La Grange to Mexican Hill Ranch, Richards, TX

Dave and I both took the day off. His hip had been painful after only 12 miles the day before and it looked as if it could be hilly. We were able to ride with a vehicle that would be following the route so that is appreciated.
Within the first 4 miles we came across a group of riders with one rider down. It turned out that he had felt I'll and thought it was his heart. Someone had called 911 and we stayed to wait for the ambulance. The fire department arrived and started some oxygen. Then some other fire volunteers arrived in a truck. Then the next to arrive was an EMT in a truck. FINALLY the ambulance arrived. They took him to the local hospital and after a further five hours were going to release him. However they then decided that the blood test results were of concern and made plans to transfer him to Austin. He had a procedure this morning and has now told Bubba that he will be back riding with us in a week!
The most amazing thing is that his son was in Austin on a work assignment and was able to be with his father during this ordeal. That is a God thing!
Today on our rest day we took a hayride around Mexican Hill Ranch. It was really interesting as we came upon a calf which looked like it had been abandoned by its mother. Ernie and Doris brought it back to the mother and it appears that the mother has accepted it back. Otherwise Doris will need to bottle feed it.
During the afternoon, a couple we had met during Moonlight Ski nights at Big M came over to have lunch and visit with us. Sheila and Frank live in Indiana but travel to MI to cross country ski. One time they happened to be in the Manistee area and saw a notice about our Moonlight Ski event. They now come up for one of our events each year. When they were talking to us in January they mentioned that they would be in the Texas Hill Country doing their own self-supported bike tour at about the same time as we are, so they kept in contact with us and came over to see us in our "tent city". They were impressed with the logistics of a group this size!

Bubba arranged a speaker, Russell Cushman, who is an artist, sculptor and historian. He was very enthusiastic and filled us in on the local history of the Brazos valley. He was commissioned to do a sculpture of a Texas Ranger named Frank Hamer, who was the person who ambushed Bonnie and Clyde and killed them to stop their killing spree. Prior to that he took on a group of entrenched criminals that comprised the local government. They were known for lynchings and other brutality.

The area was also the home of many of the original bluesman who were the inspiration for singers such as Eric Clapton. One of them was actually the buggy driver for Frank Hamer. He was recorded as saying that Frank made the area safe for blacks again.

A calf who seemed lethargic and seemingly rejected by its mother.

The site of old Baylor University.

Texas Paintbrush and Bluebonnets.

How many big guys can fit on a loveseat to watch basketball?

Big Bend National Park

We did a driving tour of Big Bend National Park  in several vehicles that are on the tour along with some vans that Bubba rented. It is a high desert park and many wild flowers are blooming. I caught a glimpse of a pinkish colored snake and a bird that had a nest in one of the Torrey yucca.
One highlight of our time there was our first look at Texas Bluebonnets which I had not realized are lupines. The Bluebonnets in Big Bend are a subtype called appropriately enough, Big Bend Bluebonnets (lupinus havardii).
We went to Santa Elena Canyon and saw the Rio Grande which actually had water in it. Some of the group climbed a high trail to look down over the canyon. The valley floor looked like spring with trees with the bright chartreuse leaves. Quite different than the spring at home with temps in the high 80's. VERY different from overnight in the tents where we woke up with heavy frost coating the tents and our bikes. I was so glad for the closed cell foam pads that Dale found for us. Sometime during the middle of the night I realized that it would insulate better if I put it on top of the mattress and slept on top of it rather than having it underneath where it wasn't wide enough to insulate fully. Dave didn't take my advice and slept cold. I used two sleeping bags and slept with a hat on and longjohns. I knew I'd been hauling them for 1000 miles for some reason! Others hadn't packed for cold weather and looked quite worse for wear. Tonight isn't supposed to be quite as cold, about 46 or so.

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.

Rest Day, Sunday March 15

Tucson, AZ Catalina State Park
We met with our friends Lorriann and Dale (see "A Paceline Wasn't Quite Enough") and they took us to the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum. It was to the west of where we were camping and the drive out was quite beautiful. We went through desert landscape and a mountain pass where numerous  bicyclists were riding up to the pass. There we met with Caroline and Greg who had surprised us on the road on our Yuma to Dateland day on March 11 ("Rising Steadily Slightly Uphill").
The museum is well done. We visited the Hummingbird Aviary and saw various animals in their outdoor exhibits. I wanted to see javelinas in case we don't see them in the wild (not sure I want to see them in the wild!) They also had some docents with hawks on leashes out where we could ask questions. Thanks, Lorriann and Dale, for a fun day
Afterwards we did some errands. My phone had just that day stopped holding a charge so Dale and Lorriann brought us to the AT&T store where tech support dignosed it. We then went to a Batteries Plus store for a new battery. So much easier with a car. Really fortunate that the battery chose this day to die!

Other C2C folks chose to hike up to a natural spring fed lake. The Catalina State Park has numerous hiking trails.

A couple of the staff, John and Rose, actually biked up Mount Lemmon which is something like 9000 feet. They said the wind was blowing so strongly that Rose couldn't stand up or make any headway. John said he caught his bike as it was lifted up about head high by the wind!

Other coasters did errands over at a shopping center near the State Park.

Kestrel 

Hummer on the nest

Javelina 

The Catalina mountains just before dawn.