Tornillo to Sierra Blanca, TX

The sunset in Sierra Blanca

Snacks for the day with some frozen Olive oil in the background

This red bag called a dromedary carries our water. It is so frozen we could stand it up on the table like you see in the picture. It did not thaw until after noon.

Tornillo to Sierra Blanca, Texas

60 miles

Day 70

1/13/10

It froze hard last, I mean HARD! We had two MSR dromedaries, which are big soft, water carrying bags. When we got up this morning, they were frozen most of the way through, solid. There was frost on everything and we certainly did not want to be rushed in the cold, but our checkout time at this fine establishment was 9AM. We had to put the tent fly away frozen, but we manged to get out of there with 10 minutes to spare.

We began our slow climb into the Davis Mountains, which is home to the McDonald Observatory (we will be there in several days.) We rode though a Border Patrol check station where we met a guy who was born in Livingston, Montana, awesome (Livingston is very near where Dani grew up).While riding on the deserted farm roads we got the first flat tire on the BoB trailer, for the entire trip. We quickly found the culprit, a thorn. We wondered how, with all of the places we had ridden, and all of the glass, cactus, and blackberry thorns we have come across, how we made it this far without a flat. Incredible. As we (I mean Greg) changed the flat tire, I noticed some huge bulls in a field nearby. They were out grazing in a cotton field. I thought this was very strange, but hey, welcome to Texas.

Tonight we camped in a city park in the town of Sierra Blanca. We went to pick up some groceries for the night, but the pickings were slim. There was not much on the shelves and the refrigerator displays had nothing in them. The guy at the grocery store told us that people in this town look out for each other and they have a good sheriff. He said, “I'm not saying we are vigilantes, but if some scumbag comes around here, everybody knows, and they make sure that person doesn't stick around too long, you know what I mean?” We know. We slept pretty well here with the exception of the train blowing though town several times during the night.

Dani