No Chain: The Last Few Days...

The ride has hit western Texas which has been a dramatic change from the first couple of weeks. We now see green and trees on the side of the road instead of brown and cacti, we see more cattle and trucks then people and cars and there definitely has been a lot less steep climbs to deal with. We’ve hit 3 pretty standard small towns the last 3 nights; Hobbs, America (as it was introduced to us by our hosts at the school although it really was on the border of New Mexico and Texas), Lamesa, Texas and Sweetwater, Texas. Sunday was supposed to be an easy 65 mile cruise with great weather into Hobbs but our first major wreck of the ride turned a great day sour quickly. Riding in groups is an advanced skill, at speeds from 18 to 50 miles per hour along twists, turns and bumps in the road it takes the utmost of concentration at all times and on Sunday a couple of the riders lost that. A rub of the wheels between a couple of the riders near the front of the line led to a massive pile up of bikes along the side of the highway, luckily there was only some road rash among the riders involved and a few of the bikes were put out of commission for the rest of the day. A local rider in Hobbs was able to repair 2 of the 3 bikes that were seriously injured which was a relief as bike repairs are just as expensive as cars most times. Our hosts at Hobbs High School prepared a great dinner and an even more amazing breakfast for us before we hit the road to Lamesa. We awoke on Monday morning to fog, cold and a headwind, not exactly great conditions to ride a bike in and none of which we were expecting in Texas. We plugged away though and averaged pretty good speeds during the morning; even with the time change into the central time zone we hit Lamesa around 12:30 pm after completing the 75 miles. Normally that would be a great time to explore the city but due to the conditions and the lack of anything in the entire town we ended up spending 3 hours in the dining room at McDonalds drinking coffee, taking naps and waiting to get into the high school where we were spending the night. Due to the lack of a kitchen we ended up cooking our dinner on a propane stove in the high schools football stadium, dinner was served on the bleachers as some of the local middle and high schoolers played 7 on 7 touch football on the field. Some cheering and possibly jeering from the stands by the riders quickly led to the involvement of Pete, Tim and I in the game and things got pretty serious quickly (probably not surprising to most people who know me and sports). I’m not sure playing full field touch football the day before a 105 mile ride was the best idea as I definitely felt the pain of using some muscles that I hadn’t touched this entire trip as I began to peddle this morning but we had a lot of fun and made some new friends. We woke up this morning to a thick fog and the temperature in the 40’s which led to some cold and wet riders over the first 60 miles of today’s ride, for the first time all trip we actually sat in the vans during lunch and blasted the heat so we could feel our fingers and toes again. The remaining 50 miles after lunch were definitely a grind but the sun finally began to peek out from the clouds just as we hit the city limits of Sweetwater which allowed us to warm up again as we laid on the front lawn of the school as we waited for the end of the classes once again. With only 40 miles to Abilene tomorrow (After days of 75,75 and 105) there’s plans to hit the town this evening. No Chain!

The greeted us with "Welcome to Hobbs, America". I knew we would be friends.

Our sleeping arrangements in Hobbs. When Ralph Tasker retired as mens varsity basketball coach he led the nation in all time wins. It was a beautiful arena for a small town in New Mexico.