On The Road: Day 20 - Friday, March 28

El Paso, TX to Fort Hancock, TX - 55 miles - 1030 total

For those of you who remember the movie, "The Shawshank Redemption", Fort Hancock is where Andy Dufrene crossed into Mexico, and sent Red a postcard with the Fort Hancock postmark so he would know.

Today was an easy ride! Generally flat with strong tailwind. How strong, you ask? Well, when you consider my bike weighs in somewhere around 37 lbs, I was cruising at 21 mph. That's a strong tailwind.

Other than that, not an eventful day. Since I was on breakfast duty, I was also responsible, with Derek, for clean up and put-a-way, so I was among the last to leave, and ended up riding sweep with Paul, and David on his recumbent. We felt like we were taking our time, but with the aforementioned wind, finished in the early afternoon. We even stopped twice for food; once at a bakery, well that's what we think the sign said in Spanish, for what must have been day-old doughnuts, and then again beside the Fabens Volunteer Fire Department to eat our lunch. While we were there, the volunteer chief arrived, invited us to use the facilities, and gave us bottles of Gatorade. The general friendliness of the people we have met along the way is one of the memorable aspects of this trip.

I didn't sleep particularly well last night, so instead of joining many of the group in bunking down on the floor of the Fort Hancock Community Church, I've opted to pitch my tent in the lee of the building to try to get a good night's rest. Tomorrow promises to be a more difficult ride - 75 miles into the wind with some climbing.

Tonight, after dinner and the map meeting, we're going to play Pictionary. Should be good for a few laughs.

That's as close as I got to Mexico. Apparently, for the price of a Mexican visa at the crossing, 35 cents, I could have walked across the bridge into Mexico, and then back again, as long as I had my passport. Not something that really appealed to me.