Almost out of TX

We are staying in El Paso, TX currently with some friends we have made. The roads through west TX got too bad for us on our triathlon bikes so we ended up catching a ride to El Paso. We are laying over a day here and resting a bit before we go to New Mexico tomorrow. The friends we are staying with had a really interesting bit of info for us. El Paso is one of the safest cities in the entire country (consistently in the top 5) and they are right next to the city which has the highest murder rate in the entire world (Ciudad Juarez). I found this just so interesting. Needless to say, we will be staying on the right side of the border. El Paso sits at around 3800 feet of altitude and is a bit cooler here. We will be going through some pretty high passes in NM the next few days so we are hoping for some good weather. The forecast looks good for us though. Del Rio wasn't really much to look at and there was a lot of trash around. West TX doesn't have much either. There are some mountain ranges here but other than that it is very very very desolate. There are wide stretches of land with nothing even close around. I-10 through this section of TX is like the autobahn. I didn't see a police vehicle for some 300 miles. You can pretty much drive as fast as your car will take you through this section which makes it a bit scary for bikers. The roads here are tar and gravel which make it very difficult for road bikes with skinny tires. We are doing this trip for FUN! We never did it to prove a point or to change our lives or to hurt ourselves. The minute it stopped being fun (and we knew it would be that for several hundred miles) we decided to make a change. Every rider who came through this stretch complained about the roads and scenery so we decided to cheat a little. We knew that if we did this stretch (which we were physically capable of doing) it would have mentally broken us down and possibly ruined the rest of the trip for us. Being in El Paso a week ahead of time also allows us to more explore the Gila wilderness of NM and spend more time with friends in Tucson. And not to mention, we get to San Diego faster. If we were doing this trip and knew we had to return to a crummy place afterword (i.e. anywhere in Midwest) we would take as much time as possible. But because we are ending and staying in San Diego WE WANT TO GET THERE! Some people have told us to slow down a bit but it doesn't really concern us. San Diego has too much to offer and we want to get there to explore it all! Also, we are both very much missing our pool time. I am having dreams about swimming. This is the longest I have not swum since I began to swim when I was 8. Natalie is in a similar situation. I am very eager to get to San Diego and start swimming again. Something I miss a lot. For now though we are safe and happy to be in NM tomorrow. Pray for good weather for us! We will be staying on the US side of the border always. No mexico for us. It was kind of funny in Del Rio. I was in the Walmart there and felt very out of place. One of only a handful of "white" people in there. Very different down here. Not at all in a bad way; just wild to see such a different part of the country. We are loving every minute of it (except for the really bad TX weather and roads). Hopefully we are done with that and can start seeing the sun a bit more. No recent pictures. Will add when I get some. Natalie says "Hi!" and "Goodbye!".

~Drew