Another beautiful rainless and for the most part cloudless, but the wind and temperature took it’s toll toward the end of the day. We got started by taking our time heading west and bumped into a cute little town named Hico. The first thing that caught my eye was the old saloon so I turned down main street and took some shots of the old building. Neat place, but small and looked sort of like things are currently tough. Check the photo link at the end.
Next we came rolling into to Dublin and little early than I planned so we had to wait almost 20 minutes before the Dr.Pepper store opened up. It wasn’t like they had 100’s of people lined up to get in and there was 4 employees inside and they waited until 5 minutes after opening time before they unlocked the door. I think they saw me walking to the bike to dress and leave, then unlocked the door. Kids!!! I had a long day of driving in front of me, so I didn’t take the 30 minute tour of the shop where they actually make the drink, but I got to tour the store. First things first though, I reached in their cooler and grab a 8oz bottle of pure cane sugar Dr.Pepper and I pigged that boy down by myself with no help from Lori. They had a sample of Dr.Pepper Fudge and cake, and we ended up buying the mix for the cake. I also bought a 6 pack (cans) for me to drink on the road, a coffee cup, and a bottle opener to mount on the wall. I should have gotten a Dr.Pepper float, but it was way to early in the morning for that. But, as I type this blog, I’m savoring one of those 6. You’ll have to check the pictures at the end of this blog to see the store, neat stuff.
The rest of the day was nothing but riding, riding, and more riding. The one thing that I did not expect to see was the 1000’s upon 1000’s of Windmill power generators. I’ve never seen one up close and these things are monsters. I would estimate 4 to 5 story tall at a minimum. The landscape that we were riding through made me think that at any moment John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, or maybe some Indians would come riding across the plains to meet us. This stuff was right out of every western I have ever seen. It has it’s own beauty that is distinct to the area. We actually ran into some hilly curvy turns but they didn’t last anywhere long enough for me. On one particular leg, we were due westbound into a 20-30 knot headwind and I was doing 75mph on the Valkyrie, so can you guess what happen to my fuel mileage? 24 mpg into the wind and when I turned due northbound at 75 mph, I got 32 mpg. What an affect the wind has.
Somewhere about 4:30 in the afternoon or about 420 mile mark, Lori asked, does your GPS time match the Valkyrie clock time? I knew what that meant and I was feeling the heat of the day myself. So, when I enter Post, Tx., I set a direct course for Lubbock and we pulled in dirty, hot, and a bit beat.
Ok, we got our room in Lubbock and it was already 5:45 and we had to eat and go see the Buddy Holly Statue on the walk of fame. First up we ate dinner at Buns over Texas that is famous for the Hamburgers and Cheese fries. Both were equally good and there should be a couple of pictures from dinner. Then we headed over to see Buddy and to our disappointment, they had remove his statue for refurbishing and they were going to relocate him in the process. Well Boo! Oh well, we headed back to our room and called it a day.
Is anyone considering retiring in Waco Texas out there? Do you know yesterday I was looking at some Real Estate Ads and found a 155 acre farm for $152,000 just 5 miles outside of town. Um, that is a wow!
Tomorrow is going to be another long day for the two of us at 545 miles. It will also be the day we leave the state of Texas and cross most of New Mexico. If Lori and I go missing tomorrow make sure the first place you look is Roswell NM. where all the alien UFO stuff is suppose to be kept. I’m hoping that just maybe I find ET !! The other attraction we will try to visit is El Morro national Monument. You want to talk about climate change? Today we rode through temps between 90-95 and when we wake up in Gallup, NM., not tomorrow morning but the next, it will be 32-35 degree. Um, that’s cold!!
Todays run was 482 miles, and our total is now 2497.
Click here for today’s pictures:
Tomorrows route is pictured below:
The Picture below shows what we have completed and what we have left. The Red is complete and the Green is what is left.
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