Our Lodging

One might wonder what kind of accommodations we are staying in during our adventure. I can assure you that every night we have had comfortable beds, air conditioning and running water. But the similarities stop there. On a ride like this, you have to go with what’s available. Aside from your standard franchises (Comfort Inn, Holiday Inn, Candlewoods and Best Westerns), we’ve stayed in some very interesting places. In Columbus, NM, we stayed in a hotel that was owned by the Mayor.  The desk clerk was also a member of the Town Council. We spent a lot of time talking with them about their plans for the town, and the mayor provided dinner that night.  In Bisbee, we all stayed in what seemed like a funky repurposed apartment building (the Bisbee Grand Hotel), where each of us had our own individually decorated suite – I think Rob’s and my room was called the jungle room, but we couldn’t figure out why — maybe it was the jumble room, which would have been more apt. There were a lot of thrown together pieces in that suite, but it was nice and roomy. In Van Horn and Marfa, we stayed in grand hotels, El Capitan and El Paisano, respectively, which had the look and feel of stately old western hotels with appropriate Mexican influence. The movie “Giant” was filmed near El Capitan and the cast stayed in that hotel, so the walls were adorned with photographs of Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean. We’ll have to go watch that movie some day. Faben was not as nice. 100% truck stop hotel, and Rob and I drew the short straw and ended up in a smoking room- ugh! We had to wash all our clothes after that stay! Last night in Marathon we stayed in a Motel/RV Park. The room was too small for both our bicycles (and us), so we stored one bike in the van. There were earplugs by the bed because the trains pass through town all night, but they didn’t bother me. I love trains. Tonight we’re at a motor lodge.

Speaking of trains, we are riding parallel to the train line, so we pass at least one  each day — so much fun to watch these huge freights go by, with literally dozens of cars being pulled.  If we’re lucky, we catch the engineer’s attention and he sees us give the arm sign for a horn blow.  It’s the little things.

The food every night has been fantastic.  No matter what town we’re in, the restaurants have been top notch.  It doesn’t matter that I’m burning 10,000 calories a week — I am not losing an ounce!