Day Twenty-Two — Tatum Bunnett

Day 22

58.02 mile

251 ft (elevation gain)

811.3 total miles

El Paso -> Sierra Blanca

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Today we started really strong, we slept in a little bit and got on the road around 9:30. We rode through the rest of El Paso, and we had no problems, all of the roads had wide shoulders and the drivers were really cautious. As soon as we were out of the city we started passing more pecan trees, and fields of cotton, corn, and alfalfa. The alfalfa was being cut and it smelt really good. The whole first half of the day the road was as smooth as butter we also had a pretty big tail wind so we were able to average around 20 mph. As we were approaching lunch I got my second flat of the trip, luckily mom was nearby so we fixed it up fast and we’re back on the road in no time. About ten miles after the flat we were in Fort Hancock for lunch. We ate in front of the tiny post office because everyone we talked to about the area and they said not to just pull over on the side of the road. While eating lunch the sheriff came to the post office, we ended up talking to him for a while and learning a lot about the area, he even recommended a restaurant for dinner. Our original plan was to stop in Fort Hancock for the night but we were all feeling good so we decided to ride another 30 miles to the traveling tiger truck stop. The ride after lunch was fairly easy we still had a tail wind but the pavement got a little bumpier. As we were riding we past the Sheriffs goat farm, along with a about five more goat farms. We also past a farm with a ton of horses, we stopped to say hi, they were really friendly and let us pet them. Today we met some really friendly animals but we also met a mean dog that chased us for a short while, but luckly we were able to speed up and out run him. A lot of the towns we went through today were extremely small with one stop light and there were a lot of delapatated buildings, it’s reay eye opening to see how much lever the there is in the U.S. We ended our ride at the truck stop, this was our original campsite for the night, the sheriff said this would be a safe place to camp. Before we set up our campsite for the night we decided to go to the dinner place the sheriff recommended, it is the cattleman’s steakhouse (not affiliated with the chain). This steakhouse was also reccomended to us by a couple of other people as well. It is really cool it’s about five miles off of 10 and basically in the middle of nowhere. There is a zoo at it as well, also about 6 movies have been filmed there. It was super yummy we had a great Steak dinner, they even gad pecan pie (my favorite genre of pie). As we were eating dinner we were thinking about how quiet the parking lot of the steakhouse was and how it could be an okay camping spot. We asked our waitress and she said the we could camp in the parking lot if we wanted to. It is actually a super nice dry camping spot, it’s super quiet and there is a security guard on duty 24/7. Tomorrow should be fairly similar to today but should still be really fun, the scenery has been really pretty so I’m excited.

Baby peacan trees, and the mountain of Mexico.

The nice sheriff (please enjoy the socks and sandals that I’m wearing).

A collection of the bikers tan that is slowly appearing.

Old buildings.

A restaurant that is definetly not open.

Our elevation profile.

Please help raise funds for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) at https://www.firstgiving.com/event/rsds/Ride-Across-The-Country-For-CRPS