The Sandstorm in El Paso
I checked the weather forecast and saw that there was supposed to be a giant sandstorm the next day. It called for high winds, and all non-essential personnel were instructed to remain indoors. I was a bit perplexed by this public advisory. Hadn’t I already been riding in high winds? I glanced up from my phone and looked at my bike. The headline didn’t say anything about what to do if you are “non-essential” and live in a tent. Weighing my options, I decided that I wouldn’t risk it and instead began scanning the internet for a room where I could lay low for a few days and wait for the storm to blow over. I booked a cheap one on the outskirts of El Paso and started to settle in for the night. I hated spending money like this. It wouldn’t have cost me anything to stay in my tent behind a bush somewhere. But, I had never been in a sandstorm before and didn’t want to take my chances any more than I already had with Mother Nature.
I woke up the next morning in a bad mood. All nonessential personnel were instructed to stay indoors, but there was not a whisper of wind or a cloud in the sky. It was a beautiful morning and I was starting to think I wasted money on a room that wasn’t necessary. Frustrated, I decided I would at least use the good weather and my time in civilization to get a few important tasks out of the way. Usually, I would do my laundry in a sink. But, since I apparently had all the time in the world, I figured I might as well go to my first laundromat of the trip. I was slightly past the halfway point of my route and figured that my clothes were due for a good disinfecting.
After the laundromat, I made my way to Walmart, where I would restock supplies for the next leg of my transcontinental ride. Still, the wind was calm and the sky was clear. My frustration continued to climb as I chained my bike to the shopping cart corral in the parking lot. Maybe I would chalk it up to a monetary loss fueled by fate, and get back on the road in the afternoon to get a few miles in before the sun went down. After making sure that my bike wasn’t going anywhere, I went inside to stock up on my usual haul consisting of raw energy in the form of candy bars, pop-tarts, and canned chili. I had this system down to a science and could run through a grocery store in less than 10 minutes including checkout. You can imagine my surprise when I stepped outside and became witness to pure chaos as I was nearly blasted off of my feet by the wind.
It looked as though all the sand in the desert had been lifted from the ground and was now suspended in the air. Standing on the pavement just outside the store, I was unable to see the second row of cars in the parking lot because the visibility had dropped to near zero. I jumped back inside and checked the weather forecast to see how long the storm was going to last. The wind wasn’t scheduled to let up until the wee hours of the morning. Not wanting to spend the rest of the day and night camping out in Walmart, I reluctantly went back outside. I was less than two miles from my motel. Surely, I could make it there in one piece.
Any skin that was left exposed quickly went numb as it was being sandblasted by thousands of tiny projectiles. I still had to squint under my sunglasses because even they couldn’t block out every particle of sand. Quickly I packed away my food, fumbled with the lock, and mounted my bike. Even with all the wind I had been experiencing recently, this was something else entirely. It seemed to come from all directions simultaneously and made riding nearly impossible. I chose to stay on the sidewalk - something I normally don’t do as the bike lane is actually safer in most cases. But, I couldn’t ride in a straight line and didn’t want to be pushed out into traffic by an unexpected jab from the wind. All I could do was keep my head down and pedal. Cars were driving slowly with their hazards on and many of the traffic lights had gone out. It felt like a doomsday event. I glanced up from my handlebars in time to see a cardboard box for a 70-inch TV flying past a few feet to my right. The wind was so strong that I wouldn’t be surprised if there was actually a TV inside it. Had it been just a few feet closer to me, there would have been nothing I could have done to dodge it.
It took me nearly 45 minutes to make it home. Once I opened the door and shuffled my bike inside, I took notice of how covered I was in sand. As a child, I would often bury myself up to my chin when at the beach. This was comparable to that. My eyes, nose, and ears were nearly clogged completely. Never again would I use a weather forecaster’s name in vain. I learned the hard way that it’s better to err on the side of caution when dealing with this sort of thing. The following morning, the desert had settled. All of the sand seemed to have returned to the ground, and the sun was once again out and scorching all that it touched. Now that things were back to their normal level of discomfort, it was time to continue my westward conquest of the continent.
