I sleep good last night and woke up and got ready like clock work. Had my bowl of cereal and loaded up in the vehicles to take us to the starting spot for the day. We all knew today was going to be a tough one., lots of climbing. It was schedule to be around 60 miles to accommodate for the climbs.
Once we arrived at the starting location, agian like we are wired for this - we all took care of what needed to be done. The riders prepped there bike, and applied sunscreen. The SAG drivers make sure our water bottles are full and ready. Once we all complete with all the prep we gather round and had a word of prayer before we clip into our pedals and started riding.
Things were quiet in Fort Davis this morning. There were still a few firefighters in town from the recent wildfires in and around Fort Davis. The largest in history in the state of Texas we have been told. 313,000 acres.
It was in was in low 50's this morning and was nice to not freeze, and not be so hot you start sweating right off the bat. After about 7 miles we started to get into the climbing. We had 2 phases of climbs today. The first were short and steep and the second we the same grades, just a lot longer hills.
We made it to lunch stop around 11:15am and considering that we had already climbed a total of 2600 feet were we doing great. We were about 11 miles from our ending spot for the day. We decided that we would head to the next town and see how we feel. It was a total of 46 miles from where we sat at lunch. So the plan would be to ride until 4pm and pack it up and head to the hotel.
We loaded up with snacks and topped off our water bottles and rode. By this time we had a serious head wind to deal with. All these weeks we have been riding we have had winds out of the south. Today were heading north west and the wind was coming right out of north right in our face. The grade had smoothed out and we were not fighting the hills anymore only the wind. We arrived in Kent, TX about 50 minutes after lunch. There isn't a lot in Kent, TX at least not in the intersection we were at. However we did see this!
From this intersection in Kent, we had 36 miles until Van Horn, TX. We had changed our sleeping arrangements to Van Horn last night. We actually got on the I-10 and headed west. It was great, it had a wide shoulder and the smoothest rode we have ridden on in weeks. It was pretty flat the whole way and the wind had moved on us and it was coming out of the east now. That's right we had a tailwind for 20 of those 36 miles. At one point we had climbed a long hill on the interstate and on the back side I coasted for 3 miles above 25mph.
Long story short, we arrived in Van Horn at 3:30pm and had time to spare. We knocked 36 miles off our ride tomorrow, so instead of 97 miles tomorrow we have 61 miles.
Shannon is treating us to ice cream in a few minutes and we all just finished an incredible dinner that Mona put together for us. I am amazed everyday by the meals she is making for us in the RV day after day. Thank you Mona for all your hard work!!!
We are doing it guys, we are riding across the US and almost out of Texas. One week from tomorrow (Friday 5/7) we will be in Phoenix. If you look at a map in the next couple days, find St. Augustine, FL and track it to El Paso (that is the closest major city to us now). We have come a long way!
Thanks for following us and supporting us!
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