Mar 27, 2014

Days 20 and 21: March 24 and 25, Alpine to Marathon

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Much of Texas, well much of the Southwest, is challenging for this kind of trip because there are great big distances between any signs of civilization, food, water, places to sleep, etc. One of those stretches is between Sanderson, TX and the Comstock/Del Rio area, where you go 90+ miles right along the Texas-Mexico boarder with no services. So when we didn’t make it to Sanderson from Marathon, and suddenly had significant worries about the potential of wind to turn our plans to mush, we decided that we needed some riding buddies for the upcoming stretch.

When we stayed at the Warm Showers in Safford, AZ, we stayed there along with a crew of 4 cyclists from Harrisburg, PA named Sharon, Richard, Tim and Cindy. They’re all between 55 and 65 years old and completely awesome, and when we looked at our map and got worried about getting to Del Rio alone, we decided to find them on the interwebs and reach out. Fortunately we got in touch with Sharon, who shared their plans and so we took that as a sign that they wouldn’t mind if we tagged along until we get to more populated parts.

So we rode from Alpine to Marathon, which is just over 30 miles, for another breezy (in the wrong direction) but short day.We stopped there because the Fearsome Foursome (our new friends) weren’t going to leave Marathon until 2 days later, so we waited around.  It feels so luxurious to get into places early and not spend 8 hours on the bike! But the slogan of Marathon is “Marathon: Where There’s Nothing To Do!” And that is the truth. We tried to get a late lunch but everything closed at 3, so we sat around until things opened back up at 5:30. And by “things” I mean “thing”, because there was only one open bar/restaurant, where we sampled more local beers and got a heaping plate of nachos.

The next day, Wednesday, we took a day off in Marathon so that we could leave with the Fearsome Foursome the next morning. We did some good things: a giant breakfast at the one diner in town that was open, we made a big fire at our campground and logged onto wifi and streamed American Hustle, which was good, at dinner at the other open place in town (Anita’s Restaurant, which was actually just the back room in some lady’s house), got s’mores makings and ate a lot of s’mores! Days off are great.

 

 

Mar 26, 2014

Day 19: March 23, Marfa to Alpine

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You will note that there are no pictures in this blog post because the day was so heinous, no moment seemed like a Kodak Moment.

We had fully intended for the headline of this blog post to read “Marfa to Sanderson”, which was 110 miles, but MAN were we in for a different kind of day. We woke up on Sunday morning in Marfa and it was absolutely freezing cold and howling wind, like just ripping across the desert landscape at 35-40mph. We figured no worries, packed our tent (because it would have blown away) and headed into the building at our tent site for some coffee. “We’ll just sit here for an hour, two tops, and wait ’til the wind dies down and head to Sanderson,” we reassured ourselves. WRONG. 9am passed, then 10am, then 11am, and the wind was just obliterating our plans before our eyes. Finally just before 12noon we got hungry, decided to get some food in town, and then bike the shorter distance of 70 miles to a different town.

Well, breakfast took forever, which was just as well because the wind didn’t slow down at all and was still whipping at 25-30 mph. Finally by 1pm we decided we must get on the road, so we started heading East. It was the most challenging and frustrating day of riding of our trip, and the landscape was flat! Every peddle was a total struggle, and we both admitted later that we were a millimeter from turning back around and coasting back to Marfa at least 10 times each. We were crawling down the flat road at 6, maybe 7mph, which by the way is the speed at which we had scaled steep mountains.

27 miles and over 4 hours later we arrived in Alpine, TX, no where near where we had intended to stay but where we decided we must end such a miserable day of bike riding, we found a local motel and checked in. We found some local eateries, received comments from strangers on how red our faces were from the wind, and put together a new game plan for continuing across Texas.

Mar 26, 2014

Day 17: March 21, Fort Hancock to Van Horn

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Our motel in Fort Hancock left many things to be desired, so we got up and out of there quickly and hit the road. The route put us on a series of tiny farm roads that wove through a series of farms as well as goat and cattle ranches, right next to the Mexican boarder. The first 15 miles were the least stressful we had encountered yet on this trip, passing a grand total of maybe 4 cars. For whatever reason, however, the second quarter of our riding each day tends to be the most painful, at least psychologically. It’s after the initial excitement for the day wears off, and it’s before the halfway point so you can’t count down yet. We huffed and puffed our way to mile 40, where we hit a small town called Sierra Blanca and stopped for lunch at Subway, where we both put back an entire footlong with such ease, it was almost disconcerting.

Reinforced with something other than cliff bars and almonds, we sailed through the second half of the day! Aided by our first sustained tail wind (we don’t actually say “tail wind” outload for fear that it will cause the Wind Gods to turn it around on us, we commented that we had “Voldemort on our side” because it is the thing that shall not be named), we whipped through some more desert peaks and valleys, crossed into another time zone (already in Central time!) and arrived in Van Horn before 4pm.

 

 

Mar 21, 2014

Days 12, 13 & 14: March 17, 18 and 19, Flying Through New Mexico

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Our route had us just briefly in New Mexico, so we decided to mix things up and do some sight seeing while we were there. Up until this point we really just bike, eat and sleep, and there hasn’t been much time for seeing the sights because even going 10 miles out of the way for something ends up being a ton of time, takes us away from campsights, and adds miles to our weary legs. But before we left the Southwest we figured we had to see some stuff!

Silver City, NM is a great little mountain town in the south central part of the state. Its silver mining routes are evident everywhere you look, and it has also grown into having a healthy arts scene, with streets lined with art galleries and shops. We spent St. Patrick’s day evening there at the little bar/brewery in town (Little Toad Creek Brewery – not the best we’ve had but a fun local experience) and then much of the next day as well, wandering into shops and having several cups of coffee at various coffee houses.

Then we headed up through the Gila Wilderness to the Gila Cliff Dwellings, where the regional Native Americans inhabited caves way up through the winding mountains between 1270 and 1300 AD.

We then stopped briefly in Las Cruces to check out the local brewery for lunch, before continuing south into Texas!

 

 

 

 

 

Mar 18, 2014

The Finest Cast of Characters We Could’ve Found So Far

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When we’re out on the road and peddling from one place to another, meeting and interacting with different people along the way has never struck us as being so important. A friendly local will give us the inside scoop as we try to decode a new place, another biking traveler will reassure us that we’re not the only ones who are bat sh*t crazy enough to do this. But probably most importantly, our major takeaway in these first two weeks is that people everywhere are inherently kind, curious, and supportive. Here’s a breakdown of the best of best from the cast of characters we’ve gotten to know so far.

1. Bert, Bubba and the crew of Senior Citizens: Remember that day we went straight into a whistling head wind and up over 4,000 feet of horribly steep mountain roads? It was easy to get down that day but the 46 older folks we biked along side made it all doable! Bubba, the big and talkative organizer of the crew, offered us not only useful information about the day down to the mile marker, but also invited us to replenish our food and water supplies with his support van anytime we wanted. When you’re in the middle of no where and carrying all your own stuff, that’s a valuable offer! And then there was Bert, the powerhouse of a 75 year old who was casually biking across the country in her retirement. Towards the end of the climbing, we asked Bert how her day had gone, and she offered up some wisdom: “Well, I had to get off and walk for the first time. I’m disappointed, but not embarrassed.”

2. Warren: We encountered Warren when we were nearing the end of our day into Hope, AZ. We stopped at a convenience store and Warren approached, curious about what we were up to. He said we only had probably 12 miles to go, hopped in his pick-up truck and headed home, which was about 8 miles past where we were going. It ended up being 16 miles to our destination – no biggie – but when we got there Warren was there! He said “I felt so badly that I told you girls it was only 12, and it must’ve been more like 20! So I wanted to make sure you got in alright.” He even then told us that he has a trailer next to his house with a queen bed, and invited us to stay there. We politely declined, but appreciated every bit of Warren’s caring generosity.

3. Joyce and Gene Robert: Warm Showers is a network of people across the country that offer their homes to weary biking travelers, and sometimes they let you camp in their yard, sometimes they offer a bed, and sometimes they offer a warm meal or two. We tried it out for the first time in Safford, AZ, and wound up staying with a wonderful elderly couple named Joyce and Gene Robert along with 4 other cyclists. They are all the rage on cycling forums, known to be the best host you could ask for in this part of the country. Joyce cooked all 6 of us a tasty dinner AND hearty breakfast, offered some memorable quotes to remember them by, and was totally un-phased by the stampede of smelly bikers in their living room.

4. Frankie: the mysterious 18 year old Londoner who’d never been to the USA so he decided to bike across the South! What a guy. We haven’t been biking along side him, but being on the same route with approximately the same schedule, we’ve run into him time and time again. He’s always good for a laugh or a story, and we’ve appreciated his companionship along the way.

5. Scott: The 51 year old Iowan who is dragging an 80 lb. trailer behind all these curvy, hilly roads! He gave us perspective. He’s doing the same thing as us, the same route (until we cut up North), but going about it very differently. He’s doing many less miles each day, really taking his time and managing his expectations in a way that’s working for him. We appreciated his chipping-away attitude towards the trip, as well as the fact that he found hilarity in many of the same small town things we do.

6. Lois: The owner of the RV Park in Globe, AZ, who felt sorry for us having just climbed that day’s mountain range and offered up her home for us to shower in. This is the kind of complete stranger kindness that you can never count on, but is more common than we could have possibly imagined going into this trip. What a lady!

7. Karen in Tempe: Madeleine’s mother is longtime friends with Karen, and set us up on a social date when we were in Tempe. Karen is a funny, kind and super smart “retired” professor at Arizona State University, who actually holds three jobs in her “retirement.” We went out for what had thus far been an anomolous experience in our trip: we were showered (woah), didn’t eat out off our camp stove (thank goodness), and had the kind of “normal adult evening” that we had been craving. She also asked us the kind of questions only a mother could ask  - things about our safety and well-being that are comforting to be asked when we’re on this trip.

8. Ahmed: This was our Uber cab driver in Tempe – we had to go to REI and refused to ride our bikes on our day off. Ahmed was completely and utterly astounded at what we were doing, and basically could say nothing but “I mean, wow! I’m thinking about this that you’re telling me, and wow!” He also said, and we appreciated this, “I don’t want to be weird but when you walked over I noticed you legs and, wow, the muscles!” He’s from Egypt and told us that a few years ago he walked across the entire Grand Canyon with his wife, and when I responded “wow!” he interrupted and said “no, NO. That is not wow. YOU are WOW!

We can’t wait to see who else we find in our next leg of the trip.