My life is entirely in the hands of near strangers and new acquaintances. On other bike trips I’ve traveled with close friends, but this time it’s an army of mercenaries. Yesterday and today all those hired deckhands came together to push this trip out of drydock. We arrived in Tijuana early this morning and now the gang’s all here.

First, there’s Jon Knebel. I met Jon only five weeks ago, but I’m convinced he was born to bike the border with me. Not only has he spent a substantial amount of time traveling in Mexico, but he has just published a textbook, Learn Spanish Through Spanglish: Stories de la Jungle, that describes a new way to learn Spanish using special mixed-text Spanglish translations of classic Latin American stories. In addition to rivaling Rosetta Stone, he’s already started and sold several businesses, and he’s just 29 years old. He loves to bike, and actually has done a solo trip from Houston to Mexico City. And I caught Jon at just the right moment. Most people can’t dedicate six straight weeks to pedaling around the desert, but Jon was preparing to move to Mexico anyway, and was ready to sell his belongings, settle his debts, and drop his U.S. phone number right then and there. I spent just 90 minutes with Jon before we flew to San Diego together, but he’s turned out to be exactly the guy I needed on this trip.