Day 18-The Sounds of Today

Dalhart, Tx to Guymon,Ok
Miles: 72.9
Time: 5:06
Average: 14.3 mph
Max: 24.4
Total Ascent: 2,038
Est Calories: 4,525

One more state line: into Oklahoma. In case you haven't heard from other blogs, we are supposed to sprinkle sand from Manhattan Beach, Ca at each state crossing sign, or else strange and not so friendly things happen?????, which is why I'm bending over at this sign sprinkling the sand.

Today was very flat all day (relatively) which compensated for another very windy day. Plus, we did not have the bouts of rain that we had yesterday.

It was interesting today listening to the sounds of the ride (too much time in the saddle, I think). With nothing as far as you could see, you could still hear crickets along the ditches of the highway. And, when you approached the occassional grouping of trees you could hear a large exchange of bird sounds and chirps compared to the occassional bird call along the open road. Of course there was the steady din of wind that normally drowned out any conversation but the most essential or occassional comment that often required repeating when you would get the attention of the rider you thought that you where talking to in the first place. And, there also was the roar of traffic and the occassional air horn from the constant caravan of trucks of all sizes and shapes with anything you can think of being hauled, from animals for your next meal, to huge pieces of silos being transported to the next grain elavator.

Once into Guymon, 4 of us (Bob, Hank, Champ, and yours truly) stopped at "Burger Heaven" for a real double cheeze burger, with a bit of crispy edges, lots of pickles, tomatos, and a large fresh bun, rather than a homogenous, institutional national brand of pretent burgers. In the quite of the Burger Heaven you could hear the lips smacking of 4 grown men wolfing down there own individual version of FOOD.

The owner was happy to see us and made sure he took pictures of us and with us. Just another "Charles Kuralt" on the road American moment.

Tomorrow we move onto Kansas for the 4th state in as many days. The benefits of cutting corners on the panhandles of Texas, and Oklahoma. Now on to the PLAINS states, and I expect that, from what we have seen so far, the days will look very similar, except we expect to run into more towns and more places to eat during the day.

Of late, we have thru 90-110 mile days with only one store of any kind during the day. When the cue sheets keep saying "no service for the next 28.7 miles; then no service for the next 42 miles; then no services for the next XXXmiles", you come to expect to live off what you carry, or what may be available from then SAG stops. So when we come to a Burger Heaven you sometimes over indulge, particularly if it is at the end of the day with a couple of hours until dinner. See ya...................