The gang at the Texas border

Can you see the antelope?

Notice the bullet holes in the concrete

Thought this was pretty!

Good evening everyone,

We have basically had 2 back-to-back 100 miles rides and I felt it today. i made the strategic decision to ride with the riders who tend to take it easy and smell the flowers along the way. We have moved from desert terrain to the Great Plains.. While much of the landscape is still semi-arid, we see some farms and farm animals. We spotted an antelope early in the day and I took a picture of it.

The day turned hot and windy with the predominant direction “in your face”. We climbed about 2400 feet which isn’y a lot for 100 miles, but the heat and wind made for a bad day. The group that I was in consisted of Wendy and Barry C from Canada, Rich C, Harry, Larry , Pat , Cindi and Julie. Julie’s husband liking the flatter terrain rode with the faster riders.

At the last SAG, Larry and Wendy decided to take the van in and the set of us tried to ride in a pace line to minimize the wind. We stopped often just to stretch and get out of the sun. The last 10 miles or so, Rich, Barry and I rode in a phalanx formation to allow the others to sit on our wheels and get the benefit of the draft. They said it helped.

A few items of note:

1) We are now in Texas and did the ritual sprinkling of sand at the state border!!!

2) We are entering an area of the country that was devastated by the great dust bowl of the 1930’s.

As we came into Dalhart, one of the great cattle processing centers, we could see many of the cattle waiting of their turn. Some of them ran along the fence in unison with us as we rode. Coming into Dalhart, all we talked about was DAIRY QUEEN which was 1/2 mile from the hotel. We all stopped and had a per dinner feast. I had a large milkshake and a blizzard.

When I cam into the lobby of my hotel, Ed Pilewski was there to greet me and we shook hands and spoke briefly for a few minutes. It is really nice to see a familiar face and some of the route visits have been a pleasant surprise. I was happy that Ed took a few minutes from his journey to Arizona and chat and offer encouragement. Thank yo very much Ed!

Tomorrow is a sorter day and hopefully we will have some favorable inds.

Many thanks to all of you who are following my journey . Hope that you all had a sage and happy Holiday weekend!

Chuck