Tucumcari NM to Dalhart TX to Guymon OK

There is not much to report about the last 2 days. The story of these days, particularly the first one, was the wind. Most riders ranked it as one of their hardest days ever. For me, though, it was relatively easy. Tracy asked me to help out at the hotel in Dalhart so that she could tend to matters. I got in the truck after 29 miles and a good pace of 16.3 mph with a crosswind. After that the winds really picked up and even the strong riders were averaging only 12-13 mph. The last rider arrived at 6:30, 10 hours and 96 miles after departure.

The wind was out of the north again on Wednesday, though not as strong. This area is full of cattle and hog operations. Most of the traffic on Highway 54 is trucks. The highway in Texas is a 2 lane highway, while it switched to 4 lanes in Oklahoma. It seems odd since the highway handles the same amount of traffic. It was much easier on the riders in Oklahoma as the trucks could give us a wider berth. The backwinds from some of the trucks would knock us around quite a bit.

This ground is quite flat. We could pick out towns from 15 miles away. I could see a small wind farm from quite a distance and it seemed like I would never get to it.

Just five more days of riding for me. I hope that Kansas lives up to its translation from the Indian word meaning "South Wind". Enough of these headwinds!

Cheers,

Tom