It was 220 pretty monotonous miles from Alpine, TX to El Paso, TX.
Oatmeal eaten, panniers re-packed and bikes loaded into the Kia, we took off around 8:30am for El Paso, about 220 miles.
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| It would be nice if car rental companies offered a bike rack. Stuffing a pair of bikes into the back of a van pretty much sucks up all the space. |
As sleazy as most of these motels looked, many of them completely filled up at night. (Who would stay there during the day?)
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| That's our car on the left with the open back. Because of the Amtrak fire, we spent way more time here than anticipated. |
Actually, by the time we checked out of the comely Motel Bien Venido, after spending 26 hours on the halted Amtrak, my head was ready to explode and the signs outside of the motel were just yanking my chain. Maybe I'd be a little more tolerant if Lani had not awaken yesterday covered with flea bites.
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| You're kidding me...right? Fleas...are they reasonable? |
Just one more...then it's out of my system.
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| The WiFi sucked, there was no "micro fridge", unless it was too microscopic to see and there was no kitchenette. Did I tell you I had just spent 26 hours on the Amtrak for what should have been a 3-hour ride? |
We finally got on our way. As guilty as I felt about not biking this long Texas stretch, traversing it a 3rd time in two days did pretty much reinforce that it was worth skipping. From US90, there was little to see in Marfa, but...
It turns out that there was more to Marfa than met the eye from US90.
Population 2121, as with all of these towns along US90, Marfa owes its history to the railroad, beginning in 1880 as a railroad water stop. Today, Marfa is a tourist destination for its architecture and art, as well as for the Marfan Lights. First described in 1957, they lights have been described as glowing basketball-sized spheres floating above the ground, or sometimes high in the air.They were studied by a group of physics students in 2004, concluding that they were traffic lights on US Highway 67 reflecting off of the atmosphere Regardless, the town of Marfa built a viewing platform and holds an annual Marfa Lights Festival.
While we didn't take in the Marfa highlights, nor stick around at night to see the lights, we did see the results of the brush fire that halted the Amtrak I had been on the other day.
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| There were acres of charred grass along side the highway. |
The fire had even jumped the highway.
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| With this house destroyed, it was no surprise that the train bridge had also been damaged. |
When the train finally started rolling yesterday in the morning light, I saw a strange blimp-like object in the distance. On the road, I was able to get a better look
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| The Tethered Aerostat Radar System is a balloon-borne radar system whose primary mission is to provide low level radar surveillance data in support of the nation's drug interdiction program. Its secondary mission is to provide North American Aerospace Defense Command with low level surveillance coverage for air sovereignty in the Florida Straights. |
The Tethered Aerostat Radar System handles low altitude surveillance along the Texas-Mexico border as well as monitoring air space between Florida and Cuba. Tethered by a single cable, it can rise as high as 15000', but usually operates at around 12000'.
Unless you've driven this stretch of US90 - or a comparable strip of barren highway (and we've biked on a bunch of them) it may be difficult to appreciate how much nothing there can exist between small towns (in this case, Marfa, population=2121 and Valentine, population=187). So, imagine our surprise at coming across a Prada shop.
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| Prada? Seriously? Here? This called for a double-take and a panorama to show just how isolated this was. |
So, it turns out that Prada Marfa is a permanently installed sculpture by artists Elmgreen and Dragset, located 1.4 miles northwest of Valentine, Texas, just off U.S. Route 90, and about 37 miles northwest of the city of Marfa. The project cost $80,000 and was intended to never be repaired, though this plan was deviated from when, three days after the sculpture was completed, vandals painted "Dumb" and other graffiti on the exterior, and broke into the building stealing handbags and shoes.
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| Pretty crazy, huh? It looks really cool at night. It pretty much is in the middle of nowhere, a place where Lani and I seemed to find ourselves often. |
We finally escaped US90 and made it to I-10, allowing us to travel the Western Texas wilderness as fast as 75mph. I-10 was 100 miles of desert, though we did pass – along the frontage road – Paul, a biker from San Francisco whom we met back in Marathon. He was grinding on through the West Texas void. (Sadly, I never took his picture.) Arriving in El Paso, we were immediately impressed by its sophistication.
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| Somewhere, a cabal of puerile marketing consultants is hard at work. Is that tongue really necessary? |
Bicycle chains stretch out over time. I had mine replaced in San Marcos, TX after only 1000 miles. Lani, on the other hand, had several thousand miles on her chain without it being replaced. When a chain stretches, it can start to reshape the teeth on the cassette, which can lead to additional repairs. So, we looked for a bike shop for Lani.
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Duncan confirmed that Lani’s chain was well stretched beyond the usual limits and changed it out, along with the rear cassette. |
Back in our room, Lani found out that she had picked up another slow tire leak.
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| Lani was pretty adept at fixing flats. I delegated all bike repairs to her. |
The day ended on a very, very high note: Lani logged on to her email and found out that she had been accepted to a second graduate school, Boston University BU has a great program and Lani was excited…we both were…and went out to dinner to celebrate. Good times.
Tomorrow, after 4 non-biking days, we [finally] hit the road again.
