Day 18 - Fort Hancock, TX to Van Horn, TX

76.4 miles today
971.8 total trip miles
13.1 mph average
1,627’ climbing
FF - 4
MP - my sister-in-law “Sunshine” Patti Skirvin & family.  She regularly takes a positive outlook on life, even in the face of personal challenges & encourages others to look at the bright side of life. Today was the perfect day for her to be my MP because the sun was shining all day.  That means I needed to get on plenty of sunscreen.

Today started out great, except that I overestimated the temperature & was cold until the sun came up enough to get me warmer.  The first 20 miles were smooth & fast with very little traffic.  Saw a goat farm along the way & some horses, but the horses were too far away to get a good picture.

Then came a 10 mile climb with grades between 2% - 5%.  Needless to say it slowed me down quite a bit, but those grades I can handle by gearing down. Kept chasing toward this mountain, hoping I didn’t have to climb it.

Had lunch at a diner in the ghost town of Sierra Blanca.  The road we were on used to be the main route through the area, but when the interstate highway was built south of town, the community died.
Pretty much all that is left is that diner.  The owner of the diner was interested in all the bikes, but when she saw my recumbent, she had to try it.  I let her sit on it, but I knew she wouldn’t go anywhere.  She was about 5’ tall & couldn’t even reach the pedals.

We are camping tonight in Van Horn, and there is a beautiful full moon.

WDYLT - ILT  Just north of Van Horn, TX is where Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon, has his space ship headquarters.  They were supposed to be offering regular citizens space travel this year, but are behind schedule.