Cleveland, Texas

We ended up spending two days in La Grange due to the weather. It was in the 30's and pouring down rain, so we did a "Weldon". You'll have to ask Bill and Jill what that is yourselves! The weather was just miserable. We walked down to Walmart for a big shopping trip. Say hello to more food............ I also found a $5.00 DVD for those nights in the tent. We rented a buck movie, "The Boune Ultimatum" from the Red Box. We had been trying to see it since it came out last summer. Then we walked over to a bakery that was next door for sandwiches for lunch. Did I mention that we had to walk about a mile in the rain and wind to do our little shopping trip?? It always amazes me when people say, "oh you have to see this or that or do this or that" but what they forget is that we don't have a car. Oh, sure just hop in the car, turn on the heat, roll up the windows and go wherever you want. When we walked out the door of the hotel Hap told me it was about a quarter of a mile, but ........... oh never mind..... he's only an engineer. I guess he didn't use his tape measure on that quarter of a mile. I know what you are thinking! I got all mad because he didn't tell me how far it really was but no I didn't. .....until....I got the cramp in my leg. Where did THAT come from. Hap was very supportive though, his comment.."you never get cramps.........." Thank you Mr. Eaton for clarifying that for me. As you can see our little jaunt to Walmart was another adventure.
The rain finally stopped the next day. It was still in the 40's when we left La Grange. It stayed cool all day. But it wasn't raining so it was a good day. We had more rolling terrain now. And the country side is finally beginning to look like something. I am still trying to figure out why people call Texas, God's Country. But I'm not going to say anything about that while we are still in Texas. We stopped in a little town of Round Top for a drink. We enjoyed the rolling hills. It sort of reminded us of Ohio.....oops there I go again! There roads are really nice for cycling on, there are nice wide berms that are actually used as passing lanes. When you are riding on them you really have to watch your rear, because of the bogeys. A bogey would be a pick up truck! I was also on the lookout for a longhorn cow/bull/whatever. Since we are in the longhorn state doesn't it seem like we should see at least one? Afterall we have been in Texas for a couple of months.....now....or something like that. One cow? Bull? Steer??
We arrived in Brenham and tried to find a campground. We called several but they didn't allow RIFF RAFF (aka tents) there. So once again we ended up in a hotel. We checked in and then rode over to a grocery store for dinner supplies. Next door to the grocery was a Verizon store. Our cell phone wasn't staying charged so Hap went in to see about getting a new battery. We thought maybe it was still under warrenty. But the guy said it wasn't so he bought a new one. I bought salad fixings and soup for dinner. Hap also made a call to the Verizon customer service 800 number and asked about a warrenty. Of course we have a warrenty and yours is over on Feb 1. He ended up crediting our account for $20 and telling us we may as well get a new phone. (To be continued)......
The next day left in sunshine and alittle warmer temps. By the end of the day it was almost 70 degrees and cloudy. The riding was great. Traffic was alittle heavy but with our berm no one bothered us. No success in seeing a longhorn again today. We rode into Montgomery and found a KOA to stay in. I think this is the biggest KOA I have ever seen. It was actually a resort. Indoor pool/hot tub/clubhouse/gameroom. We set up camp, cooked mashed potatoes and peas for dinner and headed to the hot tub. While our clothes were being washed we sat in the tub. OK so maybe we are just getting soft. We went back to the tent and Big Agnes. BA is our down double sleeping bag. She kept us plenty warm during the night. Now if I could just figure out how to go to the bathroom without getting out of the tent all would be good!
This morning we ate our "breakfast" (yogart and banana) inside the tent because it was alittle chilly in the 40's. As we were riding in Rt 105 we saw an IHOP and stopped for some great pancakes. Rt 105 was very busy but once again a nice wide berm/lane just for tandems. We saw another Verizon store so we stopped again to get our new phone. This time we were told we didn't need a new phone, just a new battery...... Confused??? Doesn't matter....we have a phone that works. It looked like the rain was coming again. It was 72 degrees. We stayed on Rt 105 heading east into Cleveland. The terrain is really starting to change now. We are maybe 100 miles or so from Louisiana. Yeah! Maybe we will get out of Texas.

Back on the saddle again LaGrange Texas

Hello everyone,
We are on the move again after our trip back to Indianapolis for Mom's funeral. It has been a difficult week for us. We are so thankful for all of our friends and family who are praying for us. Also that Mom is with our Lord in paradise. We will miss her so much. It was difficult to come back to ride. When you do something like we are doing you really have to have your "head in the game." When we arrived back in Austin, as we were walking through the airport we both said, "I don't remember walking through this airport". It has been a whirlwind of a week.
John picked us up at the airport. John was one of the Alpha patients who was at the support group meeting that we spoke at in San Marcos. He graciously offered to take us to the airport and keep our bike and gear for us while we were gone. After he dropped us off it was alittle funny to see our tandem in the back of his pick up truck driving away. Afterall we didn't know him or actually where he lived. He picked us up and drove us to his house. We had a good time chatting. We also loved meeting his dog, Dakota. Another dog fix for us! Yeah. The next morning we woke up to a cool, windy day in the 40's. We had planned a short day anyway just to get our pedal legs back up to speed. Our plan was to ride to the Bastrop State Park and stay in a cabin. When we arrived in Bastop I called and was told the rates were $65/night + we had to pay $4 each to get into the park. That seemed alittle steep so we called another hotel and stayed there. The bonus was that there was a Walmart next door. We walked over for some supplies and got a bag salad and salmon for dinner.
This morning we woke up once again to a drizzly, cool day, but this time it was 37 degrees. We headed east on Rt 71 toward the State Park to at least ride through it. But again they wanted $4 to ride through. We changed our mind and rode back to Rt 71 and followed it to LaGrange. There was a huge shoulder on the edge so we didn't have to worry too much about traffic. It was cold though. I kept adding layers. The final tally? Undershirt, T Shirt, lightweight long sleeve shirt, heavy long sleeve shirt, vest, jacket, tights and gortex rainpants. Oh and a hat and earwarmers. I was plenty warm all day. The only problem was the mist on the glasses. But then I did not need to see. I hope Hap can see! We also put flashing lights on the bike and with our bright rain covers on the packs, and our jackets we felt pretty safe. We stopped in Smithville for a quick grilled cheese sandwich. While there we called a hotel in LaGrange to make sure they had a room for us. It is nice to have a target. We rode into LaGrange well before dark, had a much deserved hot shower. Hap walked across the street and got some take out pasta and chicken for dinner. Now this is roughing it!
The picture on the left above is of our friends Bruce and Joanna, OLD college friends of Hap from Purdue. They shared their house with us in San Antonio. On the left above is a picture of John at his house. Thanks to all of them for letting us leave our bike and gear while we had a vacation from our vacation!

San Marcos, Texas

Sometimes what you think is important is not so important. Last night Hap's mother, Josephine Eaton, age 91 passed away suddenly at home in Indianapolis. She was surrounded by her family and had just had a wonderful evening. We spoke with her shortly before she was taken from us. Her passing is a huge surprise. Being home last week and spending time in Indianapolis with her, coincidence? I think not. The assurance that we have that she is with our Lord, and is no longer in pain is our comfort. We are flying back to Indianapolis and plan to be there for about a week and then continue our "little bike ride", just as she would have wanted. The above pictures are from last May when we stopped in Indy at the beginning of our trip.

In Ohio for a few days......

Hi everyone,

We flew back to Ohio for a few days to see the new ones. I am the one in the picture trying to hold all three of the new ones. Reed, Rowdy and Korbin. I have been busy while we are home just running around trying to hold them as much as possible. Picture me trying to feed both Reed and Rowdy at the same time, the phone ringing.............. do you get the picture?? Tiffany and Heather are handling being new mom's great.

We head back to San Antonio this Friday to continue our ride. We are riding north to San Marcos to do a presentation for an Alpha Support Group this sunday. We are looking forward to sharing our adventure with them. We haven't seen the newspaper article from San Antonio yet.

I was looking back at our map from the ride and it is hard to believe how far we have come. It has been some adventure. People have asked us what is the best part? Or the most memorable? That is so hard to say. But as far as places I would have to say Mt. Rushmore, Glacier Park, North Cascades Highway. Those are "places" that stick out. But really the best part has been the people that we have met. There are so many people that have helped us out, given us food or shelter or laughed at us. It's all good. When you actually spend time at 13 mph riding across our great country, you really get the opportunity to see, smell and sometimes taste the countryside. It is awesome. Would I change any of the trip? Absolutely not! Well, maybe the day it was 114 degrees riding into Billings................. or maybe the day of the WIND riding into Del Rio........ but those are the days that build character don't you think? We sure have alot of character! Some people might say that we are real characters.

It is really hard to put the thoughts and feelings about this past 7 months in words. Accomplishment? Survival? Maybe some of both? Someone asked us what motivates someone to do something like this. That is an easy question. Because we are still able to. Because we love to travel on our bicycle, under our own power, with no particular plan. Is that a good enough answer or one that others can relate to? I'm not sure. We don't think what we are doing is special or different than what we have been doing for the past 20 years. Hopefully we have been able to help spread the word about Alpha One. I think alot of people don't give a thought to a disease unless someone in their family or someone they know is affected. For us Alpha One is personal. We have watched Dugan, Sonnie and the rest of the family deal with it for 20 years now. Maybe something that we say to one person can help them to either be tested for Alpha or help them deal with it. As part of my job as wellness director at Berger Health System, I have worked with many people over the years who have chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, stroke, arthritis. One of the things that I have learned on this trip as we have met with Alpha patients along the route is that not all diseases are created equal. What I mean by this is you cannot put everyone in a box or a category who has a chronic illness. I have seen so many times a doctor or other healthcare giver will treat all diabetic or heart disease patient or any other illness the same. Oh, Mrs. So and So if you have diabetes do A, B and C. But it's not the same. All patients are different and may need steps D, C, and A. As I talk to Alpha patients I see so many differences in care, treatment, symptoms etc, etc. How do we change this pattern of healthcare?? I'm not sure. I don't have any answers, only questions. So far I would just give one suggestion to anyone with any chronic illness. You need to be responsible for your health. I am not saying that you don't need your doctors or healthcare providers. On the contrary they are part of the solution. You need to be a partner with your doctor. Learn more about your illness. What are other possible treatments? And of course you know that I am going to say that you need to exercise! No, you don't have to ride your bike around the country. You don't even have to ride a bike. Just move!

Sorry I got off on a tangent, but since I am not working at the hospital right now. I thought maybe all of you might want to hear what I would be telling them. The good part is that if you don't wanna hear it, you can just shut me up by one click.....

That's all for now. We will be on the road again from San Antonio this Saturday. So until then.....Happy New Year!

Happy New Year

Hello and Happy New Year to all of our friends and family wherever you are. We are spending New Year's Day here in San Antonio watching football games. We did a short ride into downtown San Antonio so that we could see some of the sights of the city. The hotel is about 4 blocks from The Alamo. I was dreading the ride into the middle of the city because generally riding into large cities is not a good idea and not much fun. But it turned out to be an easy ride. The weather turned warmer, 70's and sunny. We rode up to The Alamo for a picture before heading to the hotel so we could get the tandem in the picture. As we rode up I think that we were as much a tourist attraction as The Alamo. Sometimes we forget that our "bus" can be quite a sight if you haven't seen it before. After so many months and miles on the road it seems perfectly normal to be riding our 180 pound "bus". And yes we did ride it all the way from Ohio by the way of Seattle, and San Diego. Oh wait, I forgot we did have to walk across the Mississippi River on a very rainy, cold day when there was no berm on the bridge and the sidewalk of the bridge was too narrow to ride on. So, no, I guess we haven't "ridden" all the way from Ohio! After our picture we needed some stamps so Hap went into the post office while I waited outside with the "bus". A lady with a big camera came walking up, asking the typical, where ya from, where ya goin, etc..... As it turns out she was a reporter for the San Antonio Express News. She took our information, several pictures, so we'll see what actually gets in the paper about Alpha One. We went to the hotel and left the bus and walked back over to The Alamo, and the Riverwalk. San Antonio is really a pretty city. They were setting up for a big New Year's eve party downtown. We stopped at one of the vendor's and Hap got some kind of a chicken taco. We are not exactly sure what it was. But even Hap thought it was awful! We also got some chinese rice that was pretty good. But we decided we didn't want anymore of the vendor's food. The Alamo was really interesting. We also went to the IMAX theater to watch The Alamo story on the BIG screen. It was getting dark so we headed back to the hotel to watch football. For dinner we ordered a pizza.

Today we were just plain lazy. It has been many days since we have not ridden or done anything. It seemed weird not to get on the "bus". But it was fun just relaxing and watching all of the games on tv. We did walk down the street to a store for some lunch. For dinner tonight we ordered chinese take out or is that deliver in?? Anyway they are bringing it to us. We are planning to ride to a college friend of Hap's in Universal City which is a suberb of San Antonio for a couple of nights and then fly home for a quick week. We are anxious to see our newest arrival Korbin Scott Landrum. Thank goodness for frequent flier miles!

San Antonio, Texas

We ate breakfast at the Amber Sky restaurant. I had my first breakfast taco. A breakfast taco is basically your choice of eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, onions, cheese on a tortilla. Good stuff! It was another sunny beautiful day, temps in the 60's. I can now tell you that the scenery has officially changed, alittle. We are starting to see some farmland. Corn and cotton. As we were riding along a car stopped and a guy got out of the car and was standing at the side of the road. Then we realized that it was Jon! Jon and the family were headed to Six Flags in San Antonio. What a surprise. It was good to see them again. We chatted for awhile and they went on. We had a headwind again today. There was alittle bit more traffic today but mostly everyone gave us plenty of room. We rode into Hondo and stopped at a hotel. The nights are getting down into the 20's. I hope Big Agnus doesn't get upset about having to stay on the bike instead of keeping us warm at night. When we got to the hotel, the guy who checked us in looked at my address and said "I lived in Circleville OH for a couple of years! Home of the Pumpkin Show right?" Talk about being surprised. In the room I washed out a couple pair of bike shorts and our jerseys since they didn't have a laundry. We called a pizza place who delivered and had spagetti for dinner. And watched football.

The next morning it was a little chilly to start. In the 40's. But with the sun it warmed up quickly. The road became a four lane but we still had a nice berm to ride on. The traffic picked up too. Probably since it was a holiday weekend. As we were riding along we were trying to remember the names of songs. At one point Hap said "The name is right on the tip of my tongue but I can't see it......." What??? Does that make sense to anyone else? We didn't have far to ride into San Antonio. So it was a very short day. The traffic picked up as we got closer to San Antonio. We have been following 90 East ever since we left the town of Van Horn many days ago. When we got into San Antonio, the traffic really picked up and we had the situation again where we were having to go across exit ramps and entrance ramps. That is a scary deal on a bicycle. Good thing our tandem has a lookout! We made it to the hotel, checked in and then asked about a grocery store. The lady at the hotel told us it was just down the street, go to the light, turn left, go under the freeway and it is right there. You can't miss it. I hate it when they say that. Can't they just leave well enough alone? We followed the directions and guess what we couldn't find it. And guess what there were about a zillion cars on the road. So....... I finally said stop I'm asking directions. I went into a barbershop (I hoped they spoke english) and got the directions. Then we headed out. After one U Turn, going past our turn, turning the wrong way, going the wrong direction on a one way road......we found it....no problem! We got to the grocery store. It looked like a shady part of town to me. Something about the sign on the front door that said please leave all backpacks at the front desk. I stayed outside with the bike and Hap went in to shop. When he came out we found a "backway" to the hotel.

Today we rode to SeaWorld. We had a great day walking around and watching the shows. It is just amazing what they can train the animals to do. In my first life I got my degree in Animal Health and planned to work for a Vet. I did work for some time at the Ohio State Vet Hospital. I loved it. But somehow I ended up working on people. Sometimes I wish I would have stayed working with animals. We rode back to the hotel and walked next door for dinner.

Uvalde, Texas

Merry Christmas everyone,

The last time I wrote to you. We had stayed only about 10 miles west of Del Rio. The wind won the battle on that day. I hope we don't have to ride in wind like that again it was really something! As we were riding into town another cyclist came toward us on the other side of the road, waved and then turned around to ride with us. Jon rode with us to the Days Inn where we had reservations for a couple of nights. We planned to stay in Del Rio for Christmas. Jon is a F15 pilot at Laughlin AFB in Del Rio. When he left us at the Days Inn he invited us over to his house later. His family only lived a mile or so away. We exchanged phone numbers and he left. Our room was really nice. It was a suite with a full kitchen. We decided to get some groceries and cook our Christmas eve dinner. There was an IHOP down the street so we headed down there for lunch. They had pumpkin pancakes that were as good as any we have had at the Pumpkin Show in Circleville. We went back to the hotel, showered and walked back down the road to Walmart for groceries. Walmart was packed! I have been in a packed Walmart before but not one that had mostly Spanish speaking people in it. It seemed like no matter where I stood or tried to walk I was in the way. But it was fun to be able to do something fairly normal like shopping. We have been riding through some pretty barren countryside. So even though it was a pain it was kindof fun. We decided since we had an oven we would bake meat, potatoes, carrots and onion for dinner. Now all we needed was something to cook it in. We found something called cooking bags that seemed like they might work. Then we needed something to put the cooking bag in so we bought a disposable cooking pan. I hope this works! We walked out of the store with about 8 bags of "stuff". We had taken the bags off the bike. So we stuffed the backpack with some of it, and I carried all the other bags. Good thing we didn't have to go too far. When we got back we called Jon and set a time to go their house. By the time we left for their house it was dark so we put on all our flashing lights and headed over. We had a great time talking with Jon, Marianne, Kailie and Kody.

Christmas eve day we spent doing much of nothing. We rode over to the church we had picked out of the phone book to see if we could see what time their service was. But they didn't have any times posted. We went by several churches and none of them had times posted either. Strange?? So we went back to the hotel and spent the evening cooking our dinner and watching The Godfather. I don't know why we had to watch it again for the nth time. We know how it ends. They all die! Christmas morning we went to St. James Episcopal Church. After church Jon and Marianne had invited us to dinner. We had bought Christmas decorations back in Van Horn, so we decorated the bike and rode to their house. Marianne fixed a fantastic turkey dinner with all the trimmings. It was great. We sure appreciated being able to spend Christmas with friends instead of in a hotel room.

We finally left Del Rio the day after Christmas. Jon came over to ride with us to Bracketville. We had an amazing tailwind. The road was great for cycling on. We are still following Rt 90 east. We have been on Rt 90 since we were in Van Horn. The road became alittle rougher as we got closer to Bracketville. I don't have to tell you what the scenery is. I'll tell you what when the scenery changes I'll let you know. So if I don't mention anything about it you will know it is the same. We had a quick ride to Bracketville and went to the milkshake shop that Jon had recommended. Jon turned around for the ride back to Del Rio. Quite a chore with the 20 mph headwind! At Fort Brackett they had a campground and a hotel. When the lady told me they didn't have hot showers and the cost for the motel was only $35. I picked the motel. Wouldn't you??

This morning we woke up to wind again. But today it is blowing about 20 mph from the SE. And we are headed east! We fought the wind all day and the wind won. When this happens you just gear down, and ride the bike. And with no scenery (oops I said I wasn't going to mention that) it was a long day. We stopped at a Border Patrol check station and ate some lunch that we had with us. The old stand by peanut butter sandwiches! We were very happy to see the town of Uvalde. Hopefully the wind will be more favorable tomorrow. Later..........

Del Rio, Texas

We ate breakfast in Peggy's Diner at Alpine. Breakfast was included in the cost of the room. Peggy's Diner looked like an old railroad car. As it turned out the hotel we stayed in was where all of the railroad employees stay. We have seen alot of trains on this trip. I guess since there aren't many roads that the railroad follows the road. Hap has been having a great time trying to get them to blow the horn by waving at them. So far I think he's 10 for 15 or something like that. The weather today was just beautiful. Sunny 70's or so and a tailwind. We had a short ride into Marathon planned. I wish I could say that there was something spectacular to see but we are in West Texas and the terrain is pretty much desert like, shrubby bushes, cactus, you get the picture! We continue to have the great berm on both sides of the road. And alot of cars will still get into the other lane when they pass. We are seeing quite a lot of semi trucks. We are also seeing alot of cars being towed by other cars. I am not sure what is up with that?? Are they trying to save on gas?? What's the deal? We both were listening to our MP3 player with some great tunes and just flying along. No, we don't usually listen to our MP3 player while riding but with no traffic, the huge berm and both of us watching for traffic through our mirrors we think it was ok. Believe me, we would never do that back in Ohio! We arrived in Marathon and stopped at a or should I say THE mexican restaurant in town for lunch. It was going to get down into the 20 's again. So we stayed at the Marathon Motel. It was an interesting little place. Each room was a little cabin. And when I say little......we couldn't bring the tandem into the room until we were ready for bed and then the door barely closed. But it was a nice clean place. We found out that they run a marathon every year from Marathon to Alpine. That would be an interesting run.
We ate breakfast in the outside diner at the hotel and left in beautiful weather again. The ride to Sanderson was 55 miles with no services. So we made sure we had plenty of water and food before heading out. We carry four water bottles and a spare camelback that holds about 2 liters of water. Today's ride was record setting. We averaged 19.3 mph! But then we had a great tailwind AND lots of downhill. But it was still great flying along. At one point I asked Hap how fast we were going and he said 30 mph! It was great. We stopped at a small roadside rest for a peanut butter sandwich. Don't you think that a rest area should have a bathroom? Well, not in west Texas! And those shrubby bushes and cactus are pretty small....good thing I'm short. When we got to Sanderson we went straight to the post office. Our mail that we were supposed to pick up in El Paso was supposed to be forwarded here AND we were expecting this week's mail. We were very happy that when we got there it had arrived. We road on into Sanderson looking for the motel. It looked like the entire town had closed up. There were a couple of restaurants, a few little stores, a visitor center and a gas station. But they were all closed. Guess Sanderson closes on Thursdays?? But the hotel was open and had a room. (There wasn't anyone else there!) We made our Dinty Moore beef stew in the microwave added some peas and called it dinner!
The next morning we woke up to overcast skies and cooler temperatures but still in the 60's. The terrain changed alittle bit today. There were more hills. We would ride down into a canyon and then up the other side. We also had a headwind. We again had a day of 60 miles and no services. There was one little store with a post office. We stopped to mail home a package, fill up water bottles and went on. We stopped for lunch again at another rest area. And no they still don't have bathrooms at rest areas in West Texas! The riding today was much more interesting with the change in terrain. We were heading for Langtry and according to our Adventure Cycling map (which we have now because it came in the mail finally!) had no services. There was a visitor center that our map said you could camp by. Langtry was the town that Judge Roy Bean lived in back in the day. I am not sure which day but it was sometime ago..... The Dept of Transportation had built a really nice center and display area where you could walk through his "courtroom" which was actually his saloon. The town of Langtry was maybe 10 houses that maybe 10 people lived in and a community center. The lady at the visitor center told us we were allowed to camp beside the community center but it was "dry camping". Which means no water, no bathrooms, no showers! So I washed up in the visitor center bathroom and we went over to set up our tent. The lady from the visitor center came walking over with a bag of food. I don't know, maybe we looked hungry? In the bag was eggs for breakfast, 2 cookies and 2 apples. We cooked dinner and went to bed. We watched the movie "Hunt for Red October" that we had been carrying with us. It didn't get as cold tonight and we both slept well.
This morning we woke up to the sound of WIND. We cooked our eggs. We discovered a new way to fix eggs. You break them into a small plastic bag and then boil them. Voila! Instant omelette. OK so you all probably new that already! But we were very pleased with ourselves. It was colder today (50) but still sunny. The big story about today's ride was the wind. I don't think we have ever ridden in wind like this. The wind was from the NW and we were headed SE. You would think that would be perfect wouldn't you. Well it was ok as long as we had a direct tailwind but if the road turned at all and we had any wind from the side it was scary. Hap was really having problems going straight. At one point we had a semi truck go by and we had a side wind. Hap hit the brakes, we stopped, planted our feet, and leaned the bike almost all the way over. Hap yelled do you want to just walk. But we didn't think we could push it either. We stopped at a bridge crossing the Pecos River. A spectacular bridge 300 feet over the river. The wind was incredible. Hap had to push the bike to turn around and he couldn't even hold it once he got it crossways to the wind. Then when we went to get on it, the bike started to take off without us so he had to hit the brakes. We have been riding our tandem since 1985, through all kinds of weather, down mts at 60 mph and I can honestly say this is the first time I have ever been afraid! It was a very long day. We made one stop in Comstock for a sandwich. It was amazing when we got off the bike to see how hard it was actually blowing. Everyone we talked to said we can't believe you are riding in this. But that's one on the problems with bike touring. What are you supposed to do if you are out IN IT? We had to get somewhere. When we got about 10 miles from Del Rio we saw a motel so we decided to stop. When we turned on the weather channel it said the winds were a "sustained" 38 mph! With 49 mph wind gusts from the NW. We walked across the street to get some drinks and I couldn't even hardly walk into it. We were glad to be off the bike today. It is supposed to stop tonight. Let's hope so.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Alpine Texas

We had a good nights rest in the hotel in El Paso. Even if we weren't planning to stay in downtown El Paso. I had no idea that El Paso was such a large city. We walked a couple of blocks to a chinese restaurant for dinner. The next morning we called the post office again to see if our mail had made it. As it turns out, all of the General Delivery mail first went to a downtown post office and THEN went to a post office out by the airport. Since the mail still had not shown up at either place, we asked them to forward it on to Sanderson, TX our next mail pick up. We ate breakfast in the hotel. Getting all of our bags, bike, trailer down to the ground floor is quite a feat but we made it. Hap managed to get the tandem in the elevator this time. You should've seen the looks on people's faces in the lobby as he wheeled out the tandem. And then I followed with a cart filled with bags. We took the bike outside and put all the pieces together. It was cold outside and very windy. Temps in the 30's. Brrrr..... We weren't looking forward to riding through the city but we headed south anyway. We followed Rt 20 out of town. As it turned out it wasn't that bad. The traffic didn't seem so bad. There was only one incident. A car came roaring up behind us. Keep in mind that there were two lanes and there was no one in the other lane! It kind of startled me so I sort of raised my hands like what are you doing? He went by very slowly and then put on the brake lights. It was a young guy. Both of us went uh oh. But the guy kept going and I duck taped my hands to the handlebars. Once we got alittle south of town the road turned into a nice two lane road. AND the wind turned into a great tailwind. It did warm up into the 40's and was sunny so it didn't feel so bad. We rode through alot of farm land, mostly cotton farms. We also saw a couple of fishing lakes. The first lakes we have seen for a long time! We had called the Fort Hancock Motel to make sure we had a place to stay. It is still too cold to camp. Temperatures at night have been in the teens and 20's. When we got to Fort Hancock we checked into the only hotel. The town consisted of a Border Patrol station, Angie's restaurant, a church and a small grocery/store. We went to Angie's and had a great meal. We both had roast beef and mashed potatoes. MMmmmmm..... Our hotel room was alittle small, but it was warm and we had a shower!
The next morning we went over to Angie's for breakfast. It was 32 degrees! After breakfast we got on Interstate 10 and headed east to Van Horn. There was alot of traffic on the road today. Mostly big trucks. And big trucks have these big truck tires that have little teeny wires that stick in our tires and cause flats. We didn't have one today but it was surely a worry. We had a little bit of a tailwind today but we also climbed all day! It was sunny again but stayed in the 40's all day. We stopped and had lunch at a mexican restaurant. At some point we realized that there was a side road/frontage road so we got on it. I had to go to the bathroom of course. Do ya think they would have rest areas on the interstate? NOT! So I went down into the ditch and was just walking out of the ditch when the Border Patrol stopped by. Hello there where are you going? We talked to him for quite awhile. It was really interesting. We are maybe five miles or so from the border. He told us that his station had 45 miles of border to patrol. They originally had 30 people and now have 130 border patrol. He also said that in this 45 mile stretch last year 10,000 pounds of marijuana had been found. I asked him if it was safe for us along here. He said yes it was....during the day. Don't worry, I said, we'll be off the road by night! We got to Van Horn and since we had a coupon for a Motel 6 headed there. After we checked in Hap went up to talk to them about something and found out that the usual rate was what we paid anyway! Oh well. We were tired after the long climb we had. It was a long day.
Sunday we decided to stay in Van Horn and go to church. We went to the Baptist church and had a great service. Then we stopped at the Dollar Store. Dollar Stores sure are popular in this part of the country. We have seen them in almost every little town. The terrain we have been riding through looks mostly like desert with little bits of shrubs. We haven't seen any cattle or horses. We spent most of the day resting and getting caught up on paying bills etc. In the evening we went to a Christmas program at the church. It was really great to be with other christians to celebrate the real reason for Christmas. We got a ride home from church with Fred and his wife. They told us some great stories about living in this area. We are in real cowboy country now.
The next morning we overslept and quickly packed up and headed out. It was in the 30's again, but overcast which made it seem much cooler. For some reason I just couldn't get warm. We stopped a couple of times for me to put on another layer. I was finally warm with: two hats under my helmel, a scarf over my face, a tank top, t shirt, long sleeve t shirt, heavyweight shirt, 2 vests and my windbreaker. I was warm but I sure couldn't move. We climbed again all day AND this time we had a headwind. We saw a wild pig and a coyote dead on the side of the road. We stopped for a peanut butter and jelly bagel about half way. It seemed like a long day. We didn't get into Marfa until almost 5:30p. There wasn't much for places to eat so we stopped at Subway for a sandwich to take to the hotel. We had called the Riata Inn for a room this morning to make sure we had a place to stay. Camping in this cold weather just didn't seem like a good idea. In case you don't know where Marfa, Texas is.....it is halfway between somewhere in Texas and where the heck are we!
Today we started the ride in beautiful sunshine and warm 60's temperatures finally. And we had a tailwind. We planned a short day for today. Oh I forgot to tell you that yesterday the lady from the El Paso Post Office called us and said our mail had finally arrived and she was sending it on to Sanderson, TX just like we asked her to. That was really nice of her to call. The ride today was great. Tailwind, sunshine, warm temperatures and scenery?????????.........well at least it was warm! It was alittle hillier today. But the road was great. There is a huge berm on it and not much traffic at all. We got into Alpine and stopped on the side of the road to figure out where we were going. A guy from a bakery ran out the door and said "are you riding the Southern Tier?" Hap went over to talk to him and came back with a loaf of bread, muffins and cinnamon rolls. Maybe we looked hungry? We went down the street and ate lunch at a mexican restaurant and then went to check in at the Oak Tree Inn. The brochure we read said it had internet, hot tub and a laundry.....well at least it had a laundry. Hap spent the evening making our plane reservations for our quick trip home for baby holding in January. And me...well....I did laundry, watched movies and talked to you! Tomorrow we are headed to Marathon, TX and the weather is supposed to stay warm and sunny! Later.......

El Paso, Texas

We left Deming on a cold sunny morning. The temp almost reached 40 degrees. But it could be worse it could be snowing! We rode out of Deming on a road paralleling Interstate 10. It was nice to be away from the traffic. There wasn't much scenery. But I think we are getting used to that. There are more scrubby bushes instead of cactus. I suppose that counts as a scenery change in this part of the world. We had a slight tailwind for much of the day. Eventually we had to ride on the interstate again. We stopped just outside of Las Cruces at a truck stop for Subway. There was an old bicycle with a sleeping bag perched on the top of it outside of the truck stop. When we went inside, Hap met another one of his old friends. I guess I would describe this one as a homeless guy. He and Hap had quite a conversation about where he had been and we had been. He had several maps with him and showed Hap how we should go through Florida. Florida? That's three months away! How about where are we going to stay tonight! We ate our subs and headed out. I asked one of the workers if the side road we saw coming in went all the way into Las Cruces. Sure he said. That's the best way to go on a bicycle. So off we went down the side road.....and then we saw the sign that said "Pavement ends". Mmmm.....maybe HE rides his bike that way but we couldn't. So we turned around to get back onto the interstate. That's when we heard THE sound. THE sound is THE sound of dragging the trailer because the back wheel was flat. We stopped to fix it. Since it had "slime" in it. That's the tire sealant that is inside of the tire, Hap just put air int the tire and it held. So now we get onto the interstate. There was some road construction and a big downhill into Las Cruces. The mountains sure were pretty in the background. I hope you can see that from one of the pictures above. The excitement started as we got to the Las Cruces exits. Traffic picked up. The real excitement was when there was an exit and we didn't have to exit there. Just picture riding a bicycle with traffic all around, they want to get off the interstate, we don't want to, and others are coming onto the interstate. Talk about being a lookout. We found our exit and stopped at the hotel we had picked out. We had a discount coupon but when we went in she said, oh no we don't take that one anymore. We just went to a gas station and started calling hotels. We found one not too far away and headed toward it. While we were riding, we had two cars cut right into our lane to make a right hand turn. Thank you very much. We got to the Teakwood Inn finally. While we were checking in Hap said "So what's your best rate for two very tired bikers from Ohio?" The manager answered "You rode from Ohio to here?" "Not directly, we went to up to Washington, down to San Diego and then rode to here". She gave us a great rate! Maybe we need to try that more often. They even gave us a huge room. The hotel had an indoor pool so we headed to the pool for some laps. It sure felt good to swim again.

The next morning we planned to ride to El Paso to pick up our mail. But when we called the post office they said it wasn't there. We decided since we had a nice place to stay we would just stay in Las Cruces again and then ride to El Paso tomorrow. I checked to see what we could do and found that there was an "old town called La Mesilla" that had shops, etc. We didn't want to take the bike because we didn't want to leave it outside alone. It gets lonely sometimes! We opted to take a bus. We called the bus station to find out where the bus stop was. There was one just outside of the hotel. Neither of us have ridden on a bus for awhile. As it turns out it is a cheap way to see a city. .50 for me and .25 cents for the old guy! We finally got to La Mesilla and walked around for awhile. There was a neat old church there but other than that it wasn't that great. We ate lunch at a mexican restaurant and then decided to just walk back instead of waiting on the bus. It didn't take that long. We stopped at a Hollywood Video store for a movie. I wanted to see the new movie "Bourne Ultimatum". They didn't have it so we rented the new Bruce Willis movie. For dinner we stopped at Whataburger. Then we tried to watch our movie. We had gotten one of the Blueray type movies. It wouldn't work in our computer. Oh well.

This morning we ate breakfast in the hotel. It was sunny and alittle warmer today, in the 50's. We took the movie back and when I told her it wouldn't work. She said do you have the special player for a blueray movie?? Ohhhhh..... It would've been nice if they had mentioned THAT when we got it. She gave us a credit and we headed out. Today's ride to El Paso was really nice. It was great being off of the interstate. We were on Rt 28 most of the day. We rode through alot of pecan farms and some vineyard/wineries. Once we got into El Paso the traffic really picked up. Coming into town we had a huge hill to climb. The hill wasn't so bad, it was the bumper to bumper three lane each direction traffic that made it really special. We stopped and called the post office and our mail still wasn't there. She is going to call us in the morning and tell us if it made it. We had planned to ride close to the airport where the post office was and find a hotel and pick up our mail. What we didn't know was that the airport is about 10-15 miles from where we were. And now that we are not sure if we are even going to have mail to pick up, we weren't sure if we needed to go out of our way. We were in the middle of town by now. We stopped at the first hotel. Traffic was still very heavy and now it was getting pretty late. I'll never understand why someone will drive right up behind us, and not pass us when there are THREE lanes with no one beside them. I just don't understand! We checked in and of course they didn't have a ground floor room. We were on the fifth floor. The picture above is of us carrying the tandem up the stairs. It wouldn't fit in the elevator. We finally got the bike, all the bags and the trailer into the room. Whew! A long day but a good day of riding. Now all we need is our mail to show up tomorrow. Until next time!

Deming, New Mexico

While we were in Lordsburg we celebrated our 20 year anniversary. We made a special video for you. Check it out at www.youtube.com/outbikin. It is labeled Lordsburg, NM.

When we left Lordsburg it was in the 40's and now the wind was blowing out of the east! Guess which direction we were heading?? East! It was a very cold, windy start. We got back on Interstate 10 and headed into the wind. In addition we had a very slight climb over the Continental Divide. It wasn't much of an elevation change but with the wind it made for a difficult day. The temperature never did get much higher than 50 degrees. We stopped at a Trading Post rest area for drinks and to get warm. The scenery did change alittle. More scrubby grass and we could see mountains in the distance. We are riding just south of Albuqueque NM. But there just wasn't much to see. Not a fun day of cycling for sure. We stopped again at another exit with a trading post and a DQ. No, we did not have a Blizzard it was way to cold for that! But we were both starved. Fighting the wind all day will do that to you. We were able to get off of the interstate for the last 20 miles or so. There was a frontage road that took us into Deming. We had a coupon for a hotel so once we got into town we called to find out where it was. There was a Walmart just before the hotel so we stopped for salad fixins for dinner. By the time we got to the hotel it was getting dark and COLDER! We are hoping for a better day tomorrow.

This morning we woke up to a downpour! And it was about 40 degrees. Nope, not riding today! We decided to see if we could rent a car and drive back to Lordsburg and get the mail that wasn't there the day before. We called the Lordsburg Post Office and sure enough it was in. We called a car rental place in Deming and yes they did have a car we could rent. They came to pick us up and we drove back to Lordsburg and picked up our mail. We learned a lesson though. 2-3 day delivery doesn't guarentee delivery in 2-3 days. In this case it was 6 days. Good to Know! You can see how hard it was raining in one of the pictures above. It is a picture from inside the car as I was looking out at the rain. Don't you just love to look OUT at rain instead of BEING out in the rain!! I know I do. Hopefully tomorrow we can ride. Although this rain is supposed to last another day. We'll see. Our next stop will be Las Cruces NM. And then on to El Paso, Texas. Until next time................

Lordsburg, New Mexico

We left Benson in beautiful sunshine and temperatures about 70 degrees. We headed east on Interstate 10. There didn't seem to be as much traffic today as yesterday. That's a good thing! Once again not too much scenery to speak of. Cactus and desert-like terrain. The berm/shoulder was pretty rough at some times. But mostly was ok. We did have a nice tailwind most of the day. We stopped for blizzards at the Dairy Queen. Since today was our 20 year anniversary we decided to stay at a hotel. The last 10 miles was mostly downhill, tailwind and sunny beautiful weather. What more could you want? The town of Willcox was pretty small. We checked into the hotel and walked over to the grocery store for a bag of salad, chicken, tomatoes and avacodo for a nice salad. There was a Radio Shack by the hotel so we stopped in to see if we could find some type of speaker system for the computer and my MP3 player. We found a fold up one. We also rented the movie Oceans 13 and watched it in the room. Like I said not a real exciting day! Hap put the new saddle on that we have been carrying around. He also had to adjust the front chain. It fell off just as we were getting off the exit to Willcox. We were almost able to coast in but we had to stop and put it back on.

We left Willcox and got back on Interstate 10. We had a bit of a delima today. We could either do a long day or one short day and one long day. One of the problems with this part of the country is that the towns are few and far between. And when you get to a "town" there might not be anything there. We decided to ride a short day to Bowie and ride on to Lordsburg the next day. Just before we got to Bowie we began to see real trees. Then we saw a sign that said Pecans. We later found out that they grow pecans, walnuts and pestachios in this area. When we arrived in Bowie we rode down THE main street of town. There was only one street. We passed a trailer that had a sign on it that said, "THE BEAUTY SHOP IS OPEN". Mmm...that's different. Hap really needed to get his beard trimmed so we stopped to get a beard trim .... in the trailer. As it turns out Dianne hitched up her trailer and moved from town to town cutting hair. After his trim, we went to the RV park that we had seen in our book. We were very surprised to hear that they did not allow tents. So here we are 50 miles from the next town, it was about 2:30p and we don't have a place to stay. Luckly their was a caretaker living on the property, Michael who said we could sleep in his trailer. That was how we ended up spending the night with Michael and Patricia. They even cooked us spagetti. Thanks Michael and Patricia for bailing us out! The next morning we went over to the Subway for omelette sandwiches. Then we headed onto Interstate 10 for our ride to Lordsburg. The day started out as a bright sunny day. But dark clouds were looming. We had a great tailwind to Lordsburg. But we could see that the weather was changing. We crossed into New Mexico about the same time that we reached our 6000 mile mark. The terrain in New Mexico changed somewhat. We saw less cactus and more sand and mountains. There wasn't much traffic on the interstate today. We did get passed by a couple of huge dump trucks that were on trailers. They took up almost two lanes. When we got into Lordsburg we went to the post office to see if our mail had arrived. It was not there. The temperature started dropping and the wind picked up. When we went to the KOA we decided to stay in one of their camping cabins. And it had a heater inside. I did laundry and we got our showers. During the night the wind was really howling but we were warm and dry inside our cabin.

This morning we woke up to more wind, cold temperatures (45 degrees) and 30 mph winds. Brrr........ We went to the post office to see if our mail was there but it still wasn't. B & J had sent our mail last Tuesday two day delivery. Today was Friday so it should've been there. But apparently when they say 2 day delivery it is not guarenteed. Good to know! With the weather looking terrible we decided to spend another night here in Lordsburg and checked into a motel. We spent most of the day watching movies and Hap working on finding my my and dad a Medicap plan. Talk about confusing! So now we have a spreadsheet and hopefully can help them figure something out. We walked across the street for a steak dinner. We are hoping tomorrow will be a better weather day. The temps weren't so bad today it was the wind. Until next time!

Benson, Arizona

It has been awhile since I have posted because we have spent the last six days at Carol (Hap's sister) house in Tucson. We had planned to leave yesterday but developed a problem with our Verizon Card. We decided to stay so we could make sure we had it working properly. This was the first time in our whole trip that we have had any problem with it. We spent most of our time at Carol's just resting and spending time with Carol. We don't get to see her very often. We have been out to bicycle in the Tucson area a couple of times. We did El Tour de Tuscon in 1989. This is a 100+ mile around the perimeter of Tucson that is held around Thanksgiving every year. The year we went out was the same year that I had my ACL Knee Reconstruction. We did not realize that El Tour is actually a timed event with a mass start. That was a first for us. We had a great time.

Friday we had a person from the Arizona Star Newspaper come over to interview us and take a picture. It took them along time to get the picture set up, but I think it came out great. Don't you?

On Saturday I went Christmas shopping at the Tucson mall. You have to understand that I usually buy my christmas gifts on December 23-24. So this is a major event for me! Do you realize the advantage of buying the day before Christmas? First of all, you have to make a quick decision. Second, everything is on sale. And third, there is nobody in the store! I managed to get most of my shopping done, wrapped and mailed home. Hold your applause please. Going to the mall was an adventure. First of all, be sure to brush up on your spanish before you go. I am sure I will get used to this at some point on this trip. Hap, offered to go shopping with me.................. Actually I think that he begged to go with me...............of course you can go with me, I said................but don't you want to help Carol ?????????............... So, I went shopping, all by myself. It was hard being all alone.

Sunday, we went to church with Carol and had a wonderful service. After church we met a friend of ours who had recently moved from Circleville to Tucson to become a pilot. Scott and his wife Julie. Scott invited us to go flying. It didn't take us long to make that decision. Carol, Hap and I met Scott at the Tuscon airport and went up for a flight over the city. It was great to see Scott first of all. We have spent alot of time bicycling with Scott in Circleville, so it was great to see him. Now I am not a big fan of flying but the ratio of fun to fear was much higher. It had been raining the last two days but today was a beautiful sunny day. It was great as you can see from the pictures. When we were getting ready to land Scott assured us that he had reread the chapter on landing just the night before. We had a smooth landing. Scott dropped Carol and I off at the airport and he and Hap flew on to another airport to return the plane. Then we all met back at Scott and Julie's new house for dinner. They fixed us an amazing meal of rice, beans and "fixins". He also made some great guacamole dip. It was such a great time. We loved seeing them again.

Monday morning we got up at 6am because the TV station Channel 4 was coming over to videotape us and do an interview. It was about 38 degrees while we were riding around the block and they were videotaping. This should air this week. I will try to put it on the blog asap. After the interview we realized our verizon card wasn't working so we decided to stay another day. With nothing to do I suggested that I should go to the mall to see if Bicycle Santa forgot anything. Also, Marsha called to tell us that Heather's water had broken and she was beginning labor. So we were expecting the call all day. Hap and Carol dropped me off at the mall and went to run errands. I got my haircut while I was there. And yes, I did find a few little things that I had to have. What can you do? It was on sale...............

We finally got the call about 9:30pm. Heather and Scott had a petite baby boy weighing in at 10.1 pounds and 21 inches long. Korbin Scott Landrum. Baby, Mom and Daddy Scott are doing great. I am not so sure about Grandaddy Mike! He said that when the nurses started moving equipment in and put on their rubber gloves it was time for him to leave!

We left Tucson this morning, stopped to mail Biker Santa's gifts home and headed east on Interstate 10. There was lots of traffic on the interstate. More truck traffic than we expected. But we may as well get used to it. We have about 270 miles to El Paso, Texas and we will be on interstate until then. Tomorrow we are headed for Willcox, AZ. Later........