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Published: November 3rd 2006
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Jo enjoying the ride.
More pecan orchards covered the road. Shawne and Jo say...
Day 26
Mileage Today: 49.2
Total Mileage: 1036.2
Flats Today: 2
Total Flats: 30
Tubes Used Today: 2
Total Tubes Used: 5
This morning, as we were packing, we saw the couple we spoke to last night. Doug and Sharon took a picture of Jo's feet sticking out of the tent first thing this morning. They were on their way to Silver City to go on a day ride on their bicycles with a friend. They'd driven from Eastern Texas in their "Rainbow Van" with the bikes secured to the back. Doug said that everyone makes fun of his van because of the rainbow affiliation with homosexuality, but he loves his van and doesn't care what people say. We liked it too-it's pretty cool! After talking for a while, we all decided to go across the street for breakfast. Enjoying a great meal, we also enjoyed great conversation. We laughed and learned all through breakfast. They are very involved with bicycles and sailboats. Doug gave us many tips and much advice about cycling. We exchanged information and may see them again later on in Texas. They offered us a place to stay and a tune-up on
The Rainbow Van!
Doug and Sharon are a great couple. We may see them again in Southeastern Texas. our bicycles! We definately look forward to meeting up with them again.
We went back to the RV Park to finish packing. At that point, we discovered that our nice "grassy knoll" was not only next to the mud-hole, it was also the doggie restroom for the RV Park. We checked our shoes to find that it was too late. We'd tracked it everywhere, making it all we could smell for the rest of the morning. Jo placed rock markers on the remaining piles to avoid stepping in any more.
An older gentleman by the name of George came by and struck up a conversation. He told us of his travels in his fifth wheel. He said that he doesn't understand why people buy big 'ol RV's and tow a pickup behind it. "Why not have your pickup tow your RV?" he asked. Then he told us of his adventures camping in the desert. "If I'm in the middle of nowhere and I hear an animal nearby, I just fire a round off...and I don't have to worry about that animal anymore!" he explained, as he chain-smoked cigarettes. "If I ever think there's illegal immigrants running around my camp, I
Ol' George
He sure gave us an earful! fire one round off...and I don't have to worry about illegal immigrants anymore. That pretty much takes care of everything...just fire one round off!" he said. We laughed and laughed. He went off about truck drivers and rental RV drivers not knowing how to control their vehicles, as well as other random topics while he continued puffing away on his cigarettes.
Shawne installed a new tube in his rear tire and we headed off. A few miles later, Jo got a flat that was not repairable. She used another new tube and we were back in action. We noticed a tow truck pulling a car that was riddled with bullet holes. Hundreds of rounds had passed through this poor machine pretty recently. There was no rust on the body. The car seemed that is was drivable just days before. Someone must have really made someone made!
The route took us through more pecan orchards which made for a beautiful ride. We passed quite a few wineries as traffic increased. A huge John Deere machine was roaming through a cotton field followed by a farm tractor pulling a giant dumpster-type container behind it. The machine was a cotton picker. We watched
Someone was upset at this guy.
Look closely....those are all bullet holes! as it towered over the cotton plants, rolling between the rows without crushing any of the crop. Like fingers running through hair, large separators parted the rows and stook the stalks straight up. Vacuum action sucked the cotton from the plant and tossed it into a wire mesh bin at the rear of the machine. The cotton, too large to fit through the holes, clung to the sides of the bin as the air escaped. The machine stopped, it's full load ready to be emptied. The farm tractor positioned the dumpster beside the cotton picker. A series of hydraulic rams activated to lift the bin into the air. A door opened and a drive belt rotated to empty the crop into the waiting dumpster. The bin empty, the machine closed it's door and lowered the box back onto the back of the John Deere. The tractor roared off as the cotton picker resumed it's harvesting. Three other tractors laid in wait on the sidelines, their dumpsters empty. We had never seen how they harvest cotton, and it was interesting to watch. We though of all the time saved by this large and expensive machine. It was hard to imagine having
John Deere Cotton Picker
We had never seen one of these in operation. to pick all tha cotton by hand, and how this machine did the work of fifty men in about ten minutes. Technology is amazing.
We were extremely disappointed to learn that we'd crossed into Texas without even knowing it. There was no welcome sign on this farm road. Not even a small stateline indicator! So, we figured that in a few weeks, on the way out of Texas, we will turn around and take a picture of the welcome sign (if there is one) and pretend it was there at our entry.
But nonetheless...
WELCOME TO TEXAS!!!
STATE #4!!!
YAY FOR US!!!
We were both Starvin' Marvin. We stopped at a small cafe on the side of the road. We walked in to see a giant big screen TV showing college football. We hadn't seen TV for a few day, so we sat directly in front of it. Jo called it "The Magic Picture Box". We enjoyed yet another great meal of Mexican cuisine.
Shawne has family in El Paso...a second cousin named Tony. We hoped to spend the night at his place so Shawne gave him a call. We were still a few hours out, but Shawne got directions
Full load
The machine dumps its load into a waiting tractor. from him anyway. Making our way toward the city, traffic started picking up and traffic signals impeded our progress. We hit a major arterial street named Mesa Avenue and began an uphill climb. We scanned all the businesses on either side of the road, looking for a bike shop. We needed to find parts to repair Jo's aerobars as well as buy more tubes. We pulled up a bike shop called The Bicycle Company and parked our bikes out front. Inside, the place was busy. It was a good-sized store with lots of inventory. We caught the attention of an employee, and he got the ball rolling. We had the part we needed for Jo's handlebars in no time. All the guys at the shop were interested in our trip. One of them asked where our bikes were. We told him they were outside.
"Don't leave them outside! Someone might steal them!" he said.
A couple of the guys walked outside with us to check out our gear. They had all sorts of questions for us, so we stood outside for quite some time. Feeling very inspired, they looked at one another and said, "Do you want to do this?",
and "We should do this!" Their eyes were wide with excitement. We walked our bikes inside where the rest of the crew checked them out. By now, even some of the patrons were asking us questions. When they heard that we'd ridden from San Diego, they had looks of amazement on their faces. We picked up some more tubes, debating where we should get the self-sealing-goo-filled variety or not. We opted for 'not'. We made our purchases and were on our way. We hope the guys at the bike shop make the decision to ride the Southern Tier (or any Tier).
Shawne's father grew up in El Paso. He told Shawne stories of the tall TV antennas at the top of Franklin Mountain that he used to climb up to when he was a child. As we rode alongside the mountain, we could see the antennas towering over us. After a few more calls to clarify the location, we made it to Tony's place. We took our bikes inside as Shawne met Tony for the first time. He let us shower and do some laundry. He told us we should stay for a few days and rest. We decided it wasn't a bad idea to stay at least one day. We could go to the library and do some shopping...we solidified the plan. We went to bed thinking of the busy day ahead of us.
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