Oklahoma, where the wind comes rolling off the plains...

Breakfast this morning in Dalhart was a couple of blocks down the the main street from our hotel - already the cattle trucks were moving through town at 7 AM. It has a population of just over a thousand and probably 50 times that many cows - a real cowboy town. And as we left and headed out US 54 we went right back into cattle and horse ranches. And for the first time in several days we started to see real farms growing hay and what looked like grain type crops for feed maybe (Jake, I could have some of your expertise). The farms/ranches are not what we are accustomed to in New Jersey however - instead of acres I think they measure size in square miles. They seem to stretch as far as the horizon. We were about 20 miles out on the road when we found our cowboy, all 25 feet of him. I have no idea why he was there - no advertising, no connection to nearby buildings, just standing there pointing his six-gun at trucks and bikes passing by. And since every self-respecting cowboy needs a horse I threw one into the mix.

Our route had us riding parallel to a railroad (as many of of the routes through AZ and NM did too) and we were overtaken at one point by a long (4 engines) and slow moving freight train. There is something cool about riding along with the passing freight cars, the clickety clack of the wheels on the rails as it slowly moved past us. The only disconcerting thing to me (who grew up with a Lionel set in the basement) is that they don't have caboose's any more - it doesn't seem right to have a tanker bringing up the rear.

We had the wind against us again today but not near as strong as yesterday and it was more on our left quarter than directly in our faces. So it slowed us somewhat but did not have the exhausting effect of yesterday's big blow. And the road was generally flat with easy grades and none of the climbing we did yesterday. Tom and I hooked up with a couple of other guys and we did some pace line riding for awhile which also helped a lot with the headwinds.

This was also another day of "no services for the next 31 miles" on the cue sheet. The occasional sign of civilization would be the gate to some one's ranch, a couple of feed lots, and rising out of the plains like some sort of strange temple these huge grain elevators - and occasionally a Dairy Queen across from the grain elevator - and, yes, we do stop at all DQs.

At the 50 mile point we crossed the state line, our second in as many days, and entered Oklahoma - trivia answer: Texahoma, pop. 1237, straddles the border and I'll bet you didn't know that before. So again we did our little rite of border crossing and left some grains of Pacific sand at the base of the sign. One picture is me and the other is another rider, Hank, with the two people who provide the majority of our support on the road - Margaret and Mack. And I also need mention they are simply fantastic. I won't go into all they do but their concern and enthusiasm for the ride and being there when we need them is really super - and very nice people as well.

And so on into the thriving little town of Guymon (I tried to pronounce it 'gee mon' with a French style and got a very funny look at the hotel desk). It's a nice motel right next to a truck stop that must have 50-100 cattle trucks out on the back lot. And dinner tonight at a pretty good Chinese restaurant - who would have thunk a Chinese restaurant in Guymon, Oklahoma?

So we did 72 miles today with about 5 hours on the bike - not bad, especially after yesterday.

Tomorrow we have another state crossing heading for Liberal , KS. And we get a semi rest day - we have less than 40 miles on the cue sheet. Time to explore the original Yellow Brick Road and Dorothy's house - and hey Tom, maybe find Toto?