Scurry, TX

7.13.2010

Those little bloodsuckers were at us again this morning, and this time we were out of bug spray. Needles to say we got started on the road pretty quickly so that we could escape them. The ride from Lubbock was about 95 miles, and we had to arrive at our friendship visit by 2:00pm. We were making pretty good pace, but before we knew it we were falling behind due to a few unfortunate flats. In the final hour, we still had 20 miles to go and we ran into a nice little headwind.

We were about 8 miles out with a half hour to go, and we took our exit off of the interstate. Unfortunately there was a mix up with directions, and we ended up going about 2 miles down the road in the wrong direction. A crew van caught up with us and told us to turn around back to the exit. When we got back there was a van that was waiting for us. We were sure that he was going to pull down the racks, but he did something even more disheartening. He said that there was yet another mix up, and that we were going the right way all along. We begrudgingly turned back into the headwind, and busted our asses to get back to where we just were. It might be that the crew felt bad for us, but they let us ride all the way into town, and we arrived at our visit about 30 minutes late. The only positive is that we got to ride the whole day, and that the detour bumped it up to a full century.

At the friendship visit I was talking with a girl named Rebecca. She was a lot of fun to talk to, and she was the first person I’ve met to use my name in conversation and ask questions about my life. We talked about her favorite TV show, Arthur, what it’s like to be from Texas, and a bit about her family too. When it was time to go, we headed over to the local Ladies Club, where we had dinner with the Mayor. We had something called Chicken Fried Steak, a dish I’ve never experienced in my Yankee life. It’s essentially a big fried chicken patty, served with mashed potatoes and white gravy. For dessert they had an assortment of fruits with fruit dip, and a delicious pineapple upside down cake. It was absolutely phenomenal. Texas has been the best eating by far on the trip.

This is what my gloves did to the water when I washed them. It's amazing what you pick up in one day.