Las Cruces, New Mexico, to El Paso, Texas

We started the day continuing down the same valley as yesterday, passing miles of pecan groves including the largest family-owned pecan farm in the US. After about 10 miles, we began seeing more farm fields--grass for hay, alfalfa (I think), a field of onions or something in that family, and lots of cotton fields not currently planted but remnants of cotton everywhere.  I have been amazed at how much cotton is left behind after the automated pickers have gone thru. It dots the fields and blows along the roadways.

Lots of local bike riders out for a Sunday ride along the route and a few others traveling across country.

It was only 47 degrees when we started out and most of us had not dressed for it, thinking that it would quickly warm up on such a sunny day.  Not so!  My hands and feet were painfully cold and I didn't take my jacket off until 2 hrs into the ride.  But when it warmed up it was immediately hot, and by afternoon the temperature was in the low 80s.

As we got closer to El Paso, the farms gave way to suburbs and all the fast food and other strip mall stores seen everywhere in the US. Of course, the traffic also picked up, but because it is Sunday it wasn't too bad.  I stopped at the bike shop to get my handlebars rewrapped and had lunch while I waited.  After riding thru downtown El Paso, we got onto loop highway 375E (also known as the border highway) and rode along the border with its fences and border patrols for 8+ miles.

Just before getting to the hotel, I spotted a Dairy Queen and, of course, had to stop for a refreshing strawberry milkshake.

We now have 3 states--California, Arizona, and New Mexico--behind us, but it will take us nearly as long to cross Texas as to cross those 3 states or to cross the 4 states east of Texas.  We're out in the middle of nothing tomorrow with no cell phone and no computer service.  I'll write again when we are back in civilization.