Day 11

                                                                                 Day 11
                                                                 Tumcari, NM to Dalhart, TX
                                                                                 96 miles
     Today I got to enter a state that I've never been to, Texas.  I've now been to 48 states in my life.  Tomorrow we'll go through Oklahoma which will be my 49th.  Later this summer Kris and I will be off to Alaska and that will complete all 50 for me. 
     Today turned up tails, and we had a strong tailwind from the get go.  I felt great at the start and at some point I decided to see if I could be the first to get to the first SAG stop at 25 miles.  Fifty nine minutes later I arrived there, passing 5 riders in the final mile with a burst of speed I didn't think I could hold on to.  After that, I was spent and there would be no more wild bursts of speed for the rest of the day.   Because of the tailwinds, I still managed 24.9 MPH average for the day. 
     By mile 42, I was feeling pretty good about my tires as I had now gone a couple of days without getting a flat.  At that very moment I got a flat.  Using my new hand pump, I not only successfully changed it but also in the process managed to break off the small inner valve that protrudes from the valve stem.   The tube would hold air but would have to be replaced.  This was done at the next rest stop. 
    It was also at this rest stop that we were passed by "The Marine".  Some of the other riders had seen him on the road earlier in the ride.  He's a Marine that two weeks after returning from Iraq started on a solo country bike trip with an American Flag mounted to the rear of his bike.  I managed to snap a picture, albeit blurry. 
     At 54 miles we entered Texas.  It didn't look any different from New Mexico but in Texas, cars are allowed to ride on the shoulder to let faster cars pass.  Tumbleweeds were also omnipresent and something that we had to carefully navigate around.  Neither managed to be a problem.  No, I was stopped by something much more mundane. 
    At mile 85 there was a sudden thumping and metallic clatter coming from my rear wheel.    As a charter member of the broken spoke club,  my first thought was that I had broken a spoke or two and my wheel was disintegrating.  Instead, on closer inspection, the spokes were fine, but there appeared to be a 2 inch nail protruding through the shredded sidewall of the tire into rim through a spoke hole.  The tire was beyond repair.  A dollar bill wasn't going to shore up this gash.  Even a 5 dollar bill wouldn't have helped.  Jim, the mechanic extraordinaire, was on the scene shortly, and after taking multiple pictures of this, to be filed under "bad things that can happen to your tire",  put some electrical tape over the small hole in the rim tape, put a new tire and tube on  and pronounced the wheel in perfect shape.  I was able to ride on.
     At mile 86 the feed lots began.  The aroma was indescribable.  Although, not life changing, the sight of theses lots containing cows shoulder to shoulder as far as the eye could see, whose purpose was to fatten them up for the final 6 weeks of their lives, would give anyone a second thought the next time they ordered a hamburger.  And that is why tonight at dinner,  my second thought was to order a second Beltbuster Burger at Dairy Queen.   What can I say?  I was hungry.
     Tomorrow the party is over.  We will be going directly into 15-20 mile an hour headwinds as we head Northeast out of Texas, through the Oklahoma panhandle, to tomorrow night's destination, Liberal, KS....113 miles away.   I'm hoping that Dorothy and Toto will be there to greet us as we arrive.   If not, a Munchkin would be acceptable. 

-Grinner

How Texas Looks

"The Marine"

Destroyed tire with nail

Eating lunch on the road

Today's cattle, tomorrows burgers

Feedlot, (owned by Cargill)

Site of our future home in Texas

Posing by Texas State Line (I'm second from left)