Bigger in Texas

July 30, 2013

Cordell, OK to Wheeler, TX

After taking a day off yesterday, I was beyond excited to be back on the bike. Plus, we were going into Texas today! I can't believe we've biked all the way to Texas. It still seems so surreal to me. The scenery was beautiful in the morning, but there was absolutely nothing around until we reached a cafe a mile 20. Before that though we took a break to take some cool pictures!

We had our lunch in a small town we passed through in a coffee shop. Since we had all eaten food at the cafe at mile 20, first lunch was a quick in and out. We started to hit some headwinds again today on the straight open roads so we tried our hand at pace lining for the first time. It really made biking into the wind a whole lot easier, but it definitely required more concentration. 

After a while with a larger group, Casey and I broke off and went really fast to second lunch. The road we were on wasn't a very safe one since there were lots of semi trucks but no shoulder. Apparently the truck drivers were talking about us over the radio and the things they were saying weren't very nice. However, we were glad that they were talking about us at all because that meant that they knew we were on the roads whether they liked it or not. Right after lunch we hit the Texas state line! It was a big milestone that I had been looking forward to. 

Once we got into Texas a gigantic shoulder appeared. So yes it's true what they say, everything IS bigger in Texas--even their road shoulders! Again, Casey and I booked it from the state line to the town we were staying in. Since the shoulder was so wide we were able to ride side by side and chat. The only really exciting thing to happen was two crazy dogs decided to chase us up a hill when we were only a few miles outside of the town. That adrenaline rush stayed for the rest of the ride. Our hosts in Wheeler were great and gave us delicious snacks when we rolled in and made us an amazing dinner. Tonight we also heard presentations on affordable housing from our leaders. I feel like I haven't talked much about that aspect of my trip in these blogs so I think in the near future I'll write one to paint a picture of the cause I'm riding for this summer.