This day’s ride had 4753 feet of elevation gain and it was mainly at the end to the day. After a good breakfast at the location café in Van Horn, we started down a road that paralleled I-10. It was a good rode with a gradual incline and almost no traffic but the road was coated with chip seal asphalt. For those not from Texas, a lot of small highways are coated with this type of asphalt. What that means for bike rides is that it is harder pedaling. It will cut our speed by 2 to 3 mph. At least we didn’t have a hard head wind today.

We stayed on this road for 20 miles until we reached our first rest stop. Then we were back on I-10 again. Although I-10 is very busy we had a wide and smooth shoulder to ride on. Being on I-10 the climb was not as steep as what we somethings experience on the smaller highways. We stayed on I-10 until we reached Kent, Tx. During this ride we came across a self-supported rider by the name of Corey Anderson. He claimed to have ridden more miles on a bike than anyone. Some of the riders checked out his website and the claims seemed to be true. He said he was headed to Washington DC to meet with President Trump. We left him at Kent and he continued on I-10 with an immediate destination of Dallas, about 500 miles away.

We started out on Highway 118 and would stay on it for the next 52 miles. Here our real climbing began. We would climb over 2000 feet over the next 30+ miles then downhill into Fort Davis. During the ride I came across one of my favorite photo items (a windmill).

Most, if not all the riders, were very exhausted and hungry. While walking by the café we saw this beautiful sight.

Also and an addendum I have attached pictures of the jersey I wore on the first full day of my Texas ride.

I also wanted to share a group picture of our completing 1000 miles.