bike across the country. Said they were all talking about "that guy getting on the train with a bike" when they picked me up in El Paso. Luther literally talked the entire time I was sitting next ti him.

I'm spending most of my time in the "Sun Room", see pictures below. It's a common area for the passengers and actually pretty nice place to hang out. The land scape is the same as southeast New Mexico, and as we left El Paso, there were another 25 miles or so of Pecan groves. Climbed in to some mountain ranges and back down as the rest of the day went along. Very desolate as advertised. Passed through Marfa Texas where we made an unscheduled stop. Had to place a passenger in the Sheriff's hands for some reason. The "Sun Room" for most of the trip, its giving me less of a head ache. However, the people are equally unusual. I've got a single mom who's just ragging on her 2 teenage boys all afternoon to study and stop picking on each other ( wait, it's Saturday right? we're on a train right?) Pretty much like any teenagers, they are blowing her off and fake studying. I've got BIG MOUTH Marge who is SCREAMING INTO THE CELL PHONE for a simple conversation and laughing as loud as any human possibly can when someone says something to her. I've got 2 guys with an accent ( Australian I thinks ) who keep telling dirty jokes ( yes there are kids around ). I'm leaving some of details out because I'm getting a little mean. On a positive note, though, there are 25 people or so from El Paso that are headed to New Orleans to help clean up from Hurricane Katrina ( wow, there's still people helping out there) or recent tornados ( they may get re-directed once there). I took pictures of them in the station and I've been rewarded with all the chocolate chip cookies and brownies I wanted. As I got off the train, 1 of them who had been feeding me the goodies all day came off the train and wished me safe travels. Again, less of a headache in the Sun Room. But for the record, the people in the coach where my seat is have been there for 2 days now, the place looks like a war room and stinks to holly hell. Advice time….if you do a cross country train ride, whatever you do go first class.

I do have next week all planned out now, 65-75 mile rides ARE going to be more manageable. As entertaining AND miserable as this train ride was, I'm glad I did it and glad it's over.

Unofficial Bike Stats
Miles - 422
Calories - 12246 ( I did not try to eat that tonight )
Time - 7:22
Elevation - 4455

OK this was a week's worth of biking, so couple extra pics tonight.

El Paso Train Station ( my little bike is ready for a day off)

From the Outside.

Interstate 10 ( I would have been riding that 25 miles or so today )

Just the typical scenery for 400 miles.

Marfa TX ( apparently they shot the movie Little Giant in this next of the woods)

We don't know exactly what he did, but 1) he created an unscheduled stop, 2) the dining car where they held him for 30 minutes was shut down for lunch, 3) everyone took pictures of him as the train pulled away, and 4) he's stuck in Marfa TX at this point.

Study boys, right now!!

OK, I had an artistic moment in the middle where I was getting bored.

Highest US bridge crossing at 275 feet!

My friend Luther

The Bridge I would have ridden.

All depart who needs to depart!!!

Hello Texas!

Las Cruces New Mexico to El Paso Texas today.

John White made it a light day today, he's worn down from this week's ride through the mountains. John spent 3 hours this morning getting caught up with work, his emails were piling up. Still more for him to do though.

John pulled away from the Las Cruces Days Inn after a small McDonalds breakfast around 9:00 AM. He found today's first 30 miles a lot like yesterday's last 25. There were more onions, peppers, and pecans. He was a little surprised to see some vineyards. He thinks that grapes would go to raisins too quickly here.

Somewhere in there, John took the wrong route and ended up in town quicker than expected. But like always, he made the most of it by stopping at Sonic for a Burger, tater tots and a chocolate shake. Then it was a 9 mile ride through town that reminded him of Castleton ( or any other sprawling suburban commercialized stretch you know of ). He was so glad to be out of that, although the motorists were all very good to him today.

Tonight, John is staying in the Camino Real Hotel in downtown El Paso. The bands are playing in the square right outside already, so there's probably a good dinner and an ice cold beer waiting for him any minute now.


Stats - 46.4 miles (881)
Calories - 2644 ( 49,085 )
Time - 3:29 (71:54) That's basically 3 days on the bike riding !!
Total Climb - 581 ( 34,046 ft ) Mount Everest is 29,029 feet in up, so I've sort of climbed Mount Everest.



New crops today, rolled past 4 vineyards.

Bigger Pecan Groves than yesterday. Very cool about 3 miles of this.

Pretty little horses hanging out this morning.

Nice little spread out in the country.

Not a lot of fanfare for the little country roads, almost missed it. Who is responsible for that little section between the 2 signs??

Nice welcome Texas, a glob of fresh tar and rocks on my shoes and my front tire. This is the after picture.

It was graduation day at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).

It's so hot here, the stone lions need head dresses at the Scottish Rites.

And the 2 border crossings into Mexico.

Chili Peppers, Pecans and Onions

Caballo Lake to Las Cruces New Mexico that's what you'll find off the interstate route. This is the Red hot Chili Pepper capitol of the US apparently. Fields, dehydration and packaging facilities all over the place. Pretty much the theme of Hatch New Mexico as well. Pepper fields all looked like they were just getting started. The onions all looked to be ready to harvest. I didn't cry passing the fields but I sure did catch the onion odor. Reminded me of day 3, when I pass a dry field and into a "green" field and the wind is blowing, there's a 5 degree or so difference in the temperature. I didn't ever notice that.

Then there were all kinds of tree fields here. There could have been walnuts as well, but most of the signs all said Pecan growers. Very different to see that kind of crop to harvest and take care of. Many of the groves were flooded with an inch or so of water ( all fed from the Rio Grande river ) I followed along most of the day.

Overall a decent day and probably the first one I guessed and planned time correctly. Had some wind in the face as I was headed south and the winds work their way from East in the mornings to the South West in the afternoon as everything heats up. Miles 25-45 were pretty frustrating, but that's how it works on this adventure.

Stats - 62.22 miles (834)
Calories - 3097 ( 46,441 )
Time - 5:05 (68:25)
Total Climb - 417 ( 33,465 ft )

Headed out past Caballo Lake

Oh so cute, each little veal cow has their own house.

Pecan groves galore.

Onions are ready, come on get your combine.

Chili Pepper fields ( I think )

Famous Sparky's in Hatch NM. Thanks for being open for some pulled pork.

No I'm watching you go by me!! Border Patrol time again.

The Rio Grande

Just another cool looking rock formation that forms the road.

Seriously was going to inquire about what Women's Water Volleyball is all about. It's gotta be fun.

Time to cross the river

A tractor doing work in a grove of trees, who knew that existed.

Spectactular Scenery ( but HELL on bike )

Silver City to Cabollo Lake New Mexico was just spectacular in every way. First, I am so glad Aaron and Aleena were riding along with me today, they could have moved along much faster than me, but were nice enough to rest long enough at stops to let me catch up. The 1 picture they were on the switchback up top yelling down to me was pretty fun.

The hell part is simple, 7 hours of climb for 30 minute decent. The climb was insane and 5 of the 18 miles were probably walking as there was no way these legs could ride up that mountain with the 50 pounds of gear, water, food and everything else you have to carry because you don't know if there's any supplies on the other side. Also had a 4 mile detour to circle back for food and water since 3 of the places that were supposed to be there, weren't. Anyway, check the Garmin charts for the pain. Min speed walking 3 MPH, max speed flying downhill 33MPH and I that was holding back as to not fly off the mountain. The road was basically small rock and tar, I swear to god my tires were sticking to the road and the surface was so rough, I think it took twice as much effort to pedal all day.

Enough of that, the beauty of the day was obviously the scenery. The first 22 miles from Silver City to the base of the Mimbres Mountains was large ups and downs. Went past a massive mining operation, actually if you Google map Hanover New Mexico and hit the satellite view you'll see how impressive this is.

Resources were pretty bad and the maps were off a little on where we needed to go, so had to double back to get fueled up. The climb was 2 big climbs, the first on the west side of the mountain had vegetation, but was very dry and rocky. I could pedal 3-4 of the miles, but when the grade gets into the 5-6%, no way. So walk away.

The middle of the climb started to get into the east side of the mountain and the tall pines and other big trees started showing up. The road was very winding with ups and downs, but generally the same elevation. Then at the "bottom" of the middle section was a creek basin where the creek and road were at and the rocks shot up 400-500 feet straight up around us. Very cool!!

Then the next climb up was all winding around the creek and trees with switchback after switch back. It was around mile 53 and I was already spent, so my hike with 70 pounds of bike was probably 4 miles and 2 hours up that section. I did NOT hesitate when a pick up stopped and said throw it in we'll take you the last 3/4 mile. Thank you adrenalin for the extra boost to lift the 70 pound bike into back!!

Emory Pass was about a 15 mile view, I'm sure on a clear day it would have been 25-30. All day long I noticed 5-6 different Audi's passing me from both directions. All blacked out and all "secretive" looking. The decent on the road made it clear that route was a perfect test ground and I'm fairly sure that's what they were doing going up and down and through these mountains. It was 3000 foot decent in 10 miles, 10MPH u turns, fall off the side of the road and never be seen again kind of road.

Then it was leave the 2 wolves behind and suck it up another 25 miles. With 90% of the work downhill and down wind, it was good speeds to Caballo Lake NM. Found a great RV Park that had a campsite, got all setup to camp out and walked around and found 2 little cabins on the lot. Yes, I moved all my stuff and put away the tent and slept in an air conditioned cabin. Man that was 3 long days of climbing mountains!!

Stats - 78.62 miles (772)
Calories - 4350 ( 43,344 )
Time - 7:35 (63:19)
Total Climb - 5,230 ( 33,048 ft )


Just a random picture from the day before my wolf pack took.

Starting off the day headed east.

Ore mining.

Free fall down the mountain before the next mountain.

Climb, climb, climb. ( I'm sure they got a picture of me walking.)

Aaron and Aleena thanks for carrying me 3 days!!

Half way into big climb.

I wish I was up there!!!

Break number 20 probably.

Oops I hitched a ride. ( it was only 3/4 mile to the top).

Yeah!!

Looking East.

That's the road hugging the mountain in the back ground there.

I was wondering why so many cow pies in the road, now I understand the cattle guards.

OK, lets setup camp site.

Forget that!!! I'm moving on up to my little cabin for the night.

Just get there!

What a long day after a tough night of sleep. Just the basics here tonight. Staying in Silver City New Mexico.

After getting up and out into the 40 degree morning at the camp site, all 3 of us were like, we should have just rode more last night. When we got to the hotel, all 3 of us were like, I'd have never made it that far.

1 mile in, crossed off Arizona and into New Mexico, and roads are much worse!
To start it was a day of short climbs and big downhills, then when you get nearer the river it all starts to be rolling hills, 150 foot drops, 100 foot climbs. long and drawn out. at 25 miles we stopped at the what was probably the last place for supplies ( of course the last 2 days, we also had to carry 10-15 lbs of extra water and food because this was all so desolate). We had an awesome wind today, right in our face the whole way. It really sucks when you HAVE to pedal downhill just to keep moving because the wind stops you.

At the 50 mile point, it was an 1800 foot climb in 20 miles to the continental divide.
There was a lot of walking the bike for me in that climb. The rest I'll just say with pictures.

Stats - 64.1 miles (693)
Calories - 3628 ( 38994 )
Time - 6:09 (56:44)
Total Climb - 3215 ( 27,818 ft )


Welcome to NM, we make sure no cows get out or in, I'm not sure.

My lunch date.

Long Winding trail.

It was getting too hot. ( come on , I just had to take my long sleeve shirt off).

Crossing the divide ( and yes there was still uphill after that!!)