What a bizarre day!
It was cold when we woke up – bitter cold. Our bikes were covered with a thick layer of ice – yesterday’s rain/snow had frozen on everything. The ropes we tied our tarp over the bikes with were frozen in place, and I had to work them a bit to get them untied. We slid around on frozen puddles as we packed the bikes. In other words – it was cold.
And yet – once we got on the road it miraculously warmed up. It wasn’t long before I peeled off my hat, jacket, and neck gaiter. The sun shone brilliantly on my face and felt absolutely wonderful.
But then – we stopped to take a break. Brrrrrr…. It was cold! The four of us huddled behind the bikes trying to stay out of the frigid wind – without much success. It wasn’t long before we climbed back on the bikes to warm up.
As it turned out – we had a tail wind, so when we were cycling it was as though we didn’t feel the wind at all. But the moment we stopped – oh my! It was a cold wind!
Once again, we decided we didn’t want to camp out in the wind, so we checked into another cheap motel. Tomorrow temps are supposed to be back up to normal – which will feel nice.
Kilometers today: 55
Kilometers to date: 8566
You were brave to ride in weather like that. I live in the northeast part of Houston and we have about an inch of snow on the grass with 34 degree temperature. This is the first snow in several years and the first with this amount of coverage since the early 1990′s.
It so cold I didn’t even try the windtrainer.
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I’ve had those days recently. The weather can get really weird all of a sudden. One of the strange, beautiful things about riding.
J
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Hey guys – Maybe I missed an entry, but I was wondering why you did not go on into Mexico from El Paso? Where do you plan to enter?
Eric
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Hi Eric! We passed Juarez by for a number of reasons. Mainly, we don’t like big cities – and Juarez is big! It would have been a real hassle navigating through there.
So then we started thinking about options – and decided to cross in Big Bend National Park. John and I cycled in Big Bend years ago and loved it. while there, we crossed the border on a tiny little border post and spent a day in Mexico – it was lovely! But then we discovered that that tiny little border crossing has now been closed. Bummer!
By then, our minds were set on crossing in Texas – so we stayed with that. We’ll go on over to Del Rio and cross there. It is directly north of Monterrey, so we’ll have to skirt that city either to the east or west – haven’t decided how yet.
It would have been just as easy to cross in New Mexico, I suppose. But this way, we’re crossing over the mountians here in the USA rather than Mexico – we’ve heard they are reallysteep down south!
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