Today was Day 7. It was a short day with only 57 miles from El Paso to Fort Hancock. I pulled into the motel parking lot at 11:30am. They allowed us an early check in, and we headed to Angie’s Restaurant for lunch. It was a cool little place in walking distance from the motel. Actually, everything in town is in walking distance of the motel – The mini-mart, the gas station, the restaurant, and the motel are all in a 1000 ft radius of each other.
Angie’s was quaint and the food was great, but the service was like all small town life – Friendly but SLOW. After lunch we took a nap at the motel, then headed back over for dinner – the slow service would have likely kept us away from a second meal, but it’s a small town – and like the motel and gas station, this restaurant was the ‘only show in town’. I’m glad we went back because the chicken fried stake was excellent as the sign outside promised it would be.
Tomorrow is going to be long and tough. Its an 80 plus mile day with a lot of climbing. I went 85 miles on day 6, but it was a lot of downhill, unlike tomorrow. We’ll see how that turns out. For the first half of this trip, I put my bike on the car everyday for at least some part of the trip — either too much climbing or I ran out of time. Day 6 and 7, the bike was never on the car – I rode the bike from starting point to stopping point without assistance from my ‘support staff’. I’m hoping to make that a theme for the rest of the trip, but 80 plus miles and a couple of thousand feet of climbing tomorrow may prove too much.
Wish me luck!