We woke up this morning to 45 degree weather with heavy winds. We ate breakfast at a place about a half mile from the hotel, having to walk our bikes over to it since it was still dark at 6:00 am. We began riding around 7, with a strong headwind that kept us at 13 mph for the first 18 miles. Then we made a left turn and had a tailwind for about 60 miles, averaging around 27 mph. As you can see from the picture above, alot of what we saw in the Panhandle of Texas today were oil wells and cattle ranches, often occupying the same pieces of land. My buddy taking the picture with my iPhone stayed on the other side of the cattle fence, so he couldn't really zoom in much closer. After our lunch break at 12:30 we set out to ride the last 30 of the 109 miles for the day into the town of Pampa, Texas. These miles were hot, in the 90's, and the wind was in our face; and also gusting from the sides at 40 to 50 mph. The winds were so strong we had to lean our bikes to the right to keep from getting blown over, or into traffic. Most of the climbing for the day also occurred within the last 30 miles. We got in around 3 pm, everyone was exhausted from the headwinds. I got another care-package from EDA today with plenty of snacks, and a couple more cards, that always makes my day when I drag into the hotel. Headed into Oklahoma tomorrow, doing 97 miles into Elk City.http://www.americabybicycle.com/BAMA/BAMA/Fast_South/Entries/2010/4/28_Day_11-Tucumcari_to_Dalhart_TX.html
Click Link to see a couple pretty cool pictures of me on our ride leader's site.