Day Thirty-Two: "La Frontera" (2 February) 38 mi

Started off the morning with a very delicious breakfast consisting of almond butter, granola, pecans and berries. It was immaculate, our host Craig really did a fantastic job. Lois and I said our final farewell and we also say goodbye to Bill and Erica. Lois left before me and then I headed down the driveway towards highway 20. Just over a mile in to day 32, my front tire got a flat. I just laughed at this one, a front flat? Unheard of. I was just glad they didn't have to take off the panniers and unscrew everything. After about 15 minutes of casually messing around with the tire (it was 38 mile day after all) I hit the road again and moved along to El Paso. It wasn't long until I hit the city in the traffic began increase. But one thing straight out: I was never honked at that today. It was incredible, remarkable and not a single person honked at me even though I was on a very busy road. I meandered my way to downtown through some detours and was impressed with the city. You had some hills on the northside that were a bit tough to get over but other than that it was a very bikeable city. I decided to take my bike straight to the Crazy Cat Cyclery on Mesa where Erica my host would meet me. Instead of meeting Erica right away, I came across an old friend. Lois. We just happened to bump then to each other at the right place at the right time, and she was just checking out. I dropped my bike off for two hours and we said our final final farewells before Erica and I saw her off as she rode to Las Cruces, New Mexico. Erica was a great host, giving me chores of the city so I can sightsee and take pictures. El Paso is just really cool and then you can Ciudad Juárez on the other side of the border. I saw the fence and everything was really surreal, just to be there in the presence of another country.