P4W2 Day 13 Clint - Van Horn, TX 97 miles

In the morning I abruptly left the traffic of El Paso behind me and had some roads close to the Mexico border all to myself. Again I was in the flat, dry, and quiet country of the Rio Grande valley as low mountains arched in front of me on the Texas and Mexican sides of the river. Fort Hancock Texas came and went with the literal blink of an eye. Morgan Freeman had long since departed.

There were many bird sightings today. A couple waterfowl impoundments held thousands of birds, including mallards, pintails, and I am sure many other duck species my amateur eye could not identify. One species that did stick out from the others is the white pelican, and several had taken up winter residence in the pond. I have seen white pelicans now in all corners of the continent except the northeast.


The bulk of the day after I turned true-eastward into the Texas mountain country felt like the Mojave except for busy I-10. After dodging the super-highway for a long long time, I was finally relegated to biking on it for about 30 miles. Many many buteos lined the roadway, and I got very close to several brightly colored red tailed hawks without spooking them.


For many miles today there was frontage road that bordered I 10. It was an unusual experience being so close to that volume of traffic and associated noise, but having the road completely to myself. For about ten miles I was headed eastbound on the frontage road while it was sandwiched between the breakdown lane for the I-10 westbound travelers and a long long freight train that was headed in my direction. It made for an interesting visual experience of modes of transportation across the second largest state in the country.