Soon to be...back on the road!

What's a good trip without a little excitement, eh? Last updated, we were in El Paso with hazy ideas about where to turn next. Whelp, we're still in El Paso, but our plans are solidifying a bit more and we hope to be back on the open road by the weekend. It's hard to believe that we've only been wrestling with this for just over 72 hours, but after a solid day of research, walking, talking, and planning....we think we have a plan that is a bit more solid. A scooter. That's right, Dot will be completing this trip on an orange Genuine Buddy 125 scooter! It's stinkin adorable and will no doubt make me jealous on the hill climbs. She will also hopefully now be able to carry a bit more of the gear weight so perhaps numerous days of century rides are in our future...as neither of us are trying to hang around west Texas for too long. For those of you who know Dot, you know that a day sitting on a scooter as she watches me ride will be torturous, but I have promised early starts so as to leave time for an afternoon run (once her collar bone has healed a bit more) and I am hiding (or hoarding) the bag of M&Ms.

 

Secondly, because dropping a few thousand dollars on a scooter mid-trip isn't exactly a planned expense, Dot has started a GoFundMe page. Essentially, you can help to fund her new wheels and in turn receive a commemorative ceramic trip cup or tile! Check out: http://www.gofundme.com/scootertoflorida for more information or to give. This way we know Dot will be waaaaay busy once she returns to CT!

Finally, everything works out for a reason, right? We are still trying to reason out the broken collar bone, but we have been incredibly grateful to the people we have met through this experience and the extra time we have gotten to spend in El Paso. For a city that I would have never envisioned myself hanging around, it has been a wonderful and eye opening experience to the world of boarder-city living. It's like traveling abroad on home soil. Below in the foreground is the US, in the background is Ciudad Juarez.

Tonight we will spend one more night with our new El Paso Couchsurfing friends Meghan and James and then head to another Couchsurfing home for the next two nights while we continue to get ourselves squared away. Spending time in the homes of strangers (turned friends) as been one of the biggest highlights of our trip and it's hard to imagine this experience without their kindness, support, food, ideas, warm showers, couches, beds, nice animals, drinks, and stories. Every day is a beautiful day :)

Over and out friends, here's to hoping by the next update we will be well into the Texas heartland!

 

 

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