Is this a vacation??????

A beautiful day from El Paso to Van Horn - excellent weather and smooth pavement - what more could you ask for??  A reasonable lunch and..... a wretched hotel!  But we are all in this together, so what the heck??  

But the next two days - holy mama!!!  Just 75 miles from Van Horn to Fort Horn - not so bad, right??

Wrong!!  There was a constant headwind for pretty much the entire last 50 miles.  We even formed a pace line - for a while seven of us in a row, eventually only four in a row - the principle being that the person in front would take the brunt of the wind, with everyone taking turns at the front.  I think that it worked but I was on the bike 9 hours that day!

Yesterday was 90 miles with a headwind for 20 miles or so, plus a lot of hills - another exhausting day!!!  

But it is a rest day today at Indian Lodge!!!  It is a wonderful, albeit a little rustic, place to hang out for a day.  My most ambitious plan today is to go sit by the pool for a while....

So, the question of the day : is this a vacation???  And I have to say that I don't know the answer to that!  I mean, this is physically very challenging to say the least, but it is a time away from having to make any day-to-day decisions.  Our only responsibility is to get up in the morning and get on that bike.  We don't have to worry about meals - except lunch, but believe the options are very limited and the decision is generally a group one - or where we are staying.  We have very little in the way of clothing, and quite frankly, no-one cares what we look like!  No make-up, no fancy clothes, no curling irons, not a thing of that nature.  No-one is asking us to do anything for them - although we do support each other in every way possible.

So, is this a vacation??   Yes and no....

Thanks y'all   (I'm in Texas now..)

Janine