Days 23 & 24: Sunflowers and STEEP HILLS in Texas!

Sunday, Day 23, was a rest day in Van Horn, gearing up for today's 76 mile ride up to the McDonald Observatory. We finally met up with Karen and Norm from Phoenix who started a week after us, and had dinner with them and Norm's father ("Pops") at the Cattle Company in Van Horn.  It was a fun evening.  We probably will not see them again as they are taking a different route, not going up to the Observatory, and doing more miles each day than we are.

 The first 56 miles of the ride today were pretty good, even though we had a 17 mile stretch on I-10 -- the traffic wasn't very heavy and the Texas drivers were really good about moving over to the other lane if at all possible.    Along this stretch, at Ken,  we met Joe and his dog, Amy.  They were traveling from Alabama, had gone up into Montana, and headed back south again.

Turning onto 118, the ride started to get really pretty.  I never thought about Texas being pretty, but it was!! There is a lot of grass interspersed with what otherwise might look like desert and lots of sunflowers (my favorite flower but they DO smell bad; Rick hates the smell).  From 118 we started climbing but it wasn't too bad.  But the last 20 miles were a little tough - beautiful, but tough.   The last 14.5 miles were REALLY tough.   There were a some climbs that were 10-12% for short spurts - maybe not too bad in the beginning of a day, but definitely crushing at the end of a 79 mile day!!  And no headwind today to ward off very irritating KNATS!!!!!

We arrived at our hosts' home at the McDonald Observatory about 6:30 p.m. (having started out this morning from Van Horn about 9:30 a.m.).  Haven't checked the computer for the exact mileage and time, but it has been a LONG day.  We are staying tonight at a Warmshowers host home -- John Kuehne.  There is another cyclist here also -- Cory from Driggs, Idaho.  Cory started from New Orleans on September 14 and is on his way to Los Angeles.  He is only 24 years old, traveling alone, and total bike/gear weight of 50  lbs. (we're envious of the weight and age!!)   A really nice young man who is a ski/snowboard instructor at Grand Targee Ski Resort on the  western side of the Tetons.

Tomorrow morning before we head out, John (our host) is going to give us a tour of the McDonald Observatory -- we are really looking forward to that.

Old Kent Public School

On the road up to the Observatory