Bicycling the Southern Tier

Negotiated my way through the city of El Paso and eastward along the Rio Grande establishing the U.S.- Mexico border.  Downtown El Paso looks like it must have been a vibrant place in the early to middle part of the twentieth century. It is filled with mostly vacant clubs, restaurants, stores and architecturally interesting office buildings, and a streetcar system that the city is valiantly attempting to resurrect.  On this Halloween Sunday downtown was a ghost town that was a bit spooky even in broad daylight. The wall and barbed wire and caged pedestrian bridges between El Paso and Juarez exacerbated the haunted feeling of downtown.There are parts of the city away from the historic downtown that are quite nice.  I entered El Paso from the north and picked up a bike trail along the Rio Grande where I encountered this gentleman. He constructed this trailer that he pulls behind his trike and it contains his sleeping compartment, He said that he is headed to California but ...