11/23/2013 Day 2: Lordsburg, NM to Sierra Blanca (250 miles :-( )

I stopped riding last night and was in bed by midnight.  It's 5:45 and I can't sleep any more.  I opened the curtain and saw some sleet piled up on the cars around my bike.

The radar looks like this:

I'll wait out that little snow storm to my East before moving.  I'm really pleased to see no other precipitation on the radar between here and Eastern Texas along I-10.  With any luck, the roads will be dry all the way through Teas.  Today's destination is Crowley LA.  If I make it that far, the rest of the trip will be dry.  Let's hope for that!

Time to use the downtime this morning to get breakfast and pack.

…

Well, I've take this as far as I can.  I-10 is shutdown and I'm stuck in Sierra Blanca.  Fortunately, I have a motel room.  Here's my progress so far.

When I got up this morning, I saw this:




Seriously, it wast 34 degrees with 40mph winds and snow.  The pavement was wet, not frozen.  I suspect the ground temperature was still above freezing.  I took it slow and headed down the interstate. I just wanted to get out of the "Land of Enchantment."

I came to realize that the sound of rain on the helmet has a different sound than the sound of sleet pelting the helmet.  Sleet has a more tympanic sound to it.  The human ear is remarkable; because even with the 40 mph wind bashing my helmet from the left and the 70mph wind from the front; both sounding like a freight train, I was able to appreciate the difference.

As it worked out, about 33 miles outside Sierra Blanco,  I was low on gas and the gauge said I had 25 miles left in the tank.  I was 33 miles from the nearest gas station.  I know when the tank reads zero, I have another gallon.  No worries, right?  Wrong.

About 10 miles West of Sierra Blanca, traffic came to a stop.  I was concerned now because the GPS said 15 miles to the gas station, and my distance to empty was now 8 miles.  The temp was 32, and all of a sudden, it was sleeting.  If I ran out of gas, I was in big trouble.  For the first time, I grabbed the shoulder and rode past it all.  Then I found out that the border patrol was making everyone exit the Interstate due to a 4 truck pileup…or was it 4 pileups?  It seems like everyone has a different story about exactly what occurred.  Either way, my DTE is now zero, and has been for the last couple miles. I was worried that the road ahead was going to take me on a 25 mile desert detour, so I asked the border patrol and was assured there were gas stations about a mile off the exit.  After another 15 minutes of sitting in traffic, I made the gas station.  By then, I was seeing trucks and cars plowing ice in front of their tires.  Thinking about Bill Engval - "Here's your sign!," I grabbed a bite to eat and found a motel in town.

The motel is primitive; but, clean.  The heat works and there's Internet and cable.  No cell service.

The weather for the rest of the day looks pretty bad.  I don't think I'm getting out of here.  Tomorrow's high is 32 and it's going to be precipitating all day.  I'm thinking I will need to stay here tomorrow also. Monday's high is 47.  More on this later.  Right now, I want to show you the view from my room.




and a pic of my bike as it is now.  Yes, there's about 2 mm of ice coating it.