6/18/00
Graham, TX
Mileage 107.16
Max. 36.4 mph
Avg.13.82 mph

On the road late (8:30 am) and ended late (7:30 pm). Rain squalls, a head wind, a blown tire, and rough shoulder were the obstacles of the day.

On the other side of the ledger were some smooth shoulder, few steep hills, wildlife sightings (a second tarantula, whitetail deer, turkey vultures, heron, egret, lots of armadillo shells, a few turtles, lots of sissor-tail fly catchers, swallows, and red winged black birds).

I was fascinated by the fly catchers. They are such a saucy little bird. Loud and commanding are words that come to mind. They seem to have an attitude that every other being should take care not to interfere with their lives. Sounds like us humans.

For the first time on the trek, I noticed the odor of rotting flesh along the road. Road kills are the reason and there is more variety too. There's a greater variety of plant life as well and more odors of all kinds. More rain than further west is the reason for all of this increase of nose information.

Very little of the crops are irrigated. At ThrockMorton, field corn appeared as a crop. Further west it was cattle, alfalfa, cotton, and soybeans. The corn will make the standard, knee high by the fourth of July. Of course I don't know when it was planted.

I asked a store clerk for water at Run Away Lake. He said to fill my bottle from the soda fountain because it was filtered. According to him, water directly from the lake was not potable because it was so low. Drinking water was about to be rationed in that small town.

Outside a convenience store a woman spoke to me about the drought (she used the Midwestern pronunciation, drougth). She said the area I was biking was way below normal for rain meanwhile Dallas was way above. That led her to exclaim that in her view younger generations will have a more difficult life than she has had (she was in her 60s).

I was a little surprised by her disclosure and by her jump from the drought to the viability of generations but went along. She had just come from a wedding and was probably thinking about the generations during the ceremony. Later she gave me a bag of Macadamia nuts, which were favors at the wedding.

A tire blew out because the road surface was extremely rough. It was as though the contractor had chosen Texas sized aggregate. The vehicle lanes were smoother from wear, but the shoulder was like riding a washboard. I heard a pop and a whoosh and found that the tube had ballooned out of a cut in the tire tread. I could have used a dollar bill to cover the cut but decided to put on a new tire and tube. I had patched the old tube twice already.

I called ATP, the bike sponsor, to order tires and tubes. Rick Comar, their advertising director said just to tell him where to send the package which they would provide as part of the sponsorship. They should be waiting for me in Dallas.

Tomorrow, I will enter the Dallas area and be in a big city environment again. I enjoy the rural route but the lack of services limit choices for food and lodging.