Day 234 - 241, Silver City NM to Junction TX

Day 234, 105 km

I had a good and long breakfast with Carl. His wife was not retired yet. She still worked as a teacher and had left early in the morning. 

When I wanted to leave I discovered that I had got a flat tire again...

Finally I left their nice house,

 passed the nice fire station in the same town

 and rode downhill towards Las Cruces, where I had been invited by another member of Warmshowers.

On the way I passed a modern cow farm. The cows did not seem to have seen a human being for a long time and were very curious about me.
Soon after I decided to stop for the day. Although I usually avoided to sleep on private properties I thought the barn I found was so good that I could make an exception. It seemed as if nobody had been there for fifty years.

Day 235, 65 km

Next day I only had to ride a little bit to get to Las Cruces, where I planned to stay at John's place. As most of them (according to my experiences) he also was a retired teacher and his wife also had Swedish ancestors!
In New Mexico I was allowed to ride on the Interstate but in the entrance of Las Cruces there was a big construction area. I was worried how I could pass it but soon a worker came with his pickup and gave me a ride across the construction area.

 Otherwise it would have been impossible for a truck to pass me for 6 km.

 John and his wife invited me to a restaurant called Golden Corral,

where they had a buffé/smörgåsbord with delicious food from all over the world. They knew that since I was a bicycler I could eat a lot but I think I still impressed them when I ate four plates.
They lived in a big house and I got many useful advises from John, who several times had crossed the states by bike.

Day 236, 150 km

Next morning I left quite early to ride to El Pasos, TX. I rode along a quiet road (which John had recommended) through a valley where they grew a lot of pecanuts.
They seemed to be very attractive, so there were fences and signs everywhere.

In El Paso, which already is in Texas, I passed much higher fences along the border to Mexico. I also saw a lot of cars signed "Border Patrol" watching the fences. There were also several bridges to Mexico and I considered to ride over a bridge only to visit another country.

 But I decided that this could delay my trip and did not.
After El Pasos I found even more areas where they grew pecans. Since I did not see any signs I picked a bag full.

 They tasted exactly like walnuts and I loved them. But only after about 100 m I saw this sign:

Spanish seemes to be the first language for most of the people living in western Texas and the English spelling was not always so good.
Another beautiful sunset ended the day.


Day 237, 145 km

As many times before I started the morning with fixing a flat. It was minus 5 degrees (Celsius) when I fixed it and I thought that I should avoid dirt-roads when I was looking for a sleeping place.
I also thought that it had been several weeks since I had met any touring bicyclist. They seemed to be extincted in Texas.

It soon became warmer and in the afternoon it was about 25 degrees C. It was sunny and I had a good wind until noon, but then I suddenly got headwind and four more flats. Often it was thorns or metal-pieces of a tire which caused them, but once I found this common big stone which had gone all the way through my tire! (My advice is not to buy a Continental Contact tire!)

In the end of the day I had fixed five flats!

Day 238, 120 km

The whole day I tried to avoid thorns, fragmented tires and sharp pieces of glass but I had bad luck and got a lot of flats anyway.

In the middle of the day I stopped in Balmorhea, a little oasis not far from some lakes. Natural springs in the middle of the desert filled the lakes. There was also a nice little grocery store with some tables under shadowing trees.

The gentleman to the left sponsored my trip with 15 dollars, which was enough for all food I bought in the grocery store!

 After I had fixed my flats I washed myself in the creek and continued my trip.

 The road was long and the mountains scenic.

In the end of the day I had fixed six flats...

Day 239, 105 km

This day I had no flats but a strong headwind. I passed many places with a lot of oil pumps. Often it smelled like rotten seaweed around them, but sometimes they burned the gases.

On this picture you can see that wind power is coming more and more.

The whole day I watched carefully for all thorns and fragmented tires along the Interstate. I also carried my bike (more than 60 kg!) wherever I passed a median between the Interstate/Freeway and a more interesting farmer road. Even to my sleeping place I carried my bike, because almost all plants seem to have thorns here in Texas.

Day 240, 140 km

Nothing special happened that day. As usual I passed a lot of dead animals along the road. They all had been hit by cars. I counted seven different species which I all documented with my camera, but I chose not to publish them...

Day 241, 140 km

This day I decided to do something for my lips. Because of all sun and all wind I had got serious cracks in them so they hurt a lot. Especially when I eat salt food. I have tried with olive oil, Russian skin softening cream and even with Weleda's "Arnica Wundheilsalbe". But nothing helped. Since the headwind was very strong I decided to test to moisten them with wide scotch tape.  

It really worked! Already after some hours they were much better.

I also found a river (the first one I saw in Texas) where I could take a swim and use my soap.

I stopped at McDonalds in Junction and hoped that the headwind would calm down while I updated my blog but it did not.
Finally I rode some more kilometers in the evening.