Life and Death in West Texas

West Texas goes on and on and on..... It's been 10 days since I could access both the internet and a computer and three days since I've had cell phone service. We cycle 50 - 60 miles and there is nothing but empty, scrubby, sere, terrain. It's straight out of an old cowboy movie. You can imagine a cowboy who lost his horse staggering out of the hills gasping for water. You can just see Apaches lining up on the edge of a mesa, getting ready to head you off at the pass. I am real happy to be with a tour. Being out here unsupported would be scary but we meet other cross country cyclists who are doing it.

We pass a bunch of pregnant mares and a newborn foal barely able to stand on it's wobbly new legs. We also pass lots of road kill. We've seen cats, dogs, skunk, rabbit, javalina (a kind of wild pig), armadillo, deer and calf. Sometimes we scare off dining buzzards as we ride by, and there are always lots of them soaring overhead.

One day we pass a moving van lying askew on the highway. Later we find out that the 39 year old trucker had a heart attack and died.

Texas chip seal - put down some tar, roll some gravel on it and you have a cheap road surface that will shake the fillings out of your teeth and rattle your bike to bits. The surface is so rough and creates such rolling resistance that downhills are nearly as hard as uphills. No coasting - constant pedaling is required.

My first century! 108 miles! About 8 of us do our first century and almost everybody goes 100 miles. Those who have done a century before say this is the toughest they have ever done. We had Texas chip seal, hills, hot weather and HEADWINDS. The headwinds actually make make pedaling uphills easier than pedaling downhills because the hills block the ferocious wind.

We cross the Pecos River. "We'll meet up west of the Pecos." Wasn't that a familiar line in old Westerns?

We are now about halfway through Texas and into hill country - lots of small hills that go up and down. They can be fun when you speed down and let momentum carry you part of the way up the next. Sometimes that just doesn't work and they can be tedious and tiring. I sagged today and everybody looked happy and strong on the hills. Once again, I wished I were riding.

And we are seeing trees - something we have not seen for a long time. Yes, tumbleweed does tumble across the road just like you might imagine - big fluffly unpredictable balls of tumbleweed.

There is so much I could say but I dont want to make these entries too long. I thought this trip would go on forever but it feels like it's flying by!