Amarillo to Dalhart

Today was rough. And that is an understatement. The route was gorgeous but unfortunately it was overshadowed by my 8 flat tires, bringing my trip total to 30...and a smattering of other bike problems. By 10 am we had eaten and left first lunch...2 hrs later we were less than 15 miles from lunch. We stopped at a roadside cafe, the only civilization we saw all day, to refill our camelbaks and managed to find some awesome post cards and I even found Tampico, one of my favorite though rarely available beverages. Soon after leaving there we rode less than a miek before I got a flat. We fixed that and rode 30 meters only for me to get another flat. As soon as that was fixed we discovered Jack had a flat. And once we fixed his I had another already. We were in the same spot for over 2 hrs patching and fixing flats. We were almost completely out of water but found second lunch just in time. My 8th and final flat of the day rounded out our day on the suffer bus and after almost 10 hrs outside, less than half of which were spent riding (like how for 15 miles we averaged 26 mph) Jack and Made it to Dalhart. We didn't eat dinner til after 8 pm. By then I was a seriously unhappy camper and was not in a good place. There is no feeling worse than having a body willing and capable of doing the miles and a bike that won't cooperate. I felt so helpless. And honestly, calling the van to pick me up crossed my mind. Though I am glad I didn't. Tomorrow we head to NM and I can say I am ready to be rid of TX.

This heat is nuts. It's dry which makes it very easy to not realize you're sweating. More times than not the sweat evaporates before you notice it. Over 500 oz of fluid today have managed to still leave me dehydrated.

Today our route crossed paths with SC2SC, another B&B route. We had big plans for Bike and Build Olympics but sadly today's heat zapped the energy out of all of us and none of these ideas came to fruition. Still cool to get a chance to meet some other B&B'ers.

Over and out from Dalhart. Westward to New Mexico in the morning, we even get to sleep til 6 because our mileage is only 46!!!