January 18, 2018 - Jct. 20 & 192 to Van Horn, TX

Day 18 Cross Country Bike Trip

Tobey was on the road about 8:30 this morning – jumping right onto I-10 for the first 17 miles of his ride.

He was lucky to have a tailwind for most of the morning, but did have to watch out for road alligators! (shreds of blown tires that tend to flatten bicycle tires) This is I-10 below.

Frontage road below

He was off the interstate and onto the frontage road near Sierra Blanca where there were a couple of interesting historical markers. The first was gave information about General Byrne, who was killed in an attack by an Apache Chieftain, Victorio. Some history I didn’t know about!

The second told of the Second Continental Railroad and where the east and west sections joined at Sierra Blanca in 1881. The railroad tracks run parallel to I-10 and we have seen and listened to the trains off and on all day and night.

By lunchtime, the temperature had warmed and Tobey was able to ride this afternoon in shorts and t-shirt.

The wind blew and blew and with it the dust rolled!

It was difficult at times to see the hills and buttes in the distance.

There is some mining in this area, too.

At some point in the day, Tobey was followed by UFOs. We are getting closer to Marfa, Texas (we will be there tomorrow night) which as been enchanted by sightings of mysterious "ghost lights"  for over a century. The glowing balls of light of varying sizes show up in the sky seemingly randomly, and behave in ways that no man-made craft or flying animal should - like zipping from one part of the sky to the other, and disappearing and reappearing. Maybe, just maybe, they are making an early appearance 80 miles north? Who knows?

As we approached Van Horn, Tobey wanted to ride part way down Hwy. 90 so he could knock some of his miles off tomorrow’s ride. Heading south, he was fighting a cross-wind that was blowing 20-30mph. Six miles south, he called it a day and I picked him up.

He rode 68.3 miles today. We are staying at the Desert Willow RV Park in Van Horn tonight. Laundry done, dinner finished, and getting some rest! Tomorrow it is off to Marfa and meeting our friends Phil and Marcia who will be joining us for part of the ride.

This is the link to his ride today:
https://ridewithgps.com/trips/31024731
This is a link that will show Tobey’s route. https://ridewithgps.com/events/71165-tobey-s-coast-to-coast-ride-2018-2019

On the left side of the map, it shows day by day stop and start points so you can look at each day’s route.  One of the weird things about the map is it lists days 10, 11, etc. after Day 1. Strange thing about Google numbering I guess!
OR you can scroll to the bottom of the day-to-day and there is a box that says “Show all on Map”. If you click that, it will change the map view to show all days traveled so far.