Slow Start ,Better Finish

47 miles, 451' of elevation, 88 degrees
  I know that much of the country is having bad weather, but we are not. This morning the group was scheduled to ride together with a 9 am start. From experience, Woman Tours lets the morning rush hour in El Paso come and go. With a population of almost a million, this was a good plan. I checked my tires at 8 am and discovered it had a slow leak but I had plenty of time to change it and still make the 9 am start. I inspected the tire carefully and had assumed that the flat was caused by glass which unfortunately we had plenty of the day before. Unfortunately, the tire went flat again just as we were pushing off so Carol, one of the staff, pulled the tire clean off and there was this nasty thorn that had gone straight through. The group left without us but with Carol pacing me back, we caught them at the first sag stop at a beautiful old mission. The group had thought if would be nice to ride together on what was expected to be an easy day. It was as far as distance and terrain but the wind started to increase.
  Rather than hang back and do a slow ride, Carol and I decided to ride straight in before the wind really picked up. As it turned out, the wind took my directional changes and we rarely had a head wind for more than a mile or two. Most of the time it was a crosswind. Carol has this neat radio build into her saddle bag where you plug in your IPOD and your music plays through two speakers so we alternate lead with every song. Made the ride go quickly.
  Landscape was flat farm fields which were just being plowed so not much to report about views. Some mountains off to the right of us which had to be in Mexico as we were running along the border most of the ride.The Hancock Motel is a minus 2 on the rating scale but right across the street is a little cafe where Carol and I enjoyed lunch and a piece of their homemade pie. Chef Linda distracted us from our hotel accommodations with another fabulous dinner.