Where did civilization go?

When I look at this map, it absolutely amazes me. I cannot believe that we will be half way across the country when we finish today's ride. We know that God has been clearly watching over us and know that many of you pray for us daily. Our hearts are heavy for many that are experiencing the weather storms right now. We know that only one week ago, we were traveling through those Gulf states affected by Tropical Storm Karen. Our thoughts are with my good friend Janis who lives in LA and serves with the National Guard. We also think of Colleen's son, Gregory, serving in Okinawa with the typhoon patrol in the Marines. We think of and pray for you daily, Greg. We know there are others who are going through storms of life right now. We want you to know that we are praying for you as well. It may seem like it is all about the bike ride, but we know that life is going on around us.

In the evenings after a ride, many things take place. The riders all have their ritual of cool down and recovery. OJ is provided to make the Recoverite taste better. The foam roller is used by Wynn and Colleen. If hot tubs are working, all three take a dip and then a nice hot shower gets everyone ready for supper. I usually cook, then Colleen does the dishes and Dan may make a Walmart run and always keeps me supplied with a cold diet coke. Then Wynn and I hit the maps, he does the fine tuning of routes and distances between breaks and lunch and I get the hotels researched and booked. This usually takes a good hour or two. I'm always surprised at the lack of free time. I get the blog finished and then have one of the riders add their thought of the day before posting. Then by 8:30-9:00 I am ready for bed. Lights out is always before 9:30 pm. The alarm clock rings faithfully at 6:00 am and the team is off to breakfast by 6:30. Today the riders got the van packed and were on their bikes close to sunrise. Happy Trails....

I heard from Karen today that this part of the ride is desolate. It's suppose to be in the 90’s and windy today so I will need to stay a little closer to the team. Karen and Jen said to make my Walmart trip before I leave town. Wynn asked me to pick up a camelback for him, as the other two already have one. We are concerned about keeping enough fluids going into this dry country. Jen also told us that we may see wild mustangs in this section of the country. Oh how I would love that! ( right Valerie?) so I am off to start my day and will look forward to writing more at the end of the day. So long Wichita Falls...

The riders got on the trail and headed to Seymour. The little brick roads were quaint and the water stop was well deserved.

The video was shot next to these cows...it is so funny that the cows are scared of the bicycles!
The wind was so loud that the commentary was not able to be heard. Probably just as well.

My new best friend has been this app. Of course it doesn't do me much good if I can't pull up 3G...
Back on the road to little tiny Vera, TX where we ate our lunch by a little church. The parking lot was nonexistent and we met a real snake handler.

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Then it was back on the road again to Benjamin. I pulled in ahead of the team and found a wonderful new friend, named Pam. She ran the local quilt shot and we really struck it off. She showed me her quilts and introduced me to all her friends. The little shop owner next door was the sister of the State Photographer for Texas. I bought a beautiful book of his pics and Pam gave me a gift of a DVD, WEST TEXAS, which has his pics put to the music of Doug Smith. What a sweet gift.

I thought maybe I would buy a pair of boots while in Texas until I saw the price tag

Before I left I used the bathroom, which they called, The George...wonder why? (George Strait)

We ended the day on Rt 82, 6 miles east of Rt 222. The riders finished at 88.5 miles..they rode for 6 hours and 40 mins at 13.3 mph. It was such a tough mental day with the wind and the heat. They also doubled their elevation. Even though we ended short of Guthrie, it was still a very profitable day. To or row the weather is suppose to get cooler, which will be a change. We are staying in the City Hotel outside of Knox City. We had to drive about 20 miles to get here. It is a Mom and Pop place with 1950’s decor. The Internet stinks but thanks 3G.. The blog will go up. We ate in our rooms (dirty rice) and hope to get a good start to or row. There is a 30 % chance of rain tomorrow...so pray. We'll go back to this ranch to start tomorrow's ride.

No riders are available to write so I will include Colleen's funny story. We went to pay for the hotel and the machine for the credit card was down. Colleen finally went and paid with cash, asking if there were any discounts. The little lady gave us $5.00 off per room! Then Colleen went to do a load of laundry. The door said laundry, but she didn't see any slots for the coins. So she started her load and went in to pay...and the lady said, that is not for guests. Oh well. Wet clothes and she graciously allowed us to use her dryer. So much for the $5 discount. We paid $3 to use the dryer. HAHA

So goodnight all, and I hope your weekend brings joy and a chance to worship God.
Brenda for the team