Thursday, June 01, 2006
Tyler , Tx to El Paso
No matter how you cut it, Texas is a BIG state...
I had wanted to be west of DFW last night, but just didn't make it and stopped in Tyler, TX, abot 100 miles east of Dallas. I fugured if I could make it to El Paso by Tuesday evening, I could make it to San Diego by Wednesday night - 2-800 mile days back to back is pretty tough riding, though.
I started out from Tyler at 0740, determined to make some time across this monstrous expanse, so I got on the x-way, nailed the speedo at 75 mph and let her rip. If you look at the screen shot, youll see 268 miles in 3:50 and change.with an overall average of almost 70mph - that's cookin' !! The stopped time was for a stoplight and a gas stop (sub 7 minutes) (PS: For some reason I can't find the screen shot I took of the GPS - Imagine it!)
Fortunately, the weather almost cooperated. Weather was overcast and 75* from Tyler to past Ft Worth - very comfortable riding - and then it started to heat up. It was in the mid 80s by Abilene and the clouds had disappeared. I had an excellent Mexican omelet in Abilene and got back n the saddle again. East of Abilene, the terrain is slightly rolling hills and at least some variation from the absolute flatness of the land west of Abilene.
Filled up in Big Spring and started knocking down the various cities in West Texas - Stanton, Midland, Odessa, Monahans, etc. The land here is absolutely flat and featureless, all agricultural and gas field. Stopped in Monahans for a break to ward off the sleepies and got back on again. I could see clouds on the western horizon and hoped I would be able to get to them soom. Temps had risen to 103* and it was like riding in a blast furnace.
Around Pecos, as I was just getting under the clouds, 3 things happened almost simultaneously - the temp dropped 8*, the winds started blowing HARD, gusting and comng from different directions and the speed limit went from 70 to 80mph. I had been flirting with 80mph even at the 70mph limit, but now I could run at 85+ pretty easily. On one wide open section of road, I opened it up and hit the 100 mph mark (Kids, don't try this at home...) It's remarkable that once you've been riding in 103* heat, 95* feels practically balmy. As I was passing a pickup truck loaded with what looked like mattresses in boxes, all of the sudden, the entire load lifted up and came off the truck. Fortunately I was in the left lane about 75' behind him and as the load came off I went even further left to avoid anything that might slide my way. Had I been directly behind him, I most certainly would have hit one of those mattresses. Don't even want to think about the consequences of that...
As I-20 joins with I-10, there are actually beginnings of hills on the horizon. I think those were the Guadalupe Mountains and they stayed with me until I called it a night in El Paso.
All in all, it was a pretty good day. I made some good miles, survived some extreme heat and got somewhat back on track.
Daily stats:
GPS: 715.7 miles
Daily avg: 74.5 mph
Overall avg: 62.7 - this is a pretty good pace for overall average
Drive time: 9:36
Stopped time: 1:49
Total time: 11:25
Cumulative miles: 6048 miles
Later,
Mike
I had wanted to be west of DFW last night, but just didn't make it and stopped in Tyler, TX, abot 100 miles east of Dallas. I fugured if I could make it to El Paso by Tuesday evening, I could make it to San Diego by Wednesday night - 2-800 mile days back to back is pretty tough riding, though.
I started out from Tyler at 0740, determined to make some time across this monstrous expanse, so I got on the x-way, nailed the speedo at 75 mph and let her rip. If you look at the screen shot, youll see 268 miles in 3:50 and change.with an overall average of almost 70mph - that's cookin' !! The stopped time was for a stoplight and a gas stop (sub 7 minutes) (PS: For some reason I can't find the screen shot I took of the GPS - Imagine it!)
Fortunately, the weather almost cooperated. Weather was overcast and 75* from Tyler to past Ft Worth - very comfortable riding - and then it started to heat up. It was in the mid 80s by Abilene and the clouds had disappeared. I had an excellent Mexican omelet in Abilene and got back n the saddle again. East of Abilene, the terrain is slightly rolling hills and at least some variation from the absolute flatness of the land west of Abilene.
Filled up in Big Spring and started knocking down the various cities in West Texas - Stanton, Midland, Odessa, Monahans, etc. The land here is absolutely flat and featureless, all agricultural and gas field. Stopped in Monahans for a break to ward off the sleepies and got back on again. I could see clouds on the western horizon and hoped I would be able to get to them soom. Temps had risen to 103* and it was like riding in a blast furnace.
Around Pecos, as I was just getting under the clouds, 3 things happened almost simultaneously - the temp dropped 8*, the winds started blowing HARD, gusting and comng from different directions and the speed limit went from 70 to 80mph. I had been flirting with 80mph even at the 70mph limit, but now I could run at 85+ pretty easily. On one wide open section of road, I opened it up and hit the 100 mph mark (Kids, don't try this at home...) It's remarkable that once you've been riding in 103* heat, 95* feels practically balmy. As I was passing a pickup truck loaded with what looked like mattresses in boxes, all of the sudden, the entire load lifted up and came off the truck. Fortunately I was in the left lane about 75' behind him and as the load came off I went even further left to avoid anything that might slide my way. Had I been directly behind him, I most certainly would have hit one of those mattresses. Don't even want to think about the consequences of that...
As I-20 joins with I-10, there are actually beginnings of hills on the horizon. I think those were the Guadalupe Mountains and they stayed with me until I called it a night in El Paso.
All in all, it was a pretty good day. I made some good miles, survived some extreme heat and got somewhat back on track.
Daily stats:
GPS: 715.7 miles
Daily avg: 74.5 mph
Overall avg: 62.7 - this is a pretty good pace for overall average
Drive time: 9:36
Stopped time: 1:49
Total time: 11:25
Cumulative miles: 6048 miles
Later,
Mike
