Day 19: Hobbs to Lamesa

We officially waved goodbye to New Mexico today as the Ride for World Health team pedaled 70 miles to Lamesa, Texas.   Today was a support day for team clover also known as Megan Buller, Brian Dishong, and Chris D’Ardenne, and myself (Sarah Voss).   Chris and I gave three lectures in the morning to the students of Hobbs High School.  Our third lecture of the morning was awesome and I’d like to give a shout out to the AP environmental class at Hobbs High.  They were interactive, had an exceptional baseline knowledge of global health issues, and I think that they enjoyed my pronunciation of “Haaaabs.” 

Our fourth lecture of the day took place on the campus of New Mexico Junior College at the Cowboy Hall of Fame.  What a place!  It took me all of an hour and a half to realize that the cowboy sitting by the campfire wasn’t real.   Here we spoke to a large audience of student athletes who clearly met their mandatory team service/education requirement for the day.   Go thunderbirds!

Our evening came to a close with a team spaghetti dinner, prepared by team clover, featuring “VOSS sauce” and a seventh grade pick-up football  game in the football stands of Lamesa High School.  The team loved my Mom’s spaghetti sauce and has not stopped talking about it for the last three days.  Apparently Justin Hepker has come to the conclusion that “VOSS sauce” is still good even after three days in a cooler.  Hmmm he is VERY BRAVE.    As for the seventh grade football game, our team heckled and cheered on nine talented football players until they eventually challenged our boys to join in.  On the very first down Peter Croft tackled a seventh grader with such skill that even James Laurinaitis would be jealous.  The seventh graders then agreed that maybe they might want to play two hand touch football instead, a very good call indeed!

~Sarah