Well, we did not spend the night in the jail cell! Yaya! Bueno, no pasamos la noche en la celda!

Instead we spent the night in a Casa de Hogar. It is essentially a home where they send people with disabilities to live if their families cannot care for them. The home is sponsored by the government. Carmen, the women working the night shift, greeted us with enthusiasm and prepared us some fried potatoes with corn tortillas. We appear to have passed the great tortilla divide in Mexico. The northern part of the country tends to eat flour tortillas, while the Southern part eats corn. Anyhow, we ate lots of food, (same old same old) went to bed, and left for Rio Grande in the morning.

We made our usual beeline for the Ayuntamiento in Rio Grande and were greeted by the Chief of the Fire Deptarment, el Profe. He quickly listed off many options of places for us to stay; a trailer by the Pemex, the fire station parking lot, his offices floor and his home. Needless to say we chose his house. He drove us to his house (this is a luxury dear reader, and pure and simple luxury). Then his wife and sons prepared us hamburgers! Not missing an American flavor, we also had bacon, cheese slices, and potato chips. I ate three burgers, just saying, but hey that's the American way too. But we kept things Mexican...lots of chiles on the burgers! YUM!! Anyhow, the Profe and his upbeat energy and conversation had us laughing and smiling all afternoon. We also learned three lies about Rio Grande, and they are as follows; There is no River, there is no grande, and there is no city. The next morning we had our usual goodbyes, which never get much easier, but are part of our life currently. With the usual understanding and a loud ANDALES! the profe sent us off for Zacatecas.

Here in Zacatecas we are spending some quality time off the bike. Yes, sometimes time apart from our loved ones makes us appreciate them more. Although, we do not know if this holds true for our bikes. The saddle continues to be a pain in the ass no matter how much time apart we spend. Zacatecas is a bit of a culture shock. The population appears to be over 1,000 people, there are paved streets everywhere, and the stores and shops line the streets. There is an abundance of stores selling shoes, shirts, jewelry, and other touristy knicknacks. There is a stunning lack of ranch animals here and not every person stares at us as though we are arriving on bicycles from who knows where. But, we also find ourselves reflecting on the trip so here are a few thoughts, facts and ideas about Mexico, life and bicycling a long way.

1. Number of flats to date: Eric - 13 Merilee - 6
2. Semi Trucks are very similar to bike tourists...think about it both smell, spend hours and hours on the road, we are slow and in the way... EXCEPT semis run us off the road, we run nothing but donkeys off the road or on come to think of it
3. Number of gringos spotted before Zacatecas - 0. After 4 (maybe)
4. Mexico celebrates the great holiday known as Daylights Savings Time
5. Almost every person we have met has a family member or has personally lived in the United States to work
6. Nurse Jackie (said with a Spanish accent) is an addicting TV show
7. You will never know true anger until you try and bicycle into a direct head wind for days on end
8. There is a generosity that exists in Mexico that is hard to describe. They give to people who seek a small hand like us. We need a quiet place to sleep, a shower perhaps, and maybe a little food - this is given with no thought of 'repayment' just to carry this feeling into our future life endeavors.
9. There is nothing like falling sleep on a quiet Mexican night only to have it shattered by burros, stray dogs, roosters, or even peacocks.
10. Jumex is the most amazing brand of juice!!!
11. Pigeons dancing to music = pretty funny

Pictures: Eric with El Profe, and our true rebellious side coming out as we bike where we're not suppose to.

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