| Day's Route Overview: Today, across the much of the width of the great state of Texas. I'll be started in Fort Worth, and when I saw Van Horn I kept going. I wanted to get some miles ahead and Van Horn was not all that inviting. I ended up in El Paso, totally wiped out. Today was not an ABC letter collecting day. A total of 607 miles. |
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| When I awoke this morning, I found in the bathroom
a departed guest. This caused me to ponder. Lets assume that crickets live for about 60 days. Since there are no natural predators in a motel room, we can assume that most live their maximum live span. If finding one dead after one day is an average, then that means that there are 59 others running about that did not expire during the one night that I was sleeping there. |
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| Starting out: Trip / Odometer / Time: 17.3 / 33,983 / 7:20 PDT | |
| The Texas rest stops are good. Not great, but
good. For example, they are missing the information brochures that are available in all the west coast states. And they do not have the wonderful facilities that I enjoyed in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. About every other rest stop is called "Picnic Area". There have off and on-ramps, parking space, and tables with roofs and fire pits. But they do not have any sort of restroom facilities. No plumbing, no portable potties, not even any big bushes in the vicinity. Ain't Lola beautiful? Later in the day I got wise and parked in the shade even though
it |
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| I stopped in
Midland, Texas and tried to drop in on
George and Laura. Unfortunately, they were not at home. I wish they'd return home and remain there! There is very little of anything in Midland apart from sage brush and sand, oil wells and refineries. BTW, the refineries have open flame burn-offs of their waste gasses. In the huge state of Texas, they have many areas smelling like El Segundo in the mid 70's. I stopped at the Midland Wal-Mart, thinking that
George might be |
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| Right after riding I-20 west to it's terminus, I
began on I-10. I was getting low on gas. Soon there were signs for the town of Kent. When the off-ramp came, I took it. Kent, it turns out, consists of a general store and four gas pumps. The pump refused to take my card so I went inside the store. This store is exactly as depicted in the television series Northern Exposure. And, the proprietor is and older woman who is very much like Ruth in the series both in mannerisms and somewhat in appearance. There were four men, cowboys, who evidently had come in to get some supplies and notions to last for some time. The youngest of the four, perhaps about 16-17 years old kept piling more candy bars and soda cans on the counter until he amassed a supply that had to be approaching $25 or more. It was fun to watch. How did I know they were cowboys? Remember the song "I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy..." |
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| There were some peculiar side winds
today. At least three times, buzzing along, I was suddenly hit
with a side wind shear. It felt like something hit me and the bike very hard. It was not a gust, I've had many of those this past week and a half, it was as if I had moved from still air into a stream of very fast moving air. This is probably similar to what the airliners encounter. The first time it happened, I was taken by surprise and it moved the bike sideways by at least of foot and a half before Lola and I could reestablish a good lean angle into the wind. After the initial shock, the side wind remained fierce for about a quarter mile and then slowly tapered back off. |
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| If you look below at the totals for the
day, you'll note a very long day with a high average speed. Just a bit over 50 MPH average even including all stops and meals. Don't try this at home! It definitely requires a location like Western Texas where the traffic is relatively light and the roads are in reasonably good shape. Also, the weather has to cooperate. I won't say what my speeds were, but from Van Horn to El Paso, about 120 miles, probably averaged about a mile and a half per minute for long, long stretches. |
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Done for the day: |
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ABC Letters: none today
Total: 607 miles, 11 hours 50 minutes |
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Updated: Monday, May 12, 2014 09:36:09 PM