Hank – Our original plan was to hire a U-haul truck one way to El Paso. But the U-Haul place in Ozona only had trailers. We had strong headwinds in the forecast and 60 miles to go to the East Pecos County Rest Area (Westbound) followed by 50 miles to Fort Stockton tomorrow.

Since the U-Haul truck plan was a bust we thought we’d try thumbing a ride. There was very little traffic this morning so we finally decided to ride it out. The ride went well overall. The severe headwinds never showed up. In fact, we only had significant headwinds for the last 12 miles. But it was still a long day. I was happy to arrive at the rest stop.

We set up camp, cleaned up as best as we could, and had dinner. Rice and beans for me. Kathy had spaghetti.

Tomorrow we have 20-30 mph headwinds in the forecast with 40 mpg gusts. I hope they are as much of a no-show as they were today. If not, we might be hitching a ride after all.

Kathy – Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

I got to spend this special day with my sweetheart. Yes everyone says we are living the dream, and they want to be like us. Well today, our day was so wonderful that I’m sure you would love to switch places with us.

We left our over priced and dumpy hotel this morning. The heat/air didn’t work very well, the bathroom door didn’t close because the sink was in the way, and the carpets were nicely stained. I won’t get into anymore issues, but know all my pannier bags were closed tightly to ensure no critters got in them during the night. Small towns limit our hotel choices.

Today we covered 60 miles with some wonderful headwinds and sidewinds out to greet us. We climbed a few thousand feet of elevation just to help keep us in shape. Temps were chilly to start but warmed up into the low 70’s by the end of the day. We had peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast and lunch. Our lunch was on the side of the freeway. It was so romantic eating as noisy cars and semi-trucks passed by and stirred up dust.

The West Texas desert offered us pretty landscape views. We also seen lots of dead roadkill. Dead deer about every quarter mile created wonderful aromas. The many dead skunk, raccoon and other unidentifiable rodents offered some nice smells as well. Dodging the dead animals kept us alert though out the day. The sights and smells on the road are truly amazing!

We are really lucky that Texas has really wide shoulders to keep the traffic from getting close to us. The road-chip shoulders for miles on end are very helpful with slowing us down so we can enjoy the desert views even more so. The uneven road-chip shoulders also create a constant bumping on our bottoms. This is very helpful to remind us that our already sore bums could use a little more jarring.

The big semi-trucks pass by us and stir up the winds to remind us to hold on to the handle bars tightly or you may fall over. As the cars and trucks pass by us they also stir up the dirt. The dirt in our eyes is a welcome sight. It helps us to shift our bodies about as we try to wipe away the dirt from our eyes. The trucks also throw out small rocks as they pass by. The rocks hit our legs, arms, and face which is good to keep us alert and focused.

During our 60 miler we had no services available. We stocked upon water but still had to ration it in the end. During one of our quick break stop I ate a few oranges I had just to get in more fluids since our waters were so low. All is good, I needed to eat those oranges anyway before they went bad.

We finished off the last 12 miles of our ride going uphill with some fierce headwinds. This was a good thing since we were really tired. It allowed us more time in the saddle to think about our sore bums.

We made it to our destination after only eight hours of riding. The freeway rest area at mile marker 308 is home for the night. Setting up our three person tent next to the rest stop bathrooms. This makes for amazing accommodations. The road noise from the freeway traffic is right next to us and will hopefully lull us to sleep tonight. The truckers are parked all around us and cars continue to come and go. So many people and not enough time (or energy) to talk to them.

Our end of ride clean up consisted of cold water in the rest stop bathrooms and baby wipes.  Our dehydrated meals made for a yummy Valentines dinner. Lucky us! Now we rest before repeating today’s ride again tomorrow. Most days we are having a great time and enjoying our travels. Today wasn’t one of them…but I am lucky to have Hank at my side. He is truly amazing, and I love him so much. Hoping Valentines Day 2020 is not as physically demanding and a little more enjoyable for us.

So, we are living the dream and everyone wants to be like us…maybe not today.

Happy Valentines Day! ❤️❤️❤️

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