Cycling Ellen

67.7 miles today
909.7 total

When we all signed up for this trip, we knew there would be days that would be a challenge.  I had thought the mountains or the 90 mile days would be the hardest ones but all that proved incorrect today.

It started out innocently enough.  Cheryl had bought furry bunny ear headbands for us to wear on our helmets for Easter and going down to breakfast was a hoot seeing all these women in different colored ears.  Some were rakishly off to the side.  Pat had hers on backwards (so she could hear better) and others went straight up.  The television was on in the breakfast room and the weather report mentioned high winds with gusts up to 45 miles per hour from the north.  Now, if we were all sailors, that might have been good news.  As cyclists though, especially knowing we were going east – not north – that was not what we wanted to hear.  We joked about how our ears could become sails but we weren’t joking for long. I had also woken up with Linda, our cook’s, cold and decided to have an extra cup of tea to soothe my throat before we headed out.

Because the cue sheet had so many turns going into and through El Paso, it was the kind of day that you want to be sure to ride with other people.  With the wind, that is also the case so you can swap off taking the lead and blocking the wind.  Carol, Jane and I headed out together and made a little detour to see the old town in Las Cruces.  It being Easter Sunday, the streets were quiet and quaint and it was easy to imagine life there many years ago with the brick streets and adobe buildings.

Almost as soon as we got out onto the main road, the winds began harassing us.  The gusts were so strong that the bikes were actually leaning and we were holding on for dear life to avoid falling over.  With the twists and turns of the road, sometimes it was on our side and more often, right in front of us.  With our heads down, I didn’t see much beyond Carol’s back wheel or the white line when it was my turn to pull.  We did notice when we went through the pecan orchards because the trees helped to block the wind.  We also spotted a couple of vineyards, a polo field, and many farms that raised and sold thoroughbred horses.

We stopped at a little grocery store at mile 14 to get out of the wind.  It was fun poking around for a few minutes to see the different kinds of items.  There were chili pistachios, lots of different bins of beans and a whole refrigerator case full of different kinds of tortillas.  Even the snack foods were different but we weren’t in the mood to try any of them.

Back on the bikes, the wind seemed stronger than ever as we passed field after field with leftover bits of cotton, green onions and alfalfa fields.  At mile 19, Debbie had set up a sag stop and many people stopped right there to ride in the van the rest of the way.  The wind was just too fierce, especially for those who don’t weigh very much!  The three of us decided to head on and off we went pedaling as hard as we could to go maybe 10 mph.  The sag was set up again at mile 36 so we refueled, drank some more Gatorade (it was impossible to drink while on the bike with that wind) and headed out once more.  My throat was getting drier and sore from my cold so we stopped at a little grocery store that was open even on Easter.  The people there asked where we were going and the son translated to Mom who just laughed!  He asked if we were sure we were going to Florida!  I got some Hall’s drops with honey and lemon that I kept in my mouth the rest of the day.

Once we got into El Paso, we had a half-mile respite from the wind as we made turns through town.  Ah, what a great little stretch that was with the wind at our backs!  Unfortunately, then we headed uphill into the wind again and kept plodding along.  We lost Carol on a hill and when we waited a couple of riders came by and said she had flatted and the sag was picking her up.  Her knee had been bothering her all day so it was just as well.  Jane and I picked up Hannah at a 7 Eleven whose riding companions had decided they’d had enough too.  For about 2 miles after that, we headed downhill and got our “free” miles.  How good that felt to coast for a few minutes even with the wind!  As we went through El Paso with its many stoplights the wind was behind the buildings and all we had to do was stop and go with the lights and watch for our turns.

The last 10 miles or so were on a freeway right next to the Mexican border.  We could see the huge fences, the water barrier and the border patrol stationed along the way.  The freeway had a wide shoulder but was really bumpy, especially on the many bridges.  I put my head down and pulled, counting 12 strokes on one side, and then 12 on the other.  Jane said we had lost Hannah but she had said if she couldn’t keep up to keep going so on we went.  Later we found out she had flatted.  We were just about a mile from our exit when Jane yelled, “Flat!”.  We stopped on a bridge to fix her rear flat and found the metal shard from a truck’s tire that had imbedded itself in her tire.  We were almost finished when Mike pulled up, Sue’s husband who had been following us all day, and he blocked the traffic so we could finish.

Back on the road, we did the last few miles all uphill, of course, back to the Comfort Inn.  Jane and I split a load of laundry (a luxury I don’t usually take advantage of using the sink instead) and started drinking the herb tea I had bought in Silver City.  I’m on my 3rd cup now skipping the state line margarita party.  I’ll be off to the parking lot for dinner soon though and an early bed tonight.  As Scarlet O’Hara said, “Tomorrow is another day!”.