June 6, 2017. Elk City OK

                                                                               Amarillo TX - Groom TX

Buddy fixed us an awesome breakfast before we left his house on Sunday morning. Homemade Belgian waffles!  Can't get much better than that. Leaving Amarillo was interesting because it seemed like no one was in town. We went through some of the downtown area, I think. Lots of wide open road, closed businesses and no one around. We did see a lot of people sort of loitering around here and there. Not sure what that was about. But the empty roads made for some nice easy riding. Once we got out of town we could feel that we had a side/headwind. The wind had shifted from SE to NE. Instead of the wind coming from our right it came from the left. It was a beautiful sunny day. Hopefully all of the storms that have been happening the past two days are done. There was some major downpours with a lot of standing water on the roads. 

Eventually we got back on a frontage road running alongside of I-40 on the east side of Amarillo. Once again we saw miles and miles of windmills on both sides of the interstate for about 60 miles! There must be a lot of wind here. We came upon sort of a strange little park on the frontage road. We couldn't figure out what it was. It was some sort of a veterans memorial park. It had displays made out of metal with lots of dates that had historical meaning. But it didn't say what the dates were. Some were obvious, others made no sense. I wrote them down so we could look them up later. In the evening I looked up what the park was and found out it was called The Peace Park. Some man just made this memorial with dates and images that meant something to him. Interesting. At least he didn't bury any cadillacs! 

Back on the road, there really wasn't much scenery. It was sort of like running on a treadmill with wind. It's interesting that the traffic was running along at 75 mph and we were seeing the same sights at 12-15 mph. We stopped for what we thought was going to be lunch at a cafe, but turned out to be a Subway at a Loves Travel Center. What a busy place! For the next several days we have zero options for camping. Bummer! So I called THE motel in Groom to make sure there wasn't a big event going on and we couldn't get a room. Because here's the thing.....if you are in a car and get turned down, you just say darn and get back in your car. On a bike, you say something else, get back on the bike and ride another 30 miles! All in all for us a fairly easy day of riding in beautiful sunshine, wind in our hair (mine) and a clear road. What more could you want!  In Groom we checked out their tourist attraction. It's a huge cross (it is 190 feet high) with all of the stations of the cross surrounding it. You can see this cross for miles before getting to Groom. We also stopped at THE grocery in Groom for dinner stuff. Not much food but it's food/fuel.

                                                          Groom TX - Shamrock TX

We had oatmeal, peanut butter and tortillas in the motel before leaving. Another sunny, NW wind day. Frontage road again. Windmills again (for part of the day anyway) and no traffic again. It seemed like there were more rolling hills along with more trees instead of the flat lands. I also think I actually saw one corn field. Not sure about that, but I've seen my share of corn and it sure looked like it! 

We stopped for lunch in McClean TX.  FYI there are TWO stops today. One town and one roadside rest. We really are in the middle of nowhere. I always wondered where nowhere was. Didn't know I'd find it in the Texas Panhandle. At the top of this page you can see on the map where we are! It's marked "nowhere". OR you could look it up in the dictionary under "nowhere". 

In McClean, two other touring cyclists stopped to eat at the same time. They are from California and on their way to Boston. They are traveling with their dog, Goofy who is riding in a basket on the front of his bike. This is their first tour. Both are college students on summer break. They were having some bike issues so Hap took a look. Unfortunately he had a broken spoke and we have 

different size spokes. It was fun talking with them about their adventure. We remember our first tour in 1985 from Portland, OR - San Francisco CA. It was so much fun! That trip changed our lives because we got hooked on bike touring and have spent 32 more years seeing the world by bike. 

We just had a short ride up to Shamrock TX to another motel. One thing we have noticed is that there are RV parks along our route. They just don't want the riff raff in their parks. They don't know what their missing! But the important thing is we are safe and sound, have clean laundry and full bellies. Tomorrow we ride into our next state, O-O-O_klahoma where the sun shines mainly on the plain..........

                                                           Shamrock TX - Elk City OK

Before leaving the motel, We ate a couple of "breakfast bowls" that we purchased at the grocery store the night before. How can you go wrong with Jimmy Deans??

Today seemed like a pretty straightforward day. Eat breakfast at motel, start riding early, get on Frontage road alongside I-40 heading east. What could possibly go wrong? First of all the temps were a lot warmer, in the 90's in the afternoon. Then, It seemed like there was more climbing today. Not the usual climbing that you expect. Noooo it was the climbing that you don't see, those sneaky mile or more long climbs that don't seem like climbs when all of a sudden you realize your heart rate has been climbing and climbing. I knew that something was up when Hap said mmmmm (I hate it when he says that) I don't seem to have much power. We stopped on another one of the loooonnnnggg climbs along the frontage road and his heart rate was way too high for Hap. I asked, how much water have you had to drink? Seems like a reasonable question to me? Considering the temps in the 90's AND Hap's history of cramping and heat issues over the last 30 years. I mixed up another bottle with a NUMMS (electolyte tablet) in it and we went back to climbing. 

Our goal for fluid replacement while riding is to drink one bottle (20 oz) of water per hour. We usually average about four-five hours of riding per day. On days like this you just can't drink too much water. When riding you don't realize how much water you need. Even though this is a dry 

heat and you don't sweat much, you can still lose a lot of fluids by just breathing. Hap has had heat/cramping issues many times so we know to be very careful about water intake on days like this. Towards the end of the ride today, he really struggled with "no power'". We stopped several times to try to keep him cool and hydrated. He wears a helmet liner, so I soaked it in cold water after one stop. 

We only had two service stops for the day. Two opportunities to refill water and get something to eat. We also stopped at every opportunity to try to cool down and drink water. 

Once we got to Elk City, we stopped at Brahms Ice cream shop to figure out what we were doing for the night. The only campground was another 18 miles down the road. There are several motel options in town, so we went with one of those. Hap hadn't actually started to cramp yet, but we didn't want that to happen. There have been several times when we have been on rides that Hap 

has had severe cramps. No reason to push it. On the way to the motel, we stopped at a grocery store to buy dinner supplies. 

We finally got to the other side of town to the Bedford Inn. As it turned out we paid $39/night for the hotel and camping (18 miles further down the road) was going to cost $35/night. I guess God knows what he''s doing. Why do we worry about the details?

Veterans Peace Park I-40 leaving Amarillo TX 

I think the sky IS bigger in Texas

Lunch stop 

What are you looking at Hap? 

Dinner! 

Yes Diane, Of course it's good! 

Rest area on I-40 

Does that sign say Watch for Snakes? WHAT! Are you kiddin me?

Windmill country Texas

Other riders on Route 66 

"Goofy" just waitin to get back on the road! 

God provides ALL just when you need it 

A wheat field in Oklahoma 

Oklahoma!

Brahms Ice Cream tastes better when it's 100 degrees 

June 3, 2017. Amarillo TX

                                            Tucumcari NM - Adrian TX

As we were packing up the campsite #tent#allthestuff, I heard Hap say very quietly "Hey Diane come over and look at this". Uh oh, I said to myself, this can't be good. As I was walking over, Hap was intently looking at something that was about a foot from the tent. A tarantula! Mmmm... I said that's nice. So how do you shoo away a big hairy spider? I got a big stick.....and handed it to Hap........there ya go bucko, I'm going over here. He flipped it (no spiders were hurt in the flipping) it away and continued to pack up the tent. I gave that area of the campsite a wide berth when I had to go over that way. The only thing I said was, "I think I would rather have a bear by my tent than that!" 

At the KOA store they had pancakes and all the fixings so we ate a great breakfast before heading out on the highway. Actually we were able to ride a frontage road beside I-40 most of the day. The weather has gotten warmer in the last few days. It was in the 80's and sunny. The wind was out of the SSW and we are (of course) going East. It picked up once again in the afternoon. 15-17 mph. It was alittle hillier than we expected. We stopped in San Jon at a cafe for the only services (i.e. Water!) for the day. Since we planned for that it wasn't a big deal. We had our usual 4-20 ounce bottles of water plus the two-one liter bottles of extra water. 

Just before we crossed into Texas, we stopped at a picnic area that was actually a road side rest without water or bathrooms. I had to get alittle creative to find a bathroom, but that's ok, I can be really quick! We took a dried apricot and water break and headed back out onto I-40 once again. The terrain has definitely flattened out. We are out of the mountains now. 

Once we got to Adrian TX, we had to take a picture beside the sign that said, "Your halfway between Chicago and Santa Monica on Route 66". Even though we aren't officially riding the whole of Route 66, we figure since we are 1400 miles into our 2800 mile (at least we think it is 2800 miles, give or take a few here and there) trip we qualify. Adrian is another small town on Route 66 that is trying not to die. There is a cafe, but it wasn't open. There is also a huge windmill farm surrounding the town. The town put in a small RV park to accommodate the construction workers who put in the windmills back in 2007. We stopped there for the night expecting to pitch the tent. But once there, the caretaker said, why don't you just throw your sleeping bags out inside our shower/laundry building. So that's how we ended up inside for the nite! We fixed a noodle/spaghetti dinner, took a shower and had a great nights sleep.

                                              Adrian TX - Amarillo TX

We had a fairly short ride to Amarillo so we didn't get a real early start. We ate some oatmeal, peanut butter / tortillas and coffee before heading out. Today was supposed to be overcast and possible storms. We kept our eye to the sky for sure. Once again we were on a frontage road beside I-40 all day. The road was actually very nice. Winds were about the same, SSW 12-15 mph. There were miles and miles of windmills. We probably saw them for about twenty miles. 

Our first stop of the day in Vega TX, was for our second breakfast at the Hickory Inn Cafe. I'm trying to find someone that makes sausage gravy like my mom. So I tried again. They were good, just not the same though. Nice try! We got there just before a group of about 30 people. Good thing! More clouds started to roll in after leaving Vega. We checked the weather radar and kept heading east. The next town was Wildorado, TX we stopped for a cold drink, thinking we weren't hungry, but when we got in there and smelled the pizza.....well, what can you do? Are we eating a lot today Hap or what? Excellent pizza! The next attraction on Rt 66, was the Cadillac Ranch. Not sure why, but for some reason a farmer decided to bury Cadillacs on his farm. We could tell where it was a long way off because of all of the cars of tourists that were parked on the side of the road.

 Sure enough there were Cadillacs buried in the ground. How about that? But more importantly was the dark clouds directly south of us! Uh oh, we checked the radar and sure enough they were heading straight for us. We decided we had seen enough of the Cadillacs. 

We had about 15-20 miles to go. The radar showed the storm moving directly north (we are still heading east). We were watching the storm, and riding as fast as one can ride when they have 100 pounds strapped to their backs. Don't forget about the side/headwind. At least we were on a frontage road and the traffic was too bad. Once we got closer to Amarillo we hoped that some buildings would block some of the wind but NOT. I kept watching in my mirror and realized the storm was in the place we just were behind us. Keep movin......it's coming Hap. 

We got into Amarillo proper and still had maybe 5-8 miles to go. We were staying with a Pickleball Ambassador for the USA Pickleball Association. Getting to Buddy's house wasn't bad traffic wise, just that darn mass of black clouds in my mirror..... Keep going Hap. The last few miles of the ride we were on a nice Rail Trail. The only problem was that some engineer decided to put large green posts (3 abreast) at the beginning of each trail section. No problem for a regular bicycle, but exciting for a loaded tandem. Hap did a great job of man handling the tandem through all of them. I gave him 55 bonus points for his efforts. 

We got to Buddy's ahead of the rain and also ahead of Buddy. We had about an hour to wait at his house. He arrived about 2 minutes before the storm caught up with us. It poured for about an hour. Some said it was 3 inches of rain in an hour. Whew, thank you Lord!

                                                   Amarillo TX (Pickleball Day!)

We got up in the morning and played pickleball for several hours. It was so much fun! What a great group of people to play with. It was great to be able to play again. We are so used to playing pickleball 3-4 times / week. I don't think we will be leaving our play stuff at home anymore. Not sure where we will put it! After pickleball we went out to lunch.

Back at Buddy's house, Hap put a new tire on the back tire. Generally we get about 1200-1300 

miles on it while we are touring on the tandem. The front tire gets more miles because it doesn't carry as much weight. We probably won't need to change it until we get home hopefully. We will carry the "slightly used" tire we take off as our spare. The tires we used are special touring tires that most bike shops don't carry, so just picking up another tire isn't so easy. We have had to call our tandem dealer in Alabama at the Tandem Shop while on a trip. We just ask Jack to mail it to wherever we are and we pick it up. While changing the tire, Hap found another wire in the tube and one in the actual tire. We were definitely headed for another flat tire. 

We went to a neat Saturday evening service with Buddy at Washington Avenue Christian Church. Great music and fellowship. During church it poured down rain again. I don't think I have ever seen so much rain fall at one time! Well, maybe when we were in the rain forest in New Zealand! We stopped at a Thai restaurant for dinner then headed back to Buddy's house for more bike maintenance stuff and getting the bike ready to leave in the morning. Sometimes on these trips we know where we are headed but sometimes we just don't know where we will land when we get there! On the right side of my blog if you will scroll down there is a reading called "God is my Stoker". It talks about letting God take control of where you go and he will take you to places you never even thought of. Like we always say "Every day is an Adventure and God is always there". He knew the right place for us to be at just the right time. We enjoyed so much the last two days.

Tucumceri NM KOA

The Tarantuala Siting spot 

Apricot break. Now where's the bathroom? 

Windmills near Adrian TX 

We're in the flat lands of Texas

Route 66 halfway marker 

Adrian TX. Nice campground 

Laundry day

Hap's cookin. Noodle dish...... 

Eaton again! 

Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo TX. 

Storm is brewing! 

Bike trail to Buddy's house

We are just in front of that red stuff! 

Pickleball day!

May 31, 2017. Tucumceri, NM

                                                   Albuquerque - Moriarty NM

We left the hotel in Albuquerque and rode over to Manzano Pickleball Courts, about 2 miles  away. Melee (sp?) told us on Saturday when we played with her that she would be playing Monday AM about 9 ish. There are 18 courts available in this complex. When we got there there was maybe eight courts being used. We couldn't find Melee but another guy (Ray) gave me a racquet and another lady gave Hap a racquet. So problem solved, racquets check! Our $15 Walmart shoes seem to be holding up as well. We played some great games for a couple of hours. The best part was we were able to play with some players who were much better than us! It was so much fun, We reluctantly left at noon so that we could do a short ride to Moriarty.

Once we left the park we immediately started climbing. And that is the theme of the day! Climbing! Before leaving town we stopped for lunch at a Taco Bell. The only reason I mention this was because it may be the first time in all of our travels that I have felt uncomfortable. The reason? As we were sitting inside, there were several (homeless/transient type people, yes I realize I'm profiling) who stopped and stared at the bike. Then another person came inside and sat way over in the corner just watching us. We were sitting inside with the bike outside leaning against the window where we were sitting. It just felt like these people were waiting for an opportunity. Sure was a weird feeling. We were glad to get out of there! The other strange thing was that several people we met in Albuquerque made a point of saying "Watch your bike, don't leave anything out" Not sure I'd want to live there. 

We left the Taco Bell and started climbing. Twenty miles worth of climbing! I would definitely classify this as a major climb. We stopped at a gas station for lunch. While eating a truck driver stopped to chat about the bike. This is what I love about traveling by bike. I love to hear how others live their lives. He was driving a big pick up truck and pulling a really long trailer with two trucks on it. He traveled all over the US, picking up stuff to transport anywhere in the US. While talking he told us about the requirements drivers have for driving/sleeping. A really interesting  conversation about truck drivers. 

We left the gas station and continued to climb. Once we finally started down, the wind started blowing like crazy. Ahhhh...... we were on a frontage road, but there was still a lot of traffic. The last ten miles were really hard and it was even downhill. But when the sidewind hits our bus, its tough! No choice for camping tonight so we are at the Super 8 in Moriarty. We were sure glad to get out of the wind. Clouds started rolling in when we got to the hotel. And sure enough it rained really hard just after we got there. Good to be inside! 

We walked next door to the grocery store for dinner supplies. We were both exhausted. 

                                            Moriarty NM - Santa Rosa, NM 

We ate breakfast at the hotel before we left the motel. Before leaving town we stopped at a Post Office to send home our "stuff" we have collected since we started. At the Post Office, the girl weighed our stuff and it was five pound! Yeah we lost five pounds. 

Today we are off the Adventure Cycling Route 66 route. We opted to go straight across I-40 instead of going north to Santa Fe. We have already bicycled through Santa Fe on our trip in 1994 From Denver - Albuquerque. That was a beautiful ride! On that trip We rode through Durango, CO, and then down to Taos, NM before getting to Santa Fe and eventually flying home from Albuquerque. So on this trip we just decided to stay on I-40 to Santa Rosa. The only problem was 

there were hardly any services (i.e. Water) on the 85 mile ride. On the bike We have four 20 ounce water bottles, as well as two - one liter bottles of water. The route had one huge hill to start and then generally downhill. We started at 6250 feet, went up to 7100 feet and ended up at 4850 feet. Sounds like an easy day right. RIGHT! Thats what we thought too. Until the wind picked up from the south and we are headed east. Once again we battled sidewinds for the last half of the ride. We are ready for another theme!! What happened to the prevailing winds out of the west?

We stopped at a Road side rest for a break and found no potable water! Nice! Our next water break was Clines Corner. For many miles on I-40 (we are riding on the freeway again), we saw signs for Clines Corner. One after another the signs said "Stop here, we've got it all, food, gas, indian stuff, artifacts, souvenirs, you name it we got it". We leaned the bike against the store. I went in, had to walk the length of the building through all of the "stuff/trinkets/souvenirs" for sale. I finally got to the restaurant and saw the little tiny sign that said they were closed. WHAT! Why not have the sign at the door. Ohhhh, they want me to walk through all their stuff. I walked back to the main store thinking they might have sandwiches in the cooler. Yes they did, just $7.00 for a little turkey sandwich. Needless to say, i didn't buy anything just filled water bottles. We ate snacks we had on the bike and moved on. So The only actual stop all day was a DQ and a gas station. We stopped for lunch finally and filled up with water again. So for this 85 mile ride, there were two stops all day. There's just nuthin for miles and miles. Funny how you don't notice that when your driving in a car!

We finally got to Santa Rosa, NM after a long day in the saddle. Once again no camping options, so we stayed at a Days Inn. Oh and by the way, it was ON TOP of the hill. Sure why not one more hill? The town was deserted. As we rode up the hill, at our usual 3-5 mph, a truck pulling a camper came up behind us. Now mind you this was a four lane road. There was NOBODY else on the whole street. It looked like the town had closed their doors. The truck just sat behind us as we rode. Why do people do that? There's a clear lane, nobody there. Go ahead and just drive your vehicle. Finally they decided maybe it was ok to ride in the other lane and they went around. Whew! Just don't understand! 

                                              Santa Rosa, NM - Tucumceri, NM

During breakfast at the hotel, Hap noticed that the couple sitting next to us had on an OU (Ohio University) jacket. Of course he had to say, "So why do you have on an OU Jacket?" That started another very interesting conversation with this couple from Zanesville OH. As it turned out             The man had been on the 1964-1966 OU basketball team that set records for getting to the Big Dance, NCAA tournament.  Small world!

We left the hotel and started climbing, of course! For some reason, bicycles aren't allowed on this section of I-40. Doesn't make sense, especially since we have been riding on it for the last several 100 miles. So we headed out on Route 156 east. For a warm up, we climbed a very steep hill for about three miles. And that was the start. The road went away from I-40 and went up and down for about thirteen miles. The first two miles were very steep. Good morning legs! Eventually it got better and we ended up climbing a steep hill on gravel. Now were havin some fun! The wind was SW but mostly South which made for another stiff sidewind. Brutal that's the word I'm looking for!

We finally got to our one water stop for the day just before we got back onto I-40. We had lunch there and then headed onto I-40 for the rest of the day to Tucumceri, NM. I'm thinking this was our toughest day of the trip. Lots of climbing, lots of side wind and lots of fun. A long day in the saddle. In Tucumceri, we found a KOA that had some nice campsites. And they had homeade chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy. We were pooped by the time we got there but the food made all the difference! No prob sleeping tonight!