We left the Fabens Inn Motel and rode through the town of Fabens. After biking 25 miles, we hit the outskirts of El Paso! We were excited because we had reached the end of the last map of Texas, but this excitement soon faded. As we biked through the bustling city of El Paso, traffic increased, the shoulder totally disappeared, and drivers became less and less 'bike friendly.' Downtown El Paso was the first big city we have been to since the beginning of the trip and by far the least bike friendly. Several buses passed us with bike racks on the front, and we decided to try out the local bus system to get to someplace off our route. We sat at a bus stop, and waited for the bus. When one finally came, the driver didn't speak English and he slammed the doors in our faces and sped away before we could get our bikes on the rack. The next bus that came wasn't any better. Finally, we were able to get on a bus (3rd time's the charm). There was not a word of English spoken on the bus, all advertisements were in Spanish, and all announcements were in Spanish as well. The driver spoke broken English, and was able to help us figure out which stop to get off at. We had to transfer at the main terminal, and we could not find a single police officer (or any one else) who spoke any English! It was truly uncomfortable, but the buses were well air conditioned and we got to the Walmart (our intended destination). We tried to get some Kosher meat at a store near Walmart, but they were closed from 12:00pm- 4:00pm so we decided to skip it. We got a few things at the Walmart and decided to go to Anthony Texas instead of staying in El Paso. We started off on I- 10, but decided to go on the parallel service (frontage) road because it had less traffic. We arrived at the Best Western Hotel, and found a pitcher of perfectly chilled water with a hint of strawberry in the lobby. We ate some of the food that we got from Walmart, and sipped our strawberry water. Then we went for a swim while doing laundry in a real washing machine - first time in over two weeks. We are excited to enter New Mexico tomorrow (we can see the "welcome" sign from our hotel)!! We currently are being treated to a spectacular lightning storm with a lot of cloud to ground lightning - glad we're inside!
Thanks for coming along for the ride!
Check out our route at the link below:
Fabens, TX- Anthony, TX
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