Day 24 and 25 Fort Hancock to Van Horn to Fort Davis

We left Fort Hancock on Errol's birthday. It was a cold clear morning and we had a 75 mile ride ahead of us. Most of the day was on the I-10 or on the frontage road alongside the highway. The posted speed limit was 80 mph and per Olaf it felt like the autobahn.

These small communities are mostly frontier towns, fortified in the 1800's

We had lunch at Sierra Blanca which was the only stop along the way. We were riding with Olaf and Kelly who were good company.

We stayed at the KOA in Van Horn.
Joe shared a birthday Jack Daniels night cap with Errol.

We left in the dark starting the longest, probably hardest, day of the trip - 90 miles of which 70 were up hill. One truck stop at 20 miles was the only stop the whole day so we carried 6 gallons of water (Errol carried most of it).

It was a long hard slog and we were both pretty knackered at the end. The vistas after the climbing were quite spectacular.

We ended the day with a delicious Texas ribeye dinner and ice cream.

Today we have a layover day in Fort Davis.

Neal (65) from England, shared his exercise habits. He used to play squash, scuba dived and now runs 50-60 miles a week with his partner. He gets an endorphin rush from exercise. On the weekends he goes to Wales and walks in Snowdonia.

His training for this ride was a 2 mile commute back and forth to work on his bicycle - and he is doing great on this ride.

He notes he has no medical problems, his HDL is high - likely from his exercise.