Fun And Games

It’s always a bit of a relief to wake up after a rough day to find yourself fully recovered. Or at least essentially recovered. This morning was one of those mornings. Yesterday’s gruelling ride was officially history and it was time to look ahead. Of course, looking ahead today meant enjoying a somewhat relaxing day off.

As mentioned in yesterday’s update, today was Sierra Blanca’s First Annual Desert Dayz fundraiser. With Sierra Blanca being a town of about 700 people, it seemed that everyone in town was part of the event at some point during the day.

Of course, 700 people is a lot of people when you don’t know anyone so much of my day was spent just people watching – and a bit of blog writing. Of course, without a WiFi connection, the writing was somewhat futile. As for the people watching, some of that included the mud volleyball tournament which was pretty entertaining. It was funny to watch people so desperately trying to NOT get muddy. Of course, once they eventually fell they became much less concerned about falling again.

Without a doubt, the biggest surprise of the day came in the form of a guest guitar player. There’s a U.S. Border Patrol Checkpoint near Sierra Blanca and as a result, a lot of U.S. Border Patrol officers in the area. It turns out, there’s a celebrity amongst them. It would seem that one of Sierra Blanca’s reserve sheriff’s deputies is Steven Seagal. Yes, THAT Steven Seagal. And through various connections he made an appearance at today’s event.

As the afternoon turned into evening, the entertainment featured two live bands, both of which were very good.

During those evening performances I met and had a few conversations with a few people about my trip – it would seem the stranger travelling through town on bicycle tends to be noticed a bit. Everyone I spoke to was incredibly nice but the most amusing start to a conversation came when I met Julie. I don’t remember her exact words but it was essentially, “Why are you here?” (side note: it wasn’t said in a mean way). We ended up chatting for a while about my trip, cycle tourists, Sierra Blanca, hang gliding, hot air ballooning, and more. Plus, she gave me the story behind the Steven Seagal connection. She was a lot of fun to talk with and it was great meeting her. She eventually had to go off in search of her daughter at which point I returned to my unofficial role of people (and band) watching.

The entertainment played until about 1:00 but I called it a night around 11:00. Not because I wasn’t enjoying the show but because I want to get an early start tomorrow and staying up until the show ended would made that more challenging.

Despite the fact that my tent was set up directly beside the stage (and also near the train tracks), I had no difficulty falling asleep. It’s remarkable what you can sleep through sometimes!

My plan for tomorrow is to hit the road early and finish the ride to Van Horn – Friday’s original goal. It’s only about 55 km away so I’m hoping to get there early and perhaps get caught up on my blog – assuming I can find a WiFi connection.

For what it’s worth, the next several days could prove to be more than a little challenging. The forecast is calling for strong headwinds as I head into a somewhat remote part of Texas. As such, I’m guessing WiFi may be hard to find over the next week. I’d say that might result in some delays in my updates but that’s not entirely news these days.