Day 3 - Calexico California

Picture is of the border fence between California and Mexico.  Border patrol may be the biggest industry around here-- yesterday we passed a Border Patrol station where hundreds of vehicles were parked (I guess nobody tries to sneak in on Sunday) and today about every other thing that passed in either direction was BP, not to mention the several trucks parked out in the desert.  At one of our SAG stops we were all peeing behind little bushes while men with binoculars perched up on the ridge-- hopefully looking in the Mexico direction.

As a skilled complainer with years of practice I have the ability to switch almost instantly from whining about the endless climbing to bitching about the endless flat and my skills were put to the test today.  We started out with a climb (yes, back up the hill we rode down at the end of yesterday's ride) then had a nice few miles on "Historic Old Route 80" to a town called  Jacumba.  There we got  to Interstate 8 and had an incredible ten mile downhill-- not the terrifying kind but down, down, down, through an unearthly landscape of tumbled rocks.  There, halfway through the ride, ended our fun.  We were in a "town" called Ocotillo where we had lunch-- (Fountain Drinks - Motorcycle Parts), then into the Yuha Desert for many miles.  Totally uninhabited--it must be federal land-- I wondered why there was nothing dead on the road and finally realized that there is nothing alive off the road except Border Patrol..  Eventually we passed through the desert and into flat agricultural county with irrigation and lots of onions-- it is easy to identify them because of the odor.    Shoulder good, headwind bad, scenery pretty strange-- I got through thirty miles of it with the help of my iTunes--  nobody running this ride seems to know or care if we use earphones and there are no staff riders to monitor our behavior.

 Tonight we are sleeping in a church-- literally in the sanctuary with mattresses lining the aisles.  Our showers were in the minister's home-- three blocks away with two showers for 46 people but since I missed mine yesterday I was determined to get one today and succeeded.  I hope Bubba is giving this church a lot of money!    I had my first fall today-- as always because I was clipped in.  Started to think I had missed the church (I had) and while I was thinking about turning around I slowed so much that I tipped over right into the street-- very embarassing  but no injury.  Unlike one of the Bubba's staff...Sunshine fell off the truck this afternoon and broke her arm in two places.