Day 15: Sanderson to Del Rio, TX

Distance: 119.1 mi (191.7 km)
Cumulative Distance: 1,323.3 (2,129.6 km)
Average Speed: 18.5 mph (29.8 kph)
Climb: 4,957 ft (1,511 m)
Cumulative Climb: 70,481 ft (121,483 m)
Flats: 1
Cumulative Flats: 11

Well, if yesterday was long, today’s ride was really long. But Mariah (out here they call the wind Mariah) was on our side today. We were more downhill than up, and she was almost always at our back.

The bad part of the ride today was the road surface. After the warning yesterday, we made an honest attempt to stay on the shoulder but after Lee rode for some time, perhaps for several (10?) miles, on a flat tire without knowing it, we did move over to the road and then watched for traffic and moved over as necessary. It was a very jangling, rough, uncomfortable ride for a good part of the way.

Dave had a problem with the rendezvous at lunch time so we lost the best part of an hour but we did see Judge Roy Bean’s famous hangout. Our first cultural experience of the trip.

We crossed both the Pecos and Evans rivers today - the Pecos flows into the Rio Grande about one mile from the bridge we crossed, and of course, Mexico is on the other side. We see many border patrol vehicles.

The picture above is the Pecos, and below is the Evans. Two beautiful rivers.

 Because Dave was unable to do the annual century ride at Bonita Bay on President’s Day. Lee volunteered to give up part of his trip to allow Dave to finally get his century.

There was a lot of up and down today, some of the road cuts were quite interesting.