Day 17 - El Paso, TX to Fort Hancock, TX

62.9 miles today
895.4 total trip miles
12.2 mph average
931’ climbing
FF - 5
MP - Anyone who has attempted to complete an Ironman event.  An Ironman consists of a 2.4 mile swim + a 112 mile bike ride + a full 26.2 mile marathon run - all in the same day.  I never expect to attempt that, but I am motivated by those who are willing to try it.

Today’s ride was an interesting combination.  We started out riding through the city of El Paso.  It sits in a valley & almost the first thing we had to do is climb out of the valley.  It was at least a mile long climb & that served to spread the group out pretty quickly.  When we reached the top of the hill there was a pretty nice overlook of El Paso.  Here I am celebrating the climb.

I was surprised how big the city was.  We had biked about 25 miles before we got out into the country again.  Lots of stop lights, industrial areas & downtown buildings.  As soon as we got back to a more rural area, there were about 20 miles of pecan groves.  I didn’t know El Paso was a big pecan area. The other thing we had again was the cursed headwind.  I think this is the year of headwinds on Bubba’s C2C.  Everyone hopes it ends soon.

Here are pictures of pecan groves in various states of maturity:

And here is a tree along the road.  I don’t know what it is, but it looked picture worthy to me:

The roads were pretty decent & we are spending the night in a high school gymnasium in Fort Hancock.

WDYLT - ILT Fort Hancock, TX is the city where Andy, in the movie The Shawshank Redemption, crossed over into Mexico.  I think that is the only claim to fame it has.  Not much going on here.