Day 10 - Hot, hot hot..., dry Texas

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I'm in El Paso, TX. Today was a great day. Again, there was something I am proud of, but regret when was I actually riding. I made Captain Pass in Captain Mountains. I busted the belly guard even more, broke (just cracked right turn signal) and broke my gear shifter. This was very difficult road. It's scare to walk through, not just riding on a heavy bike. I did not do the pictures of the pass, or the videos, the only proof - the GPS tracks. I actually stopped before that route and thought for a minute. If I don't go, I'd regret later, if you I go I may go through, so I went. Man was I wrong. It began with rough road and then, I was thinking it would get better, it got worse. Then I thought, it just stays that bad I'll be OK. It did, it was a bad road, but when I got finally through I was happy. I think now - enough risks, enough unpaved roads, enough unnecessary adventure. Or, maybe not.

I stopped in Town of Captain and used some services of the local welder, man I weld better. I paid $45 for piece of junk work. While he was welding my shifter I disassembled and bit the shit out of the belly guard to straighten it out. I called my Russian friend in Austin and asked if he can obtain another shifter for me. I still plan to stop by his place on Wednesday night. BTW, I'm going to Big Bend National Park tomorrow and may stay in the middle of it if weather permits, so I won't be updating my blog then, but you can still track my progress and see if I'm OK through FIND ME SPOT GPS.

Also, FYI, I woke up this morning at 4:30AM with a hurricane kinda wind. Since I still decided to put up the tent,I just put it up and did not use guys to secure to the ground, neither the rainfly. Man I thought it'll blow me to the Oz. I stopped fighting at 5AM and crawled outta the tent and quickly put everything in the bags and packed the bike. I was on the road by 5:45AM.

Here is my report.

Captian Pass (or Capitan Pass)

Here I had to detour.

Here I was deciding to go right and use paved highway yo Town of Capitan, or left through Captain Pass to the same town.

Pictures at the Captain Gap

Here I fell and cracked the signal - here ya go - duct tape.

That bracket was originally straight down.

See the bolts

Captain Pass behind

...and here is what at front...

Broken shifter.

Using Russian method to fix things.

I wanted to "kill" that motherf...er for that kinda weld job