Climbing: 750 feet
Average Speed: 23.5 mph
Winds: Tailwinds, maybe 10 – 15 mph
I have to tell you, Dalhart is fascinating. It sits high up in the Texas panhandle as an object lesson of economies of scale in food production. This place is all about beef. Massive feed lots line Route 54 heading into town. There are cattle as far as the eye can see, and believe me, the eye can see pretty damn far. All those cattle must have stamped out all the hills. Trains howl down the tracks and trucks stampede down the road delivering the bovines to their final destination. It's all a pretty powerful encouragement to vegetarianism, but I still had barbecue for dinner.
Unfortunately, some of the people who hang out with all those cattle are lowlife redneck assholes, one of whom nailed my riding companion, Sam, in the back with a beer bottle just as we were coming into town. I didn’t get a license plate and we couldn’t catch him, but if somebody out there should come across a redneck this evening, I’d be perfectly comfortable with you expressing my rage upon his person.
As for the ride, today was practically a rolling rest day. It was the first day of the trip under 100 miles, and that tailwind and the flat terrain made that 23.5 mph average easy to achieve. I started out of Tucumcari with a short pace line that got reduced to the ride leader Mike, Jay (who is now in form and kicking my ass), and myself. I hung with those two guys for maybe 35 miles before getting pooped out the back. They’ve got that racer top end speed that I don’t have. Even afterwards, though, the pace stayed really high. I rolled into Texas just before lunch, and found something stereotypically Texan about the bullet holes in this sign.
At our lunch Sexybike took the opportunity to catch up on a little local history. I have to tell you she’s turning into quite the little Pygmalion. I’m so proud of her now, classing up and showing some intellectual curiosity. I think this trip is really expanding her horizons.
What else? We’ve had our first hospital visit for saddle sores, though my ass remains in manageable shape. I never thought I’d see the day when I described a 23.5 mph, 96 mile ride as a rolling rest day, but there you go. If we’d had more people in the pace line we could have gone at a four hour century pace. It’s all about the wind out here.
Tomorrow, we cross the Oklahoma Panhandle and head into Kansas, where we remain for an eternity. Evening, folks.
Hi Andy. How much sleep are you getting? Some nights your posts are clocked at 10 or 11ish. Are you sagging a laptop? How do you connect to the Internet? Keep up the good riding and writing. Ron
ReplyDeleteP.S. It boggles my mind to read that you are getting dropped. Are there some pros on this ride?
Heya, Ron. I suspect its a time zone mismatch. I've got my computer set to local. Right now I'm in Central, but it may be hosted in Eastern Time or something. I'm sagging a laptop, yeah. I'm getting about 8 hours a night. Early mornings, early nights.
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple of racers here. The ride leader, Mike, I have to be careful of. He's a really fast racer despite being older than God, but he also is not riding the whole ride, maybe two days out of three, and only 40-50 miles per day. Fatigue is such a big deal. I'm riding tired all the time as are the other non-staff riders, and he's not. If I'm not careful, I'll wind up swapping turns with him until he pulls out 50 miles in, and I'll be suffering my way in for the remaining 75.
The other guy, Jay, is a racer and getting into form now whereas my conditioning is pretty much plateaued. I may be able to sit in a pace line with him and do equal shares if I ride the same ride that he does over some days, but I've been spending a lot of time soloing, and the effort is really cumulative. Still, though, I don't think I can mess with his top end speed.
There's some fast damn people out there, Ron, and it seems like a lot of them want to ride across the country. I'm looking forward to getting back and doing a 50 mile RABA ride and have it seem like a windsprint.
I've become a major fan of Sexybike. She at first appeared to be very parochial and subservient, but now I can see that she is a "Susan Boyle" type personality. She needs her share of video time but not in front of anything that has bullet holes in it. What were you thinking, boy? Please tell her I'm considering stalking her cute wheeled sassiness as every star needs a stalker. Try not to give her any of your saddle sores.
ReplyDeleteMom
Andy when you say we had our first hospital visit for saddle sores is that you . Ouch. What did the medics do or prescibe.
ReplyDeleteTo Dad:
ReplyDeleteNope, the ass was not mine.
Andy - THe kids enjoyed the blog tonight although I had to do more editing than usual! You got a laugh when you mentioned barbecue for dinner as we have had a running joke all day about BBQ.
ReplyDeleteSo do you do you see yourself as Dr. Doolittle to Sexy's Eliza or is she the Dr. Doolittle and you are more Eliza? Something to consider as you pedal tomorrow.
By the way, please edit my posts for spelling and such, I was mortified to reread my one from yesterday.
Per your requests for Rednecks, I am going to the NASCAR race on Saturday night with Harry and I am pretty much sure if I start tossing bottles I can hit a few - but since I have not renewed my concealed weapon permit since I have had the kids, I feel like it is best not to start something I can't finish. That being said, Chris was most upset to hear the story. Loved the pictures! Still waiting on video? or did you lose that fight with technology?