Day 18 - Weatherford to Purcell

Day 18 will be remembered not for the cycling or the scenery but as the day Maureen and her friend Jeff descended upon Pac Tour.

The ride was pretty lumpy, rollers the whole way. None of the hills were over 50 feet high but we had about 1000 of them in total as the day added up to over 5000 feet of climbing. The countryside was pretty and the group felt strong on the road. Funnily enough, the morning looked a lot like riding in Ayrshire in Scotland. Well, if you substitute the cornfields for potato fields. OK, and if it was 20 degrees cooler...

We rolled into town round about 3pm. Older Greg and I have been contending the finish city limits signs. Today was a day for teamwork. I decided to lead Jeanine out for the sprint. I miscalculated the distance to go and had to ride in hard for 3 miles. Fortunately I managed to keep it going and she came round me for the team win at the end. As she was on the podium getting all the adulation, she thanked her loyal domestique. Greg was left to bang his handlebars in bitter disappointment.

Anyway, enough cycling talk. Maureen showed up at about 4pm tonight with her buddy Jeff. They brought three 6 packs of beer with them and a lot of energy. Within an hour, she had spoken to almost everybody on the tour. Seriously. Then the real fun began. Instead of going to the restaurant closest to the hotel, like normal, she offered to drive me to dinner at Norman which is about 20 miles up the road. Norman is the home of Oklahoma University and is way cooler than Purcell. It took less than one second for young Greg, Jeanine and Lori to decide to tag along. Can anyone say road trip?

Dinner was at a great Mexican restaurant and the margaritas were flowing freely. I'm sure we'll pay for it in the morning but, it was loads of fun. After dinner, we all felt like teenagers. All of us except Greg, who is a teenager, seemed to revert back into giggling schoolkids. Instead of heading straight back to Purcell, we went on a quest for gelato. After a bit of roaming about, we found the best place in town. 3 flavours and one double espresso later, I felt human again. It's funny how great it felt to break away from groundhog day to try something different. But it doesn't matter if it rains tomorrow or is headwinds all day. Tonight was a great mental break.

Thanks Maureen. Greg, Lori and Jeanine thank you too.

OH yeah, here's todays pictures

Day 17 - Shamrock to Weatherford, OK

Whoever said that we would have a prevailing wind all the way to the east coast was obviously spinning a little yarn as today was another day of headwind.

Not that we let this put a dampener on the day. Today was a 105 mile ride along route 66 into central Oklahoma. Apart from the wind, the only slight donwner today was that we didn't get an Oklahoma sign at the state border. No opportunity for me to raise my bike over my head again.

Route 66 plays a large part in American culture. We got to ride along it for practically all of today. Some sections weren't open to cars, others were chipsealed over and others were now the frontage road for I-40. We also got to go to not one but two Route 66 museums. In fact, the museum opportunities today were abundant. I did pass up the chance to go to the National Shortgrass museum, the National Heartland museum and the National Farm and Ranch museum. yeah, yeah, I know I missed out but, there are only so many hours in the day...

One thing we have noticed is that people seem a bit friendlier in Oklahoma than in Texas. On maybe a dozen instances today, we had truckers honk and give us a friendly wave. Nobody tried to run us of the road or shout at us. OK is OK with me. Todays pictures are here

We head south east tomorrow. Hopefully the wind doesn't change again to be in our faces.

I'm excited about tomorrow as I get to see my friend Maureen. Pactour doesn't know what they are in for.

Day 16 - Amarillo to Shamrock, TX

What a difference a day makes. Maybe it was the fact that everyone ate their fill last night at the Big Texan or that we got to sleep in until 7:30 but, today everyone was in high spirits. Come to think of it, we swapped out 2 of the crew members in Amarillo last night and the new guy actually makes a mean pot of coffee. Small things make us happy on this trip.

Today's ride paralleled I-40. That sounds pretty crappy until you realize that we were on the famed Route 66. I Can't tell you how many times I heard my friends sing the song. The consensus was that the Depeche Mode version is the best.

There wasn't much to report on the actually riding today. We rode through a small town called Alandean where the only living thing appeared to be a dead porcupine. The town did have a great old route 66 style gas station though.

We passed through Conway today. There were about 4 houses, a grain silo and a broken down late 60's Ford. What made it cool was that we saw a Conway Truckload truck drive by on the freeway just to our left. I let out a big shout and everyone thought I was a bit mad.

The next town was called Groom. Probably about twice the size of Conway. On our route sheet it mentioned the Blessed Mary Cafe which apparently makes great pies. When we got there, it was closed but it looked pretty intriguing. On each table in the diner, there was a statue of Madonna (no not the singer). Alas, no pies for us.

The big highlight of today's ride was lunch in McLean, TX. Apart from the grilled chicken, coleslaw, potato salad. Yummy. What made it even better was that the support van was parked next to the Devil's Rope and Route 66 museums. Devil's Rope is a euphemism for barbed wire. To cut a long story short, if you are ever in the Texas Panhandle and you need some AC, I thoroughly recommend this museum. Who knew barbed wire had so many uses... Pictures are here.

The last 20 miles got a bit on the toasty side. The road was beginning to melt and the thermometer on the team van showed 105 when we got to Shamrock. I was half expecting to see leprechauns and lots of green stuff here but no. Saying that, I did go to McDonald for a large shake and saw a mother and daughter with pasty white skin and ginger hair...

OK, not much else to add. I'm going to try to walk over to the convenience store for a soda without melting. Wish me luck. I'm also excited as I get to see my good friend Maureen Brown (who left Conway and moved down to Austin, TX) on Wednesday.

I wonder what my chances of finding a Guinness in Shamrock are like?

PS. Despite my valiant efforts. No Guinness in Shamrock. This is because it's a dry town. Apparently there is a ballot initiative to make it "wet". Maybe next time I come back. In an effort to make the most of the situation, Greg (my new roomie and I) went to explore town. Imagine our excitement when we found that Shamrock is home to the tallest water tower in Texas. Yeehaw.

Day 15 - Clayton to Amarillo, TX

Sometimes you just need a wee big of distance to get a proper perspective. Today's 140 mile slog across the Texas Panhandle was possibly the worst day I have ever had on my bike. In the morning, the road was long, flat and boring. I was riding on my own and had no bike trip computer or ipod for company. Time just seemed to stop dead. In the afternoon, I got to ride with some of the group but the temperature soared way too high for this Northern European. I tried putting a pound of ice under my helmet to help cool off. Apart from looking like Stan Laurel, it did work for me.

Today started off in a bad way. 9 miles out of Clayton and we crossed into Texas and into the Central timezone. About 2 miles after that, we had the first big downer of the day. A poor deer had been struck by a car in the fast lane and looked like it had lost at least one of it's hind legs. The saddest part was that it was still alive and was lying in the lane. Where's a Texan with a gun when you need them?

The rest of the day was fairly non descript. I did see a live snake on the road at one point and one of the guys said it was a rattler. I wasn't going back to check.

The only other 'exciting' thing today was when some ***hole decided to run us off the road with his big horse trailer as we were taking up too much room. It was pretty ironic as we were on the right hand side of the white snow line and he was the one with about 10 cars stuck behind him. Oh well, nobody got hurt.

Rolling into the finish tonight and we were all knackered. Close to 9 hours riding time. Did I mention the headwinds all day and the 2500 feet of climbing in the last 30 miles...

That's when the day took a turn for the better. We are staying at the Big Texan motel next to the Big Texan Steakhouse ranch. Home of the 72oz steak. We were greeted by one of their employees with 50 free beers for us.

After showering and doing the laundry, we all went over to the steakhouse for dinner. Just in time to watch some guy's attempt at eating the 72oz steak. If you eat it (plus the baked potato and all the other sides) in an hour, you get it for free. Check out the pictures.

This is my second time here. Dave Mason and I dropped in in April 1995 on our way to Portland from Tallahassee. For the record, neither time did I or anyone I know attempt the meat eating feat.

Tomorrow is an 'easy' day. 7:30am breakfast. Yay! Only 93 miles and they are finally predicting no headwinds. We're off to Shamrock, TX while my friends Toni and Stephanie left Portland for Dublin, Ireland. I think they get a better deal.

I also get a new roommate tomorrow. Ann is leaving at the crack of dawn to go back to Portland for work. Young Greg (the cool 16 year old kid) moves in instead.

Ok, time for bed. I need to lie down to process all the ribs I ate tonight..

Day 14 - Walsenburg to Clayton, NM

Today was the longest day of the tour. We clocked 156 miles as we rolled into town this afternoon. Actually, I had to ask someone that as I managed to fry my bike computer yesterday so I'm riding naked so to speak.

Talking about not knowing what's going on, I also had a hard time remembering where we stayed last night and where we are now. Imagine how surprised I was to find out today is Saturday too.

This trip is becoming a bit like Groundhog Day. Get up at 0 dark thirty, shower, caffeinate in the hotel and then go to the parking lot for breakfast. Ride till lunchtime where we get yummy food and then ride until 3, 4 or 5pm depending on the weather, climbing, distance... Then it's time to shower, wash bike clothes and find some food. After that, back to the room to post pictures, blog, watch tv for a few minutes and then be in bed lights out for 9pm... When I said this to a good friend of mine, she said but you look like you are having a great time. This of course is true but just wait until the day I post a photo 30 seconds after I wake up... Yuck.

As I said earlier, today was the longest day. We left the Rockies and headed into the high plains. Aspens and Fir trees were replaced by cactus (initially) and then just by sun bleached grasslands. During the day, my energy levels ebbed and flowed. The highlight for most of the ride was this fantastic descent just after crossing into New Mexico. During the middle of it, I had to slam on my brakes and take evasive action as two squirrels jumped out and played chicken with me. They won.

Having been plagued with headwinds, we were all excited when we reached the town of Des Moines (the NM one) and picked up an awesome tailwind. Riding along at 30+mph felt fantastic. Unfortunately for us, the John L Morrow, US Hwy 64 made us pay a high price for this. IN a 20 mile stretch, our group had 8 punctures including 3 burst sidewalls. One was mine. For those of you involved in my puncture sweepstake, my new total is now 3.

As we looked up the road from our final rest stop, we pictured an early finish tonight. little did we know that Hwy 64 had more in store for us. The winds changed and then we had a monster headwind the whole way into town. The worst part about it is that you can see Clayton from about 10 miles away and it did not seem to ever get any closer.

Our only saving grace was that lightning storm we could see in the distance never reached us. Good times.

Tomorrow is another long day of 146 miles. That'll be 430+ miles in 3 days. It's safe to say that my bike saddle isn't feeling as comfy as it used to be.

OK, blogging done, time to watch tv and get ready for bed. Groundhog day starts again soon.

Day 13 - Buena Vista to Walsenburg

I managed to spend most of last night not sleeping. This meant I woke up feeling tired and a bit cranky.

Instead of riding with the fastest folks (Dan, Brian and Ann), I chose to ride with my new friends the California girls Lori and Jeanine. We had a lovely 50 mile slight downhill with a tailwind along the Arkansas river. Several times, we all talked about getting off of our bikes and joining one of the white water rafting trips on the river instead. Even though we were all complaining about having ridden so many miles, and still having more to do, we all wouldn't change it for anything.

Lunch today was in Westcliffe, CO which apparently has an Amish community. Check out the photos for proof. It reminded me a bit of one of the old wild west towns. I half expected to see Clint Eastwood ride into town although, he probably would have been knocked down by one of the SUV's driving down Main St.

We skirted the east side of the Rockies for most of the day with a lovely tailwind and then suddenly, the mother of all headwinds appeared with about 25 miles to go. I'm not talking a little wispy headwind but the kind where you are lucky to stay upright on your bike. When I got to the final rest stop, I threw my gloves in the air and they blew about 30 feet away... Ugh.

We finally rolled into Walsenburg. OK, I use that term literally as we are in a 50's style motel about 2 miles out of town. It reminds me of the Bates motel in Psycho. The effect was furthered by the old 1968 Chevelle parked in the lot.

Tomorrow whould be interesting. I had a quick look at the Weather Channel and they have a tornado watch for some of the counties we are riding through tomorrow. Looks like we will finally get some rain... and then some..

One last note, Jeanine gave me some special drugs so I can sleep tonight. I expect to be really groggy or flying tomorrow. We'll see. Hopefully the flying isn't because of the tornadoes.

Signing out. Off to get the shuttle for an early dinner in the real Walsenburg. I'm not holding out for a Thai restaurant but, wish me luck.

Postscript. We got shuttled into Walsenburg for dinner to the local steakhouse. From the outside, it looked a bit like a concrete bunker. Opening up the front door and we saw a live cockroach lying on it's back. We quickly turned round to head back to the shuttle van only to see it peeling out of the parking lot. So, we ventured inside. It actually turned out to be pretty good and they sold more than just Coors, Bud and Miller.

Day 12 - Glenwood Springs to Buena Vista

There was only one climb today. Well, to be exact, we climbed for 62 miles and descended to 43.

The group started out nice and easy on the 40 mile old railway line bike path to Aspen. We all felt a bit tired and when we got to Aspen realized that we'd actually climbed 2000 feet. Instead of going to the normal PAC Tour rest stop, we hung out in down town Aspen and had some coffee and pastries. If you've never been, it's definitely a lot more pretentious than any other Colorado town. We spied 2 fur coat shops and many designer places too. I'm sure there were plenty of famous people floating around but I didn't recognise anyone.

Feeling super caffeinated, we started the 20 mile climb (varying from 6 - 8%) up to Independence Pass. About 25 seconds into the ascent, I stopped to use my inhaler. Last time I checked, it wasn't on the banned substances list so I knew I wasn't going to get disqualified from the 'race'. About a third of the way up the hill, I started to overheat. I did the smart thing and stopped, got off my bike, took off my socks and shoes and went for a wee paddle in the river. The water was freezing but it was a welcome change...

Back on the bike and I ran into our lunch stop which had been moved from the top to about half way up the hill. Not being very smart, I opted for a hot dog and some chocolate cake for dessert. I did impress myself by not losing it on the rest of the way up.

The climb really was amazingly pretty. We started off going through the aspen groves and then as we climbed up higher, there were pine trees with the river flowing next to us. After that, we went above the timberline and on up to the top. At the summit, I bumped into a bunch of overweight Harley motorbike folks and I told them that they should have ridden real bikes up the pass so they could have worked off their lunch. Good job thew were friendly or I might have had to make an attempt on the world land speed record going down the other side. They did get payback though as they took a picture of Ann and I by the summit sign. The way the lady took the photo makes it look like the sign says elevation 12 feet. Doh!

There's not much I need to say about the descent. Plenty of switchbacks, super fast. it felt like I was in the Tour de France... Actually, apart from a couple of small rollers, it was almost downhill the whole way to Buena Vista.

We got to Buena Vista and to be honest, it looked like a bit of a crap hole... Super 8 motel. We went to dinner at the crappy Chinese restaurant and had the blandest Sweet and Sour chicken ever. After a quick trip to the crappy super market to get a Cadbury's Dairy Milk fix we set off in search of the 'real' downtown instead of strip mall hell. Low and behold, Buena Vista really is pretty cool. Some old buildings, a Thai restaurant (my eyes started to tear up at this point) and several coffee shops... If only we'd known earlier... Walked over to the downtown museum which had a deer silhouette as the weather vane and then... we found a couple of deer bucks hanging out in the grass by the building. Smart guys. I bet there must have a no hunting law within the city limits.

Pictures are here.

Tommorow we head further south east in Colorado to Walsenburg. I plan to do some googling before heading out to dinner to the closest restaurant.

PS. I forgot to say that I am super tired these days. Not just from all the cycling but also because I don't seem to be getting enough sleep... even though I get to bed at 9pm. I was so tempted to lay down by the side of the road this afternoon for a power nap. 12 days down and 18 to go. Ugh. Please send good coffee beans. Stumptown preferrably.