Why are two crazy ladies riding across the United States?

Seven years ago while I was huffing and puffing to keep up with Ruth's running pace, she asked me if I would run across the USA with her.



You are crazy!" I gasped. "but I will cycle across the states with you."



We started planning the trip that day. We ordered the transcontinental maps from Adventure Cycling Association. Then Ruth's husband got a job in Evian, France, and we put our plans on hold.



Throughout the last seven years, we continued to discuss our trip. Then this last Fall, Bill and Ruth returned to Cincinnati. We looked at our maps again,checked into various cycling groups that are crossing the states this year, and kept pedaling on the back roads of southwestern Ohio.



As we learned the prices and the dates of the organized trips, we realized those trips would not work for us. We finally decided that a spring trip would work, and we decided on the Southern Tier Route. The maps route us through southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and then to our final designation - St. Augustine, Florida.

Throughout the trip we will stay in motels and bed&breakfasts and travel as lightly as possible. We plan to average eighty miles per day, take three rest days, and reach our destination on May 1st.



Our husbands are traveling with us the first two weeks. They will carry our gear for us and will be playing golf or attending spring training baseball games while we are cycling. Hurray for our very supportive husbands!



We will try to update the blog every day. Some nights we may be so tired that the only words we will be able to type are: "We made it!" We may be in a motel without a computer or cell coverage.



We will miss our family and friends along the trip. As St. Patrick's Day is approaching we think of this Irish Blessing:



May the road rise to meet you,



May the wind be always at your back,



May the sun shine warm upon your face,



The rains fall soft upon your fields and



Until we meet again,



May God hold you in the palm of his hand.



To All: Please Take Care! Love, Mary Jo and Ruth



Sunday, April 4, 2010

Day 15, Van Horn to Fort Davis, 89 miles

While eating breakfast this morning, we were surprised to discover that our waffles were in the shape of the state of Texas. Ruth pierced her waffle with a fork on our location. We have miles and miles to cycle through Texas.
We began cycling on an I-10 frontage road just as the sun was rising over the distant mountains. On Easter morning we were blessed with a spectacular sunrise.
After twenty miles, the frontage road turned into a dirt road and we were forced to enter I-10, riding on the smooth shoulders separated from the other vehicles by rumble strips. We sped downhill with little traffic passing us. We soon left the expressway and began cycling south on state route 118. The road surface was gravel and tar and we had a two thousand feet climb. The road was not extra steep but we had to keep cycling and cycling upward and upward. The heat continued to increase.

The guys again came to our rescue. They brought us Subway sandwiches with cold drinks, and later returned with more cold water. Bill suited up in his biking gear and joined us for 20 miles on his trusty old Schwinn bike, providing protection against the strong wind. After visiting McDonald Observatory, they came back to check on us yet again. We have the best SAG team ever.
Our expertise on tire changing continues to increase as we got to practice on two more flats, one for Evelyn and one for Ruth.

Finally our exhausted legs pushed us over the pass and we began the long descent through a scenic rocky canyon and dude ranches to Fort Davis, the highest town in Texas. Besides having one of the best preserved western forts, the town has a picturesque downtown. We capped the day by visiting the rattlesnake museum.

Ruth, Mary Jo, and Evelyn

"It never gets easier, you just get faster." Greg LeMonde, former winner of Tour de France
(MJ and R's note: we just get slower!)


6 comments:

  1. You are AMAZING! What a trip!
    I was huffing and puffing pushing James in the jogger up clifton hill when he turned around and started imitating my breathing. Ha Ha :) Clifton is small beans compared to you're "hills". I love reading your adventure. This blog reminds me to be in the moment and to enjoy all that we are given each day.
    The BEST to you 3!

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  2. That's 3 flat tires for Evelyn? Does she have the problem I had where the liner inside the tire was bunched up and leaving the spoke hole vulernable every time you ride over gravel or something that puts pressure? I kept getting flats on GOBA and this was the cause.

    Hope you are enjoying writing this blog as much as we are all enjoying reading it!

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  3. Just in case you run into one of those rattlers on the road:

    "All men possess in their bodies a poison which acts upon serpents; and the human saliva, it is said, makes them take to flight, as though they had been touched with boiling water. The same substance, it is said, destroys them the moment it enters their throat."

    Pliny the Elder said that. He died in 79 A.D. Of snake bite? Also means you have to figure out how to spit into the snake's mouth. Maybe just keep pedaling.

    Take care.

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  4. I advise you just stay away from the snakes. I know there are plenty of rattlers down there, but you really don't need to interact with them. Just get across Texas and back into the USA.

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  5. I can't believe how many flats you guys have had. Must be going so fast that the friction is overheating them!

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  6. When you get home I will make you Texas Shaped Waffles!!!!!!!!

    I stayed in Bracketville and I know I swanm where that photo was taken! Cahterine

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