Today we crossed. We are now in Texas. We have been “shown the way to Amarillo”, shocking joke I know but I’m tired. We collected the fifth member of our team last night, Darren arrived into Oklahoma just a little after 8. I could sit and watch people in an airport all day. There is never any hate in an airport, you see love and joy all the time as loved ones greet each other. It was the same for us. Helen ran and gave Darren a massive cuddle. Loved it.
Oklahoma Photo Gallery
It was the start of two days of cycling to catch the mileage up from the two days of running. I was not looking forward to two days on the bike at all. The roads here are not designed to spend a long time in the saddle. They go from bowling green smooth to cobbled country lane within a mile. The old highway is more a patch work of tarmac, concrete and In some areas, grass!! With all of its surface problems I still prefer it to the interstate and larger highways. My body is feeling every break in the surface, I wince and groan with pain as the bike blasts into another pothole or crack in the road. A large pothole later in the day feels like it’s knocked my spine out of alignment. One of the pictures shows kerry doing some budget chiropractic work on it. We have no doctors in our team, no Physio or anything like that. Just 5 friends on a budget.
It’s peaceful and quiet, bobbing along, dipping and weaving through the Texan landscape. Like most of the landscape in America it’s vast, endless. Not much in between the towns, a scattering of houses here and there but generally just farm land. We passed through a few towns today, Erick, Sayre, Texola and McLean. Mclean was my favourite. Virtually abandoned, ghost town, we arrived late in the afternoon. A local lady came to talk to us. After the normal pleasantries and the bewilderment in what we are trying to do she told us of the thriving town Mclean used to be, about the antique shop she used to run. It was heart breaking to see what had happened. The town was built in 1909 by the English rancher, he tied in 1912 on the Titanic. Round the corner from where our conversation took place was a building recently demolished. She told us it was the old movie theatre, built in 1929. It was demolished yesterday. She had come into town just to look, to reminisce for a while about what the town used to be. As we said our goodbyes she asked what our favourite thing had been so far. It’s simple, the people. Their kindness, generosity, smiles, faces, charity and most of all the happiness that each person seems to have. Any time I have ever done anything like this I have always been astounded by the kindness of strangers. America is no different. I have seen nothing but kindness since the day we arrived.
What a night last night was for social media! 5000 likes blasted out of the water, a share from John Bishop and my phone tells me that over 250,000 people saw last nights post!!!! Wow wow wow! Let’s see what I can wake up to tomorrow.
Thank you to everyone.
Maybe You Like Them Too
- Top 10 Islands You Can Buy
- Top 10 Underrated Asian Cities 2023
- Top 10 Reasons Upsizing Will Be a Huge Travel Trend
- Top 10 Scuba Diving Destinations
- World’s 10 Best Places To Visit
