Yesterday was a rest day in Las Cruces. We sorted out stuff to mail home. We pulled out some cold weather gear, some tools I was tired of lugging along, some jerseys I haven't worn in two weeks. I pedaled over to the post office with the stuff and locked my bike to a pole outside. After mailing the package, I went to unlock the bike - the key wouldn't turn! I thought I was going to have to walk the rest of the way! A bystander, watching my frustration, suggested WD-40. The post office had some and a squirt eased the problem.

When I worked on the Obama campaign in Los Lunas, New Mexico, four years ago, Ellie and Weldon took me in as a stranger and nurtured me through the election. Without the comfort

of their home and the breakfast and lunch Weldon prepared for me every day, I would never have lasted! Ellie and Weldon drove for hours to meet us in Las Cruces yesterday. We had lunch together and explored the plaza of Mesilla, one of the oldest European settlements in NM. Weldon chauffered us to a bike shop to pick up an inner tube for Michele and a rear flasher for Steve. Thanks again to Ellie and Weldon.

I happened to look at an El Paso mag yesterday morning that mentioned a mystery concerning the disappearance of Col. Albert Fountain and his son without describing the mystery. At lunch with Ellie and Weldon, I noticed that the menu mentioned that the restaurant's recipes come from the FountIn family. I asked the waitress if there was a connection; it turned out that there was, but she didn't know what it was. It's a story that might have inspired many a Western. Fountain had quite a career. As a journalist, he went to Nicaragua to report on William Walker's attempt to seize control of that country in 1860. Walker had Fountain arrested and sentenced to death, bit Fountain escaped. Fountain fought in the Civil War and fought Indians. As an attorney, he defended Billy the Kid and prosecuted castle rustlers, including Lee and Fall. Returning home, Fountain and his son disappeared, leaving behind a buckboard and a pool of blood. Their bodies were never found. The universal suspicion was that Lee and Fall ambushed the pair. Further detail at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Jennings_Fountain

Michele did some research on our planned route (and I'll try to put up a map when I get to a reL computer) and discovered a problem. We were going to ride from Sierra Blanca to Kent, then from Kent to Fort Davis. That's maybe 130 miles. Kent is roughly halfway and our map indicated that one can camp behind the store in Kent. There's nowhere else to stop from Van Horn to Fort Davis, a distance of 91 miles with a big climb. The problem is that the store is now abandoned -there's no water! WarmShowers has a host in Van Horn. We contacted her. She recommended stopping in Van Horn, then going around the Fort Davis Mountains by ridimg to Marfa and then to Marathon to return to the planned route. So that's what we'll do. Plus we elbowed our way into hospitality with the Van Horn host!