Another day, another time zone

The "day" started early, too early. About 5 a.m. to be precise. A whole flock of dadburn motorcycle freaks were run in' their dadburn engines right outside my door. There must o' been a hundred of 'em, right there outside my door.

Turns out, they were launching on their own adventure. I truly don't know how many, but they were "riding to the wall", an annual event where cyclists ride to Washington D.C. for those who can not (POW-MIAs). I don't know how many stayed at the motel (I only saw 1 bike when I registered) and how many of them simply rendezvoused there.

I fell back to sleep and finally woke up at 8:30! Yikes, so much for an early start! The late start worked well for avoiding rush hour in El Paso however, which was a good thing because, even without heavy traffic, it took forever to get through the city. I said it before and I'll say it again. Even the lady at the gas station completed my sentence when I noted "they sure don't spend a lot of money..."

"On highway signs? I know"

I traveled down a state highway into Anthony, Tx, so that I could stop at the border and safely take a picture. It was a small, non-descript sign, not at all what you'd expect from Texas.

Another mile or so down the road I found a more ornate sign so I captured it also.

 From there it was a matter of trying to not lose highway 20, as it was to shadow the border and, the way I remembered it, take me most of the way to Laredo. My GPS was on duty again, but the girls were up to their usual antics, trying to get me on the Interstate. They can be quite entertaining if you are not following their lead. They begin to bicker; one says turn left, the other right. At one point, when I was running parallel to the border, she changed to meters instead of miles! Well, at least they're talking again.

I ended up on the Ceaser Chavez Parkway where the high speed lane was marked "H-C". Anyone know what that is?

 Anyway, the H-C lane was a toll road, but if you stayed in the other lanes apparently it was free. Go figure. 

I was shown that my exit was "Alameda Rd. Texas 20" and when I reached the exit I got off the CCP. That was the last time I saw a sign referencing highway 20 for 10 miles or more!

By the time I got to the southern most part of town it was after 11 o'clock. I put another hour in before I stopped for lunch. I had found, and was following highway 20 when it ended and, much to the delight of the girls, I was deposited onto I-10 East (I believe I even heard some high fives). I had to jump off a few exits later to ask directions so I decided it was an opportune time to eat.

I continued on I-10 as directed until I reached Van Horn and exited onto highway Tx 90. Just prior to my exit was a sign indicating I was only about 500 miles from Dallas. But that translates to approximately 1300 P48 miles! So my expected ETA for Dallas is still 6-7 days out.

Google maps shows my route cutting south through a long serious of small towns. The problem I have found is that some of the towns are two abandoned buildings and the third one has been vacated, er... make that three abandoned buildings. Other towns look identical on the map but are much more; complete with gas stations! Because I have about a 240 mile maximum cruising range on a tank of fuel I have to be careful when I choose to refuel.

So I rode for hours through rolling hills, cactus and yucca. I stopped at a few "historical markers" and saw a very interesting building.

 I also crossed into the Central Time Zone! I'm not sure if I'll hit the Eastern Time Zone before I leave the state, but it's possible.

I had planned to stop for the night in Marfa, if only for the Patriotic Historical significance of its name. If you are not familiar with Marfa let me explain. The town name came from an excerpt of one of George Washington's famous quotes, "Marfa, I can't find my teed". And now you know the REST of the story!

By the time I reached Marfa I was ready for a Blizzard at DQ, but disappointed in the mileage covered today. In order to get to Dallas near schedule I need to do close to 300 miles a day, and I was only at 230 with the late start, slow going through El Paso, and losing an hour. So I inquired at the DQ to see if any of the little towns showing on my GPS map were large enough to have fuel and motels. The only one likely to meet this criteria was Alpine, a mere 30 minutes further down the road. 

As the highway climbed for most of the 30 minutes to Alpine I rode through some interesting topography. I also stopped at a historical marker noting where, for over a hundred years, people from Marfa had been seeing strange and unexplained lights. Over 70 reports of sightings have been made, surprisingly all of which were by teens who had gone out there at night to watch for the lights but were caught by local police. They used to call it "watching the submarine races" in Cleveland.

So I'm sitting in my room at the Motel Bien Venidon (first mistake, never stay at a motel with a foreign name unless you are in Paris). The only thing worse than the big bug I killed crawling down the wall is the WiFi signal, which was last seen in Ford's Theater in April of 1865 (and it was reported by the Lincolnshire to be spotty at best)!

I'll have to go to a bigger city tomorrow to see if I can find dependable Wi-Fi, a cit big enough to play 8 man football!

(I'll insert a couple more pictures once I can get them uploaded, or downloaded, whatever)