Tucumcari, New Mexico to Dalhart, Texas

Wow! A new state and a new time zone today! Pretty cool. This is not the first time that I have been in the state of Texas, but this is the first time on a bike. Now I can add New Mexico to my personal list of states crossed fully, west-to-east, on a bike.

Today's trip was as fun as yesterday's was stressful, that all because of the wind status. Yesterday we endured brutally punishing crosswinds. Today, the worst wind would have to be classified as a gentle breeze only. What a great ride.

The terrain and scenery today were not nearly as impressive or interesting as yesterday. The ride was fast and strong. Rolling hills, but no really significant climbs at all. I checked, at 101 miles total, at 1:30 PM. That's respectable for an old guy, I feel.

The ride yesterday was a century ride (that's more than 100 miles, for non-biker readers of this blog). Today was a 96 mile ride, at least as planned, all on route 54, from Tucumcari, New Mexico, to Dalhart, Texas. That would mean that today's planned ride would come close to two consecutive century rides. Close, but not quite there. We had two consecutive century rides earlier in this trip, then back in the Mojave Desert. It seemed to me that two consecutive century rides again now would be a nice accomplishment.

We did go by a huge cattle feeder facility ("XIT Feeders") today. This was on the right side of the road, probably just 10 miles before getting into Dalhart. I have never seen, nor smelled, so many bovines in my life. There were literally acres upon acres of nothing but cows eating food. Based upon my olfactory abilities, I will state my opinion herein that the cows do more with their food than just eat it; they appear to also process it. This feeder facility probably went along the road for a full mile distance, extending back from the road for as far as the eye could see.

I have heard it said that you learn a lot about yourself when you go on trips like this. That is so true. Today I did learn something about myself. As I was biking by the XIT Feeders today, I learned that I really can pedal a bicyle for a mile without inhaling even once!

When we were getting near our destination at Dalhart today, I happened to look down at the odometer on my bike computer. It was perfectly on track with the cue sheet for today's ride. I could see that I would hit 96 miles, exactly as planned and expected, at the destination. Again, 96 miles is technically not a "century" ride, but it is still a more than reasonable accomplishment.

When I got to the destination however (Days Inn - Dalhart) something weird happened to my bike! My bike had been functioning perfectly all through this past 1,000+ miles so far, so I cannot fathom what happened now. As I was turning to the left, to enter the Days Inn parking lot, the headset on my bike suddenly completely froze! I could not turn the handle bars at all! It was so strange. The bike would not turn to the left and enter the Days Inn parking lot! I thought about stopping and seeing if I could fix the problem, but it occurred to me that I might be able to fix the frozen headset better if I worked on it while still riding.

I kept on riding then, while simultaneously struggling to fix the frozen headset. I pushed as hard as I could, both left and right, while still riding on down the road in a relentlessly straight line. I was perplexed, almost frightened. The bike headset remained frozen.

Then, coincidentally at an odometer reading of 98.5 miles, the headset suddenly became fully mobile! It became totally normally functional, as inexplicably as it had suddenly malfunctioned only 2.5 miles earlier! How do you figure that one? Relieved then, I was able to turn the bike arround and ride safely back. When I finally did arrive at the destination, the odometer reading was 101 miles! It should have only been a 96 mile ride, but it ended up at 101 miles! How could that have been expected?

Imagine that! Today's ride was a century ride after all! Now that was unexpected! Two consecutive century rides after all!

OK, OK, I will admit that my extra 5 mile ride was just a bit juvenile on my part. Maybe more than a bit. Still, it felt good to do it!

Tomorrow we go to Oklahoma. I have never previously been in that state at all.

More tomorrow.