DAY 18: 10/7 Fort Hancock, TX to Van Horn, TX

October 20, 2021

DAY 18: 10/7 Fort Hancock, TX, 77 miles to Van Horn, TX –

Leaving Fort Hancock at 6:53am trying to get a head start on the heat, we were delighted to immediately reunite with Jack, and with Will who is professionally supporting Jack’s ride.

Biking without the weight of paniers, Jack is faster than us so we hadn’t really gotten to ride with him for any real length of time. For the first 20 or so miles, the three of us rode together. The first 10 miles were a comfortable, smooth surface, but after that the chip and seal road left me feeling every stone in the micro-bumps. I enjoyed chatting with Jack about the spiritual aspect of the trip. His take was, “how could cycling through this not be spiritual?”

Jack a fellow cycling philosopher and Mark

Beautiful morning ride

Around the 22 mile point, a slow and challenging climb began, so Jack cycled ahead of us and disappeared from our view. It was great riding with him. Over the next 16 miles, we climbed straight from about 3,500’ to 4,600’. There was a slight headwind, but the hardest part was the uneven surface. From far away the road looks like a smoothly paved surface, up close it’s quite different. Almost like looking at an Impressionist painting from across a room vs. from a foot away.

Chip and Seal

On the flat road and in the early, still cool morning, I felt great, especially with a new companion rider. But as the climbing began and the heat rose, all the minor aches I easily ignored began to resurface at the same time. Both shins. Left knee. Right hand.

By 11:15am, we were hot, tired, and hungry and knew there were no places for food or water for the rest of the day, so we stopped in the town of Sierra Blanca. We ate at Delphina’s which had a great local flavor. And yes there is an actual Delphina, but she was out and we were served by her daughter Erica. (By the way, at dinner at Angie’s last night, Angie wasn’t there either.)

Lunch at Delphina's

The afternoon was a slog of a ride. More of the same, little shade, slow bumpy roads. At least the roads had few cars so Heather went for her AirPods and show-tunes despite my safety warning of riding with AirPods.

Heather and her tunes

We started seeing more of these flood gauges that seemed ominous. The ACA cycling maps warn that flooding can easily occur and to be prepared to find your own alternate routes.

Flood gauges we saw

We finally made it to the hotel which was next to a McDonalds, so a large vanilla shake was my recovery beverage.

Vanilla shake recovery

As we headed to dinner on Main Street, it was packed with townspeople hanging out on the curb and on the open tailgates of their pickup trucks. They were waiting for the parade of the football team and cheerleaders for the pep rally going into homecoming weekend. Too bad we missed Friday night lights.

We met up with Jack and Will for Dinner at El Capitan. It was outstanding company and cuisine. The restaurant and hotel are inside a former bank, so it was cool to browse the gift shop inside the former vault. There was a cool rack of sayings painted onto thin pieces of wood. One of them stood out and could not be more true for this adventure.