55 miles
Really nice day of riding. We had a tailwind and lots of downhill after the first 20 miles so it felt easy. We are in the little town of Sanderson, at the school and the graduating class of 9 kids and their parents cooked dinner for us. Texas brisket cooked since 8 pm the previous night. Wow, so tender. Lots of choices of homemade pie and homemade ice cream for dessert. Wonderful!
The kid live in such an isolated area that date night at a movie is 130 miles away in Del Rio. They are also involved in sports and it's not uncommon to drive 275 miles one way to participate in a game. This as well as keeping a high GPA. All the graduating seniors have college plans. Six man football is big here.
We had a speaker who is a border agent talk to us after dinner. Then we went over and toured the station.
Wow, what a difficult job. The country around here is so desolate and yet they catch around 200 folks a year. They figure probably 300 are not caught.
About 85 percent in the Sanderson area are folks coming up to look for work and the other 15 percent are carrying packs of 50 pounds of marijuana through the desert. Amazing. I'm nervous about walking to the Porta potty for fear I'll step on a cactus, they go 50 to 100 miles at night with cliffs and bears and mountain lions! We appreciated the manner in which the agent explained the difficult job he does and the respect he shows to the people he arrests. He also sees a lot of the "coyotes" who get upwards of $5000 from each person. Then there are the other people in the pipeline who also demand payment so it can cost in the neighborhood of $10000 to come across.
We have three big mileage days coming up. Sunday's ride is 84 miles with some elevation gain and loss. I'm hoping my calf doesn't get too sore. It has felt stiff and tight. Dave said that the massage seemed to help his should and calves loosen up so he was feeling pretty good.
I got my head shaved while being Pampered a few years ago in Georgia. but I used a professional.
ReplyDelete