March 19, 2023: Columbus, NM to El Paso, TX. 73 Miles and 842 feet of elevation climb

Welcome to Texas! Even though I am over 600 miles from home, strangely I feel closer, simply because the license plates read “Texas” on them. Today was noteworthy in many ways. First of all, it marked the coldest start we have had, with straight air temperatures of 31 degrees F, and with wind chills, it felt like 26 degrees. Most of us wore all of our cold weather clothes, including shoes covers, full fingered gloves and insulators, tights, and multiple long sleeves to ward off the cold wind, which, at 10 – 15MPH most of the day, blew directly into our faces. We left around 7:30am, and arrived in El Paso about 2:30pm, thanks to a notable accident that happened mid route.

About half-way into the ride, my friend from West Virginia, Jim Bob, navigated behind another rider, and his front tire clipped the back tire of the rider immediately in front of him. The inevitable happened, and he went down HARD, onto the pavement in the middle of the road. We quickly ditched our bikes and went to the rescue, but the damage was done. When Jim Bob fell, the majority of the impact occurred at his left elbow, though those of us who saw the fall from the back also witnessed his head hit the pavement, as well. We quickly helped him up and off to the side of the road, to avoid any oncoming cars. Fortunately, one of the SAG vans came in about 10 minutes, and loaded Jim Bob and his bike into the van and sped off to an Urgent Care in El Paso. The verdict was a break in the radial head of his left arm, just below the elbow. There were several gashes and dents in his helmet, but fortunately, the neurological checks showed no signs of concussion. Long story short, Jim Bob has a 12:30pm flight tomorrow back to his home state of Minnesota, as this marked the end of his journey. To his credit, he attended the dinner tonight, and wished us all luck. He still plans to ride RAGBRAI this July, and is contemplating another cross country trek next year. He will be sorely missed.

Needless to say, the rest of the ride went a little slower, as the remaining 7 riders in our group this morning were all a little shaken by this turn of events. Personally, I was struggling with the 73 miles today, and I owe a debt of gratitude to Teresa, another rider, who patiently taught me how to create a “slip stream” on the bikes. The slip stream involves aligning my front tire with the back tire of the rider in front, riding as closely as possible without interfering with the path of the bike in front, as well as watching for cars coming from behind. They claim that this maneuver reduces the “drag” from oncoming wind by 25%, and based on personal experience, I can attest that it does just that. While it is a little unnerving to ride so closely to the rider immediately in front of you, it does make a dramatic difference. It also taught me to choose very carefully when selecting a group to ride with, perhaps selecting a group that rides at your normal pace, or a little slower. In other words, as they say in West Virginia, “if you can’t run with the big dogs, stay on the porch”. I’m thinking that his might just be some good advice, and will be on the lookout for other riders with comparable abilities to my own in the future. The thought of separating from the group I have become close with pains me, but it might be in their best interest, as well as my own. We shall see!

There’s not much else to report about today, as the scenery was pretty much the same as we have had for the last several days. Tomorrow, we cycle from El Paso to Fort Hancock, a distance of 61 miles. After navigating through some urban traffic for the first 20 miles or so, we empty out into farm land, and parallel the Rio Grande River. Tomorrow’s destination is Fort Hancock, made famous from the movie the Shawshank Redemption. We we will be staying at Fort Hancock High School, and eating our dinner meal and breakfast the following morning at the Community Church, just adjacent to the school. I hope to have more to report tomorrow!