Day 593 – USA (TEXAS): From Carrizo Mountains to Sierra Blanca

Today’s distance / ???????: 25 miles / 40km
Average speed / ????: 7.6mph / 12.3km/h
Time on skateboard / ????: 3h 19m
Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 3128mi plus 261mi (?) / 5034km plus 420km (?)
Ascent / ??: n/a
Descent / ??: n/a
End-of-day GPS coordinates: N31.10.29.9, W105.21.33.3

Rough day, mate. Rough day.

Slept very little last night after going to bed in sweaty clothes which in turn dried, but dampened the down in my sleeping bag. Dampened it enough to reduce its effectiveness. Even tried to wrap up in the blue parachute/hammock for extra warmth. Forgot about the emergency blanket. That would have helped things to no end.

So stayed as warm as I could until the sun came up over the horizon. It was almost dark when I camped last night, so didn’t notice the ‘No Trespassing, $200 Reward’ sign near the entrance to the spot I was camping in. D’oh! I got out of there as quickly as possible.

I set up the blue hammock as a wind block and ate breakfast – bran flakes with sultanas and powdered milk.

The blue hammock worked wonders to block the wind, as it has in the past also. Yay. Get your own at The Travel Hammock. Jolly handy bit of kit.

At least I was at the top of the pass. A downhill to start the day is always a bonus. The smooth asphalt changed at the bottom of the hill into only slightly less nice grooved concrete. This is I-10. A big, monstrous expressway. It just fits that it would be made of concrete. After a while however, the vibrations caused by the grooves in the concrete wore me down. As did the headwind. As did the incessant trucks. As did the lack of sleep. As did the cramps and gas from too much fibre in the morning. T’was a bad idea to eat so much sultana bran in the morning.

I arrived in Sierra Blanca totally knackered. I checked into the EL Camino Motel at US$29 a night for the night. It was 2pm when I arrived, and promptly took the rest of the day off. Who cares about the strict budget. I need rest. Rest in a real bed.

I need a couple of weeks off. I am exhausted. But no time to rest. Rest will come in Los Angeles before heading to China.