Landed safely in El Paso yesterday afternoon. On the road yesterday we were as close to the Mexican border as you could be. Police and border patrols were everywhere. Saw men and women being stopped, searched, held at gun point and cars being torn apart. It didn't feel like we were in the US. There are fences everywhere with spiral barbed wire on top. Even a hospital had that kind of fencing. We were not stopped anywhere. Glad we made the decision not to visit Mexico.
We are in a slum motel in El Paso! $30.00 for a room that we share. The towels are so thin that I would've made them my rags. No wash cloths, no bath mat. But an inspection of the sheets didn't reveal bed bugs. What more could you ask for? After all, it's a step up from some of our places!
We took the bus down town last night but everything closes up early so we just looked around and hopped the bus back to our swanky motel.
This morning we headed out in the traffic to get to the bike shop that had ordered tires and other supplies for us. I bought some heavy duty insulated water bottles that should help with water supplies in the desert ahead of us. Dean and Ron stayed at the bike shop for maintenance help. They still don't have the problems totally fixed and it cost them a fortune in labor. Bob is still working on the tandem. He changed both tires and greased all the chain, gears and derailer. He has the tools and knowledge to do it all himself and he enjoys it. We took a break to have some lunch and a little walk. Mailed a few more things home. That will lighten our load a bit more. Bigger mountains are coming!
Tomorrow night we will be staying with Warm Showers hosts in Las Cruces, new Mexico. They sound like quite interesting people and have invited us to be part of a house concert that they are hosting. The performer will be staying in their home also and many of their friends are invited. They will have dinner and wine. Sounds like a late party night for we early riser bikers. But we deserve a little entertainment too. The host couple are both Mac computer geeks who work from home. He has a web site and I could only check out a few of the many things that they have going. Will be fun to meet them.
The winds have picked up again today. Hope we can get to our destination tomorrow before they get bad again. John from Long Island who left us told us that when he tried to ride up one of the mountains the wind blew him right over on his side. He ended up pushing his bike up the mountain six miles! Not fun.
People have no lawns here. Either it's sand and dirt or they hauled in stones. Mountains all around the city. It gets cool at night but in the 90's during the day. But no humidity makes it feel good. The trip gets tougher from here, especially going west with the winds.
Posting may be difficult tomorrow with the house concert and party.
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