Blanco to Lockhart

I rode in a support vehicle today directly into Lockhart State Park with the "Wolf Pack" a group of young men who break down and set up camp each day. They are so efficient at it that in the space of a couple of hours almost 40 tents are erected, air mattresses blown up and luggage delivered to the tent. They also set up chairs and tables and the electronics station and set out water and the coolers with pop. 

When I got into Lockhart State Park I went with Mickey to the town of Lockhart to have barbeque at Black's BBQ. Their beef brisket was really great.

Dave rode 20 miles today, avoiding hills by doing the last 20 miles of the ride. He felt good and his hip handled that amount of mileage well today. Tomorrow is flatter and he is going to increase his miles to 40 and see how that goes.

My calf also feels much better. I have been able to walk without pain all afternoon. I kept it elevated this morning, and I'm continuing with the Advil. I'm hoping after about three more days to try a short ride and see how that goes. So, things are looking up!

One of our riders wasn't so lucky today. He crashed after running into another biker and broke his arm below his elbow. He also fell hard on his hip. Previously on Thursday his daughter and son-in-law had flown themselves and their bikes in and surprised him on our riding day where we reached the half way mark. They were on the way to the airport to fly back home when they got the call that their dad was at the hospital. They were able to change their flights and meet him at the hospital to be with him.

Ironically, when they rode on their bikes the day they surprised him, Wayne's daughter fell and cut her leg on the chainrings so she needed 8 stitches that day! This will be a long weekend they won't forget. Wayne does have trip insurance, but it is so difficult to give up a dream so abruptly...

I don't have much cell signal here and no WiFi, so no pictures tonight, sorry.

Happy Easter everyone.

Rocky cliffs and immense landscape

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.

We took our time and conversed for quite awhile at the rest stop.

I'm not sure what this yellow flower is. It's everywhere.

Bubba gave 'haircuts' to those who wanted it. Here Dean is getting a shave. About 10 guys "partook"!

Pancho Villa and a hilarious outing in Mexico

We had a rest day on Saturday. We stayed in the gym at the Columbus school. The staff shuttled us to the Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus. There the head ranger gave us a talk about Pancho Villa and his raid on Columbus just before World War 1.

Villa's dominance in northern Mexico was broken in 1915 through a series of defeats he suffered at Celaya and Agua Prieta at the hands of Álvaro Obregón and Plutarco Elías Calles. After Villa's famous raid on Columbus, New Mexico, in 1916, U.S. Army General John J. Pershing tried unsuccessfully to capture Villa in a nine-month pursuit that ended when the United States entered intoWorld War I and Pershing was called back. Villa retired in 1920 and was given a large estate, which he turned into a "military colony" for his former soldiers. In 1923, he decided to reinvolve himself in Mexican politics and as a result was assassinated, most likely on the orders of Obregón.

After we toured the museum at the state park, the staff again loaded us into vehicles and brought us down to the border. We waited for the shuttles to bring us all down and while we were standing around one woman took a general photo of the customs building. Several officers were outside and two of them came over in high dudgeon about her taking pictures of them. Well, I'm sure they value their privacy and I imagine those postings can be pretty dangerous, but seriously?? We looked like a group of middle-aged gringos in loud colored shirts, about as harmless as anyone could look! But we bowed and scraped and the person said she was just taking a general picture of the area. They didn't make her erase it, which if they were that concerned, I would think they would ask that.
Well we crossed the border, past Mexican guards with automatic weapons and went in to the Pink Store which is a restaurant, bar and warehouse shopping experience of brightly colored Talvera style dinnerware, planters, tile and sinks. And, I bought a sink! When I asked Bubba if there would be a way to transport it, he wanted to see it, but once he saw that it wasn't the KITCHEN sink but a mere bathroom sink, he said he could take it. So during the afternoon word seemed to spread with everyone asking about THE sink!
Then we sat down to lunch. Our first margarita was on Bubba and several people at our table didn't want theirs so others had more than one. Well I won't name names but a few folks became quite comic. We were serenaded by a roving trio.
We followed lunch with a trip to the Pancho Villa statue and all had a picture.

It really is a pink store.