TEXAS: Day 20 (05/28); Heat, Humidity, and Wind

It was not nearly as easy getting out as getting in.  Texas is big, there's no doubt about it.  And windy.

I came down south from about midway northwest of the panhandle border, if that makes any sense.  Through Lubbock, and Abilene, the next biggest town, Lampasas.  Southeast along Hwy 84, 380 and 183 into Austin.  Took me 4 1/2 days of riding and two half days of rest.  

Outside of Muleshoe, which I left with bittersweet nostalgia and regret--they have an ode to the mule and all its causes-- came into cotton country pretty quick.  Red dirt in rows, with clumpy white stuff, and fences.  Texas is big, let me say it again.  And let me demonstrate:

 

Now, any landscape photos might just bore you, though the plains still have their pretty.  I just don't have the best camera.  Lots of cows and dogs and roadkill, and a few sparse farming towns.  First day out, halfway point was Lubbock.

I stopped there, because it was well into the nineties, and out at some archaelogical spot/sports complex, took a sprinkler shower.  Then I decided I'd wait for two hours, go to a Walmart and use the library.  That's my standard 2:30-4:30pm middle of the day avoidance of riding insanity, or at least the appearance of it.  Walmart was shocking.  I'm always put off by their massive consumeristness anyway, but you really start to feel like you're on another planet when you're out there in the wide open, and then to be thrown into that, on a Saturday...  I mean, I don't blame anybody, it was the only "market complex" for miles, and you gotta eat.  And get shoes...and...?  Well, I got cucumber sandwiches and peaches.  The bulk fixin's for them anyway, which I ate for the next two days.  It may not seem like a road-worthy meal, but sometimes with all the grease and sweat, you just need something fresh.  I do like the grub in Texas.  But, I'll admit it, I'm a California girl, and I like my granola and hummus.

It was so hot it was 6 o'clock before I could even think about riding.  There were thirty left to go before my destination at an RV Park in Post, but about ten miles out I had to stop.  Got an iced coffee and experienced some wild rodeo-clown locals, plus the scoop on the town's recent changes while I worked back up to the ride.

Unfortunately, I set back out to cover 25 miles, into the wind, after the 145, and then 85 already today well past 7 o'clock.  I knew it'd be after dark and I'd still be on the highway.  There I was in the moonlight, terrified at hitting something coming down high speed off the cap rock, and then facing a pack of dogs, but I arrived at the RV Park none but a bit shaken.

The lady who owned it thought I was bat-crazy, but she was civil, as I had called, charged me fifteen dollars and directed me to a spot.  It was one of the worst nights of sleep I had, under bright lights and hot, shooing a mangy cat off and hearing it meow rather constant.  I got up early, and kept on.

I didn't get very far...