Day 13, May 2, 2014

Today was another good day.  Only a couple miles over a hundred, mid 18 mph range; still saving the legs and stamina for Sunday's 140+ mile ride.  Sunny skies and cool temperatures to start.  Left the hotel with cold weather gear, but by the lunch stop at 65 miles, stripped down to short sleeve jersey and bare legs.  East Texas was more hospitable than west Texas, we saw deciduous trees and green fields.  We also saw a lot of recent oil and gas drilling and fracking operations, a sign that the domestic energy exploration is on the upswing.  Interestingly, as we approached the Texas-Oklahoma border, the landscape in Texas was all oil & gas, but in the Oklahoma distance, the skyline was dotted with giant wind turbines.  We crossed into Oklahoma at about the half-way point.  They say, everything in Texas is big.  That holds true for the road shoulders.  We could easily ride 4 abreast along the two lane highway.  As soon as we crossed into Oklahoma, the shoulder became non-existent.   For virtually 50 miles from the boarder to Elk City, the wind turbines were everywhere.  We were told by a bar tender tonight that the government pays a landowner $8,000.00/month for each turbine on his property.  (I'll leave it to some fact checker to verify the veracity of that statement, I for one call; "Bull Shit").

  No flats in our foursome group, no accidents, no close calls, no angry motorists, no headwind, no precipitation, just a good day to be on a bike exploring new lands.  Jere did get into an argument with a jackass.  We must of scared it and it started braying at us, so Jere had to bray back.

  Tomorrow's run is a 109 mile eastward jaunt to Chickasha, Ok.  At about the 50 mile point, we'll stop for a picture at our 1/2 way point across the U.S.   Weather forecast continues to look good.

Day 12, May 1, 2014

  What a difference a day makes!  If you can't change the wind direction, then change your course.  (Actually, we didn't change the course, it just worked out that way).  The wind blew from our backsides all day, and blew us down the road for about 112 "easy" miles.  Today, we "soft peddled" and cruised, often over 20 mph.  We used today to recover and plan to recover some more tomorrow (winds still forecast out of the west, although lighter, and we're heading due east), because Saturday's ride is the longest of the trip at 143 miles.  Tomorrow we leave Texas and head to Elk City, OK.  I'm a little disappointed with Texas.  Tonight we ate dinner at the Texas Rose Steakhouse.  They didn't have Lone Star beer!  And after one round of Corona (served without a lime), they ran out!  The waitress told us to stock up on beer before entering Oklahoma, because the alcohol content statewide is only 3% (never heard of that; is that Coors Light mixed with half a glass of water?).  Riding a bike makes it hard to stock up on beer, besides, if the Texas Rose can't get any beer, what hope do we have of finding any?
  I didn't take any pictures today, nothing notable.  Soon after we left Dalhart, we began seeing oil well pumps dotting the landscape.  We passed a huge refinery somewhere between Dumass and Borger, TX (Google it).  The air smelled of petroleum for miles (which rivals the offensive smells from yesterday's cattle feed lots outside Dalhart).
  The Pennsylvania boys picked-up the Sheila (Monique) sometime after the 1st SAG/Rest stop and she rode with us for about 75 miles.  She was able to sit at the back and draft off our broad shoulders (not Jere's).  We were rewarded for our gentlemanly behavior by having to stop twice to assist her with fixing two flat tires (the Pennsylvanians were flat free).  So while we speeded up her ride, she slowed our ride, but Pampa, TX was still there when we got to the end of the cue sheet. (That may not hold true once we enter tornado alley).
   The New Zealander, Simon (the one that face planted a few days ago) got on the bike today and rode the last 30 miles.  I think he'll be good to go for the full 102 mile distance tomorrow.
    Off to bed to rest for Day 12.