Oklahoma,OK!

Its been a little while, its amazing how many library computers have blogspot blocked.

Lets see, after my last post I biked on through the mountains into the Hondo valley where I biked some time into the night looking for a place to sleep until a cars headlights lit up a small dillapidated house on the opposite side of the road. It was a pretty beat up little place but it was windy as hell out so it beat camping, I dragged my bike in and laid out my sleeping bag on an old spring mattress and dozed off. I woke up in the middle of the night to a squeaking and the sound of something moving around in the basement. I shined my light down to see a skunk looking up at me, I through my tarp over the hole to the basement and laid uneasily awake for a while before I could get back to sleep. I've thought several nights about how I would fight off a bobcat or a coyote if one approached me in my sleep, but I was terrified of this little thing.

The next morning I came to a hill that the locals had been warning me about and slowly made my way up, after less than a mile of biking up hill it flattened out, thinking it was only temporary I kept going expecting a sudden incline. Luckily it remained flat for sometime until it brought me to a 30 mile downhill that shot me right into Roswell, giving me the most distance I've made by 9:30 am yet. I spent some time in Roswell and checked out the Alien museum and research center which was pretty impressive. My conclusion on the Roswell incident? total government cover up, no question.

The next day I awoke to cloudy skies and high winds, i packed my stuff up right away in an attempt to beat the weather, I biked into the wind for about 10 miles until I got to the Kenna general store/post office/only thing in Kenna besides ranches. It started snowing hard soon after. I waited out the storm drinking coffee and chatting with Bob, the retired refinery worker and Vietnam veteran who ran the store. We talked about politics, and the differences between country and city folk, while ignoring the health codes and smoking cigarettes next to the wood stove. I hung out there for about 2 hours when the snow stopped and biked back into the wind.

From there I headed up to Clovis, a city bordering Texas and spent the night at a campground outside the city, I left the next day for Texas.

Texas was flat and smelly, I was only in it for a few days passing through the north part. After Biking all day one day I ended up in Amarillo Texas, and after biking for hours through the city well into the night, it became unclear whether I would make it through any time soon, so I caved and splurged on a 26 dollar motel room with no windows at the Cowboy Motel.

The next day I ended up in Groom Texas which hosted a plethora of abandoned houses, which was perfect because I heard that there might be rain that night. I picked one and settled in, it was a pretty good sized house and randomly had a box of old clothes, I couldn't help but rummage. I found a nice warm flannel shirt and a windbreaker made by Marlboro (yes that Marlboro), set up my sleeping bag and went to sleep.

I woke up to pouring rain the next morning and biked into it for about 10 miles before stopping at a rest stop and learning the rain was supposed to continue all day. I was completely soaked, I had stupidly thrown out my poncho thinking my new jacket was rain proof (it wasn't) and opted to wait out the weather at the rest stop. I spent my day watching the same route 66 video over and over, chatting with truckers, and reading the better part of a sherlock holmes book I found in the house the night before. I met a 13 year old son of a cattle transporter who was hanging out while his dad was sleeping in the truck. He gave me a brownie and a soda and brought me some stuff from the vending machine and told me that he had been to all the states except for new york city and hawaii. When I told him I was from Massachusetts he asked me what state that was in. He also informed me that i could get a footlong sandwich at subway for 5 dollars and a 6 inch for 1 dollar. must be a new deal. he soon said his goodbyes and left me with some spare change as I set up my blanket in the tornado shelter and fell asleep.

I got up early the next day and headed for Oklahoma on a frontage road that ran along the 40.
I made it into Oklahoma 2 days ago, and so far it has been covered in rolling hills and scenic farmland. I found a pair of fuzzy dice on the side of the road and attached them to my bike, then, about 10 feet ahead BAM 10 dollar bill. lucky dice!

Walking into a little diner in Clinton the place fell silent upon my entrance and I could feel everyone staring at me. The wait for my food was a bit uncomtorable until a guy at the table broke the silence and asked me about my trip, soon the whole restaurant was asking me questions and giving me adive on which way to go. I left as the sun was about to go down and headed up the 183, stopping at a gas station in the next town to fill my water bottles and have a cup of coffee. The guy working there was around my age and lacked the southern accent, he seemed very impressed by the trip and we talked for a while. He grew up in Toronto but moved down here 9 years ago when his father bought the store and he made it very clear that he hated the place and couldn't wait to get the hell out. He lived in Clinton and was studying to go to med school at a local college. He gave me a bunch of free coffee because they were closing up but I couldn't spend too long there so I filled up a water bottle with coffee and headed out a few more miles before finding a nice bridge to sleep under.

The weather has been beautiful the past few days, but this weekend is supposed to be stormy and snowy, I sent out a few messages on couchsurfing and warmshowers.org to hopefully find a place to wait out the storm, biking through the rain blows.

oh yeah, and I passed through a town called shamrock the day before saint patricks day and found an unopened keystone light, so I didnt miss out on the holiday completely.