80 miles, canyons, hills and flowers (Revised)

Too tired to write much so I'll post pictures. 3136 feet of climbing (and 4442 feet of downhill which means we often climbed again what we lost in a downhill). This was the first day of three days that Bubba says are the hardest on the Coast to Coast tour. The scenery was wildly beautiful and at the very end of the day we crossed the Pecos River which is the de facto boundary between western Texas and the hill country. Tomorrow we will leave the desert and we will be in the Texas hill country. Already the air is feeling a little more moist and we are actually getting condensation in the tents at night if the outside air is cold.

A new scent is in the air, thousands of blooming bushes that I found out are "Bottlebrush Acacia". It gets a little cloyingingly sweet, nevertheless I drink it in, and then usually just at that moment ride by a dead deer and gag, cough, sputter and then smell the Acacia again!

Evening primroses, everywhere!

Dry canyons, they all had names. Hard to believe they had water enough to create them.

Pecos River, we start into the Texas hill country  tomorrow and start to leave the desert.

Clapping for Don and Barb and below, Colleen and Randy.

Flowers in the campground. The desert has had more rain this year than in years so there are lots of blooms.

Bottlebrush Acacia

The ground around the tent sites at the campground looked like a rock garden with thousands of alliums (see below) and these little daisy like flowers that I don't know.