We are in a small town about 50 miles east of El Paso this afternoon called Fort Hancock. The library serves both the community and school. The librarian is very nice and offered us an hour to use the computers before they close for the day. Our host in El Paso, West Cosgrove, biked with us this morning for an hour to get us out of the city. It was a big help as the traffic seemed daunting to us. We are having to watch our stops as the distances between places to get water and places to stay are spaced far apart in this part of Texas.
We met our first bicyclers this morning that were traveling from east to west. It was a young couple on a tandem, pulling a bob(trailer), and their friend on a single bike. We swapped lots of names and places that we liked to stay and things to do along the way. This all took place on the road, thankfully in one of the rare shady spots. We wished we'd had more time to "talk shop".
One thing we have not stressed is the amount of agriculture we see along the way, all irrigated of course, from the Rio Grande. The big crops now are cotton, and pecan trees. There are acres and acres of both of these. Just outside of Las Cruces, there were hugh dairy farms with what appeared to be 1000 plus cows. Alfalfa is another crop that is about as popular as cotton to feed the cows and to send overseas. In the eastern part of New Mexico, chili peppers were the predominate crop. It's nice to be able to appreciate these crops and animals as we are going at a slower pace and can "smell the flowers" so to speak.
We had our third flat yesterday, second for Bill. Mine was on day one. It occurred right before El Paso, so once it was fixed we went on into El Paso directly to the bike shop and bought liners for the tires. Bill put the liners in all 4 tires and maybe that will help keep out the goat heads, wires. staples, and glass that is frequent along the roadways.
Bill and Ann
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