Today the tour finished with New Mexico and moved into Texas
as we rode 95 miles to Dalhart. Unfortunately
most of the day was spent riding into a strong wind from the Northeast. For me, Texas is the one state on this tour
in which I’ve already ridden. But this is a first. I’ve never been up in the Panhandle. But some things about riding in Texas are
just as I remembered them—specifically chip seal roads! Fortunately a little more than half of the
ride was in New Mexico, but riding over the shoulders paved with asphalt and
paving stones was a jarring experience!
Whenever we could we moved over onto the edge of the regular asphalt
paved highway (virtually the entire trip was on US 54). On that smooth pavement
without the vibration of the chip seal surface our speed increased
noticeably. But it didn’t take long for
the inevitable return of the chip seal to both the roadway and the shoulder.
Today there were three sag stops where riders can get water, Gatorade, some snacks (power bars, carb loaded snacks, and fruit. The third rest stop had fresh red cherries among the offerings…mmm!).
To make it through the day I rode with three others in a “pace line.” Each person takes a turn at the front of the line to break the wind for the other riders and then circulates to the back. We each took turns at the front of one mile. The three riders…John, Rod and Tom…were all guys in my age group.
There about 30 riders on the tour…most of whom are going all the way across the country. The majority of the riders are of retirement age (because who else has seven weeks to ride across the country). There are a couple of couples making this ride—three from the U.S. and one from Switzerland. There are also single riders from the UK and Canada. It is a very friendly group—we all are people who have the same interest—cycling, and we spend the whole day together. There are also about eight staff—three women and five men (including the couple from California who own the company).
Today we saw the large stockyards entering Dalhart, a state
border, lots of open spaces, some wind vanes, and many freight trains running
on the Union Pacific (former Rock Island Railroad) line that paralleled the
route.
Here’s some photos (including one of the paceline from the rear which was very hard to take while riding--explains why it's out of focus) and some of the data from the route:
Any here's links to the data and to the "relive" video:
Tomorrow is 72 miles to Guymon, Oklahoma, with very little
climbing (hooray...but we still will have wind.) My cold seemed better today
but tonight I’m coughing again. But
generally it’s becoming less of an issue.
Here’s hoping for an easier day tomorrow. Hope you are enjoying reading about this trip.
Bruce
How convenient that you wore your Texas Bike Jersey. Nice Job fighting the wind.
ReplyDeleteConvenient that I brought BOTH Texas jerseys, because on the Las Vegas-Tucumcari leg the day before I wore one of them and another rider observed that I had worn it too early. So I was glad I had the other to wear properly on this day.
ReplyDelete