Bike Ride to Dalhart

Amarillo to Dalhart: 81.3 miles

Total mileage: 2041.2 miles

We were off to slow start this morning, weighed down by some Texas sized pancakes. Nate, Marcus and I headed off into the cool morning and quickly got lost. One of our turns was poorly marked and we ended up missing it, as did most of the group. We plotted a new route to get back on track and sadly we were treated by a mamajama hill. From there we were hit with headwinds, hills and a temperature which was steadily increasing. I will not lie, at mile ten I was starting to get nervous that we would be facing all these things as the day wore on.

Thankfully as we got a little higher in elevation and turned around a bend (after stopping to fix my flat) the conditions got much better and the bike ride became a lot of fun. The ride into Amarillo was extremely hilly and throughout the course of the day we gained something like 1700 feet. As we were riding out we did encounter some hills, but there were definitely a couple of ones which were more downhill than up. As we cruised down at 39 mph we had a great view for miles.

 

Flat number two went to Marcus who was able to power up a hill and get us to a plateau before it burst.

A couple of miles out from first lunch we came across this very random metal dinosaur.

 

While the road throughout the day had some hairy moments, after lunch we had a super close call with a vey large RV going about 70 down the highway. HereI should mention that we take a lot of two lane highways, but usually the speed limit is much lower. Had one of us stuck out our elbow it would have probably been taken off by the RV; it was definitely the closest call I have had on the trip thus far.

After lunch the temperature defeats over 100 easily and there were a couple of hills. As we climbed who only knows what number hill, Nate called out that we had reached our crusing altitude for a while because he could see a consistant string of powers lines. Once we got to the top we saw a town in the distance, what we named the promised land, and headed straight for it because surely we would be able to find ice cream and/or some air conditioning ... Two very important finds on a day like today.

As we arrived in the outskirts of town we saw a small restaurant and two bikers heading out who told us we could find ice and some great postcards. No more needed to be said, we were sold. We ended up hanging for an hour and a half. I just had some Gatorade and the boys split a Pint of red velvet ice cream which was pretty amazing (I was granted a bite).

 

As we were leaving there was a TERRIFIC tailwind and the in pain train was cruising. For the first time all three of us remembered what it was like to ride a bike. Before we knew it we were at second lunch where we stopped for refills a couple of snacks and then hit the road to soak up as much of the tailwind as we possibly could.

 

If you remember back to the first posting about the pain train, Marcus gets things started slowly around 13-14 mph and then slowly cranks you up to anywhere between 23 and 25 mph; it really is amazing because you don't even notice the change in speed. Well we decided to see what we could make of our final twenty miles and thanks to a tricky drafting move called an estulan we were able to move. Sadly a few miles out of town Marcus' tire blew but did so conveniently in front of a cattle farm. A couple of kids ran out, followed by their parents, to make sure we were okay and offer us some waters. Turns out that some of their friends had just left for our host because they were going to help cook dinner.

 

After we were patched and ready to go, this time with sweep because they had caught up, we only lasted a few minutes because to our right was the largest set of stacked hay we had ever seen. The were four rows of hay and the end was in a perfect stair formation which allowed us to get a sick picture and dance video thanks to Marcus' tripod. while this picture does not do it justice, this is thier from the very top row of hay.

 

We were very delayed in getting to dinner because Nate went through several tubes and then Marcus lost another one as well. A good time as had on the side of the road singing, taking pictures and pretty much just being delirious because of the heat and lack of shade.

 

The awesome part about our host tonight is the fact that we would be meeting up with another Bike and Build group, the South Carolina to Santa Cruz route. Sadly they had had a hard ride, the tailwind we had we their headwind, so everyone was pretty tired by the time we all arrived and sat down to dinner, but we did get to swap some stories before we all turned in for the night.