We descend on El Paso in dribs and drabs. El Paso welcomes us with its wide open spaces and Hispanic heritage. In seeming contradiction, this is both reunion and new experience: reunion for the 50 or so veterans and new experience for the 12 rookies who have not done a PAC Tour. In lobbies and hallways, we see t-shirts and caps with Southern Transcontinental, Elite, Route 66, and more. There are screams of recognition and warm handshakes for old friends.
On this day, we are all together for the first time and, like racehorses, we are eager to go. So if this is El Paso, the border must be near. Some of us make the pilgrammage to the crossing: Ray Latimer and Kurt Schroeder, two friends from a previous tour, and Roger Pierce, my rookie Roomate for this tour. We skim over curbs and dodge El Paso traffic for six miles to a guard station. The border is 400 yards away. A border guard with binoculars and a pistol on his hip says we could cross but we'd have to wait a while to come back into the U.S. through customs. We look across the way at the lines of cars glistening in the sunlight and surrounded by white concrete spouting heat waves. We decide 400 yards is close enough. When we get back, we learn one of our German riders went across without his passport and was refused re-entry by US customs. The result was an energetic search back at the hotel for his passport and all was soon set straight.
But it is not until the 3 p.m. rider's meeting, when all are assembled, that you realize how large a group this really is. Under a white tent on the lawn in back of the hotel, Susan directs the setting up of five-gallon plastic buckets and 1x6 boards that serve as benches. I can see the veterans thinking, We might as well get used to sitting on these. Then Lon and Susan welcome us with warmth and practical advice on how we can help make the whole operation run smoother--reading route cards, keeping warm clothes with us, drinking lots of water, being responsible for ourselves, and, when we need it, getting help without throwing sand in the works. We are all ears because we know Lon and Susan have probably forgetten more about long-distance touring than many of us know. Even though we pedal the bikes, this is definitely a team effort between the staff and the riders; and our tour will be immeasurably better if we help them help us.
At 5pm, we gathered again for our welcome banquet buffet, a fine set of salad, vegetables, chicken, beef, and chocolate cake. The food, the service, and the company made us all begin to feel like one group of PAC Tour riders, instead of some 60 cyclists. Over the next 19 days, this feeling is sure to get stronger.