Tagging the Mexican Border

Yesterday went seamlessly. Good flight from Calgary to San Diego.  Gotta say it's a bit awe-inspiring to keep looking down below us and realize we'll  be covering all that territory under our own power in the coming weeks. Linda had arrived from Salt Lake City just minutes before me and had already hailed the airport shuttle. I squeezed all my stuff into the vehicle and we made the short drive to the hotel.  Three years ago we had launched the Southern Tier from the same hotel so we're starting out on familiar territory.

Spent a leisurely  afternoon re-assembling the bike and watching my roommate  Hermione (Linda) pull endless fashionable wardrobe items and gadgets from her tiny suitcase. With help from Cindi (who wandered over to introduce herself after correctly surmising  that we must be part of the bike tour) and a bit of assistance from the maintenance man's hammer, Toto (we're  not in Kansas anymore) is once more fit to be ridden. Brenda - you would be proud of just how clean and shiny she is. Alas, it won't last.......

We met Gail & Tom, Wendy, Diane & her sister for dinner, and arranged a time to meet for today's trek to the border.

The picture above is five riders (Linda, Wendy, Diane, Gail & me) and two drivers ready to go this morning.  A quick drive down on the interstate to the border village San Ysidro.  What a mass of humanity!  Very busy with vehicular traffic as well as lots & lots of foot traffic.  A trolley runs from San Diego right to the border.  Must be a regular commute for some folks.

The route back wasn't the most scenic, but my opinion could be skewed by the fact that I took a bit of a tumble about half way back.  I was following the other four and reading the map instead of watching either the road or their hand signals.  There was a rather large rock in the middle of the bike lane.  I hit it and went down.  Ouch!  Thankfully I've been drinking my milk  and although sore I don't think there's any permanent damage. I cycled back with the others, stopping briefly at the U.S.S. Midway before dodging across multiple lanes of traffic coming from and going to the airport.

Once safely back at the hotel, Nurse Linda tended to my needs and we met a few more riders who had checked in today. Looks like a great group!  Out to dinner with a fine young lady from our 2013 Southern Tier group who now lives in San Diego. Finally - another round of icing before calling it a night.