In late September 2015 I started pedaling at my front door in Houston, Texas and finished up CWU's third tour--the American Southwest--some 2,000 miles later (and 300 ft. lower) in Death Valley, CA. I found that the Southwest, like everywhere else,  is changing...though perhaps at a less enthusiastic clip than the rest of the world. Cowboys, ranchers, farmers, eccentric desert-dwellers, American Indians and others of the storied Southwestern variety still set the pace. Nevertheless, America's trademark diversity and restlessness are busy shaping the modern iteration of this pillar of our national ethos.