Highway 90 All Day

Riding Day 15

Just a short post tonight as the day was rather mundane. We woke up late and didn’t hit the road until 9:40. The navigation was simple: follow Highway 90 until you don’t feel like riding a bike anymore. So that’s what we did.

The winds were behind us all day and helped push us up a continual gradual climb out of Van Horn. The traffic came in clumps, but for the most part it was peaceful. It felt like Odie and I were both a little low energy all day, in part due to the previous day’s milage, but also perhaps because that sometimes happens to us all. The Bob had stayed a little longer at the hotel to shower and relax a bit, but he eventually caught up to us around mile 20.

We rode in 15 mile increments all day, and every time we stopped for a break, we realized how strong the wind was blowing. The gusts at times bullied us sideways, and twice we were accosted by tumbleweeds that seemed to be aiming for us. The high point of the ride was when we encountered a Prada Store out in the middle of literal nowhere. On display were high-fashion shoes and handbags for women, and the building was surrounded by a fence with hundreds of padlocks attached to it. Very strange

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We rolled into Marfa, TX around 3:30pm after 74.4 miles of pedaling, which also took us beyond the 1,000 mile total for the trip. We found a cool outdoor bar playing 70s & 80s tunes, had a beer and peanuts in the shell for dinner, and are now camped in a field full of thorns and stickers in an abandoned RV park called Apache Pines. The Bob and Odie are already snoring, and I’m not far behind, but I’m going to hang out awhile longer in the hopes of seeing the “Marfa Lights,” which is some weird phenomena that draws people to this area. So far, I haven’t seen anything, but who knows. Oh, and we didn’t see any other bicycle riders today, including those from our tribe. This was the first day that’s happened, but we do know that Dustin and Ana are about 50 miles in trail, so maybe we’ll eventually meet up with them again. Good night, sleep tight, hope those Marfa lights ain’t too bright

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