|
 
Tuesday, October 23, 2001 - "...imagine riding a bike across Texas."
56 miles. La Mesilla, NM to Sands Motel,
El Paso, TX
We left early as usual and cruised briefly thru La
Mesilla's quaint old town looking for a post office. At one time this
small town was the Mexican capitol of NM and AZ. It was here that the
Gadsden Purchase of 1853 was made official. This large tract of desert was
bought by the USA for Southern Pacific Railway to build their line to
California.
We cruised for 20 miles along the Rio Grande past large
groves of Pecan trees. At one point we entered a pecan forest with a
cathedral canopy of Pecan limbs shading the road, NM-28, which went for at least
four miles and must have encompassed at least 3,000 acres. The road here
was coated with a sticky substance coming either from the trees or from some
tree spray. We continued on thru La Mesa, San Miguel to lunch in
Chamberino.
Twenty more miles brought us into Sunland Park (pop.
8,179). To the south is real sand desert and Mexico. We stopped at a
tortillaria and they were mass producing them. We bought two dozen of
them, still warm, for 85 cents and could have had another dozen for just 10 more
cents. Cars were pulling in regularly to pick up the day's fresh
tortillas.
After getting turned around crossing the river into
Texas we rode on T-20 past vast shopping malls motels and every fast food shop
there is. This is the main drag of El Paso and goes around the Franklin
Mts., which rise up from the center of the city, so there was climbing to do as
we also passed the UTEP campus. Down a steep hill brought us to the center
of the city with modest skyscrapers. El Paso appears to be a healthy city
with lots of government employees, industry and as a entry point for trade with
Mexico.
We turned west and had a very strong tailwind behind us
as we passed thru residential areas, several schools and a large
Petrochemical plant.
Oh yes, I left off the first two words from the quote
of today's title. From a conversation in the Silver City, NM barber shop,
they are "I can't...
"I can't either." I replied.
A month from now we won't have to imagine. We
will have done it.
|
