Not my favorite part of Texas

Riding Day 53    July 26

Muleshoe, TX to San Angelo, TX

Ride Mileage :  260        Weather condition: hot with gusty wind 

Total Mileage :  10,752

Well I’m glad today’s ride is over!

I left Muleshoe early because I knew it was going to be painful. I rode as much as I could in the morning and went straight to Big Spring. The road to get there hasn’t much to offer, for miles and miles it’s mostly cotton fields and feed lots, the smell could get pretty intense, I guess you can call that an immersive experience into the agricultural landscape…for free!

As you get closer to Big Spring (and Midland area), you notice a lot of oil & gas activity with hundreds of pump jacks everywhere, some working and some not. The feed lots smell got replaced by this much more subtle odor of gas, which as a retiree from the oil & gas business had my clear preference.

This area is also active in wind farming but not as much as Sweetwater and Snyder where you can see thousands of wind turbines scattered around thousands of acres and sharing the space with older oil & gas equipment. An interesting view of the energy transition.

The remaining part of the ride after Big Spring was just painfully hot.