We spent our rest day in Columbus. It is a border town with a few hundred residents, and a declining population. It's claim to fame was the raid by Poncho Villa in 1916.
In the morning, we visited the Poncho Villa State Park, where a park ranger addressed our group and provided historical background of Villa's raid. The motivation for the raid is somewhat murky. Villa was a figure in the Mexican revolution (1910-1920), and it appears that his objective was to rearm his struggling army.
The raid provided the US with a cover for sending an army of 10,000 soldiers to capture Villa, and stabilize the territory around the US/Mexican border. -- Villa was never captured, and was thought to have been assassinated by the Mexican government several years later.
In the afternoon we crossed the border to eat and shop at the "Pink Store", accompanied by liberal amounts of margaritas. On our return to the border, several of the men obtained haircuts in an open air salon on the street.
Earlier in the day, discovered that my rear tire was flat; probably a victim of the dreaded "goat head thorn". This was my second flat on the rear tire, and decided it was time to mount new rubber.
We have had no new occurances of the virus, and the group appears to have cured. I'm not sure of the exact count, but well over half of our members have been sick over the past week.