Day 19: Wednesday 03/23/16, Van Horn, TX to Marfa, TX

Day 19 distance: 76 miles

Total miles:  1078 miles

Elevation gain: 1235 feet

Map of today's ride:

For some reason, today's ride left me very tired tonight. I think it is just the combination of a lot of days riding and several days of slightly longer distances than we had been riding each day. (Hmm, and perhaps age.) I am looking forward to a shorter 57 mile ride tomorrow to Marathon, Texas followed by a day off.

Today started with the riders being transported 36 miles from Valentine, Texas to Van Horn, Texas, to continue our ride. I mentioned in yesterday's blog that due to high winds, Bubba changed our scheduled night in a campground in Van Horn to a gym in Valentine. Once I was ready to ride, my Garmin 1000 again would shut down within a minute of starting it, just like it had two days before. Rather than trying to get it going, I immediately put my older Garmin 510 on the bike and left. At the first rest SAG stop, I plugged in an external battery into the Garmin 1000 and it started. It reset all the settings I had reconfigured, but this time it did not remove the courses (daily ride files), and it worked the rest of the day. I am beginning to think that there is a problem with the battery circuitry that makes the Garmin think it is out of power so it shuts down. Hopefully I will develop a consistent method to deal with this issue so I can complete this trip before sending it to Garmin for repair. I am disappointed that I am having this problem as I have owned and used this computer for over a year without any previous issues.

I had two flat front tires today, the first of this C2C ride. I know of one rider that has had six, but for the most part, flats have been pretty random. The big culprits in the desert are thorns and goat heads, a small spiny part of a plant that is shed and blown around by the wind. My first flat was caused by a thorn, but the second flat I could not find anything in the tire to pinpoint the cause.

The wind was very strong today but was primarily a crosswind out of the west. It did not hamper our speed by much but still is a nuisance to deal with, always being aware that a wind gust could tip you over, as well as the constant annoying wind ear noise. During the last ten miles or so of the ride, our direction turned more to the SE from S, and we got a nice wind assist during that time.

Sorry about the seemingly repetitious scenery pictures. A terrain change should be coming in the next week when we reach Texas Hill Country.

Another early morning desert scene shortly after leaving Van Horn this morning.

A variation on the desert scene. The first field of desert spring flowers I have observed on this ride.

 

This was our first SAG stop of the day. Note the direction of the trucks on the highway (south) and the flag indication of the strong cross wind from the west. The wind was about 25 mph at the time.

 

This is an example of landscape art, the store front of a Prada store about 2 miles outside of Valentine, Texas. (Or in the middle of Nowhere.) Kurt Frederick is looking thru the window at the displayed items. Even though the items are from Prada's 2005 collection, Kurt was ready to make a purchase for his wife Kay!

 

The high school at Valentine Independent School District, where we stayed last night,  put together a lunch for Bubba's riders the last few years. They had various kinds of homemade burritos and brownies, along with chips, and drinks. This is one of many fund raisers the high school class has to earn money for a trip that is taken every couple years. Their last trip was to Italy.

 

One more pretty desert scene shortly before reaching Murfa, Texas, tonight's stop.

A tethered blimp used by the Border Patrol for Mexican-US border surveillance.

 

Some pretty agave type cactus along the roadside.

 

Tonight's dinner menu.

Part of the coasters looking content after dinner. We are staying tonight in the Murfa Community Center.

LINK to Day 19 of my 2015 C2C blog.