Day 19. Made it to El Paso Texas

So it begins….miles and miles of Texas. We rode 67 miles today through two cities and two universities. Las Cruces (NMSU) and El Paso (UTEP). It was a beautiful flat easy ride south out of Las Cruces through groves of Pecan trees. There’s a small farming town about every 5-8 miles along the Rio Grande. The wind was from the west so at times it was a cold side wind but once we got close to El Paso we were riding mostly east so it was a tailwind.

At the onset of El Paso we had 10 miles of beautiful bike trail along the river. Then it was 27 miles through El Paso crossing from the west to the East. First we had rolling hills through the Franklin mountain foothills then downhill into El Paso city center also near UTEP. Then travelled east side which had one? Or several oil refineries and a complex set of freeways that we went over and under and through! It was 5:30pm when we arrived at our RV Park campsite so this last stretch was in the freeway mess at rush hour. However, I think it wasn’t too bad due to Covid19 shutdowns.

We’ve had a lot of encouragement from friends at home and living their new covid19 sequestration. We do and will have some challenges but so far motels are open and grocery stores and RV Parks. We really have very little human contact. We are busy riding all day 8-5 breathing fresh air with rest stops. Then shower, eat, route plan and crash. Today’s mode of eating was Pizza Hut delivery to our tent site.