Danny’s Ride

Danny, Ken and I met for breakfast around 8:30.  Today was our day off but by the list of things we needed to do, it was going to hardly be considered an off day.  First, at 10:00 Danny had a phone interview with a local Christian radio station.  The program aired every Saturday and was booked for the next three weeks but Danny’s story would still air during our trip so we thought it would be good even if we weren’t in town.

While Danny gave the interview, I worked on updating the website.  When I softly knocked at 10:30, Danny was just finishing his interview.  As I entered quietly, Ken whispered to me, “He nailed it.  I have never heard him tell his story better.”

Just then, Danny asked the interviewer how many people the station reaches.  “5 million!” Danny exclaimed.  “Wow!  That’s the most we have talked to yet!”

I sat there stunned.  I thought this was a local station that covered El Paso.  When Danny got off the phone, we talked about the interview and listened as Danny told a truly neat story in his life.

Not long after, we headed for the El Paso Times.  We were greeted at the door by security, who after explaining why we were there, called for an editor.  We talked with the paper’s editor Milan Simonich.  Milan said there were no reporters available at the moment and took down our phone number.  As we were walking out, we realized there probably wasn’t much of a story for them as all the television stations had already interviewed Danny and we were leaving early the next morning.  It was worth a try but next time we will try to set it up well in advance.

Next stop, bike store.  We went to called at bike store across town and they actually recommended a competitor who was close to our hotel.  So, we drove to the bike store and dropped off our bikes and were told to pick them up around 5:30 or 5:45.  While we were there, we started talking to a fellow biker (left picture) and he helped us plan the best route to get out of El Paso.  Thank you for all of your help!

Right next door was Souper Salad.  With it being lunch time, we thought this might be a fun place to try.  It was delicious.  Each of us enjoyed several trips to the salad bar and I’m pretty sure I ate about 10 kiwis.  At one time, I had an entire plate of just kiwi.  I’m sure the management was happy to see the “kiwi eater” leave!

We finished off our stops at Wal-Mart.  Since we were going to be heading into the desert, we stocked up on water.  We bought 8 gallons of water!  We loaded them into the motor home and headed back to the motel.

When we got to the hotel, Danny told us he has been having recent problems of dizziness.  So as a precaution he decided to go see a doctor.  A van from the hotel offered to take him down the street.  Despite Ken’s and my asking to come with him, he went alone.

Around 5:30, Ken and I left to pick up the bikes and go by the doctors office to be with Danny.  It turns out, Danny was suffering from dehydration.  After many tests, it was clear that a bag of fluids would do the trick.  Almost immediately after Danny finished the bag of fluids, he looked 100 times better.  He was back to his old self.

We finished the night at Cattleman’s Ranch for dinner.  This comes very highly recommended by everyone we have talked to in El Paso.  I ordered a 32 ounce T-Bone in an attempt to keep weight on during this trip.  While at Danny’s doctor, I found a scale and weighed myself for the first time of the trip.  I have already lost 6-7 pounds.  We enjoyed a fantastic meal.  Cattleman’s Ranch lived up to all the hype. I highly recommend it to anyone if you are in or passing through the  El Paso area.

Tomorrow’s weather: 100 degrees.  The average high is 84.  In fact, the weatherman on the 10:00 news seemed very excited that they will either break or tie an all-time high for El Paso.  Lucky us!  Good thing we stopped by Wal-Mart and bought eight gallons of water.