A good night sleep at the Hyatt last night. We were all up by 5:30am and ready for the HUGE breakfast buffet that started at 6:00am.

It was time to head out to the pool area to assemble our bikes. The boxes will  stay at the Hyatt, where we will stay for a night after our trip before flying home . . .

. . . everything went together and there were no extra parts left over, which is always a good thing. The new hard-shell bike transport box  emJay bought me for my birthday worked FABULOUSLY!!!

Our trip leaders Megan and Russ were also at the hotel early . . . with the rig they would use to transport our gear during the coming week.

. . . and the G stopped by to make sure there was room in one of the five coolers for HIS beer!!! They were checking the inventory and going to do a BIG shop today for groceries.

. . . after we got the bikes squared away, it was time to get our gear squared away for loading tomorrow. My new Helke compression bag system for packing is working GREAT!!!

Today my brother in law, who lives in El Paso, picked us up for lunch at the #1 rated restaurant in El Paso, The L & J Café!!!

. . . quite the place. We got there at 11:15am and by 11:45am the place was PACKED!!!

. . . it was our waitresses birthday today and she was wearing a special badge you could contribute a money gift to, so of course we contributed!!!

. . . after lunch away we went on a driving tour of El Paso and ended up high above the city on a scenic drive. Below us lay El Paso with it’s 600,000 residents’ and just south was Juarez, Mexico with a population of 1.3 million. It was quite a view!!!

. . . one last stop before returning to the hotel was for the boys to get some beer. I am ‘back on the wagon’, again, after waking up at 2:15am last night, wide awake and ready to go for the day !!! Will sleep good tonight!!!!