El Paso

Today was a very short day mileage-wise. 80 miles or so. We took our time this morning reloading all the gear in a totally different arrangement to make things we need to get at more accessible. This is what it looks like all laid out on the ground.

Yeah, it all fits but I don’t have a picture of the trike with it all on or in it. I’ll get one tomorrow.

It rained hard last night after we went to bed but we were snug in our tent and it was nice to have the canopy in the camp to be able to get out and stay dry. It stopped before we got up and the morning was pleasant to start but got windier quickly. We didn’t get started until close to 11:00.

We followed State Highway 9 all the way to El Paso. It is people forsaken country all the way. About the only traffic was Border Patrol. It was windy but at our backs all the way. Our map did not give very clear directions for getting through El Paso and we wound up going Downtown which is more Mexican than U.S. it being only a few hundred yards from the Juarez port of entry to the street we were on. We backtracked a few miles to get onto I-10 then it started to rain so we made a quick decision to stop at a La Quinta Inn just off the freeway. I may have mentioned before we like these properties. They are reasonably priced ($66 for tonight), accept dogs, and have always had a microwave and refrigerator. We stopped at 3:30 local time, 2:30 by my watch, which means we lost an hour somewhere with the time zones and daylight savings. Frankly, I’m confused as to why. I guess I’ll figure it out eventually.

The weather has made a major change for the worse compared to the forecasts I saw the day before we left so we are changing our itinerary to leave Carlsbad out for now. We will be going from here to Fort Davis Texas State Park which is about 200 miles to the south and east.

We had dinner from the Denny’s next door to the motel. I know, but it was right next door.

Our stamina leaves a lot to be desired and the windy, overcast, chilly weather hasn’t made it any easier. It will get better we know.