Day 290 May 15, 2017 Big Spring to Midland, TX

There are times when everything comes together perfectly. Days when a tense meeting at work turns out to be ideally productive. Days when your golf game, or batting and fielding, or running, or whatever are at peak performance. Times when a difficult repair or project is finished easily and professionally. Today was not one of those days for us.

Wind was forecast to be from the south at 16 mph. We were heading WSW today. Temps were forecast for the low 90's, so we planned to get on the road by 07:30, which we did. Today's ride: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/21161024

The wind turned out to be 16-24 mph, and it clocked a bit during the day to the SSW, temperatures rose to the mid 90's. In the first 10 miles, we had almost three miles of sandy, dirt road, which we ended up mostly walking. The strength of the wind, combined with the grade profile, kept our speed in single digits. We climbed 1043 feet, spent 05:21:30 on the bike, and averaged 8.5 mph. A tough day.

Leaving Big Spring. Kicking along at 10 mph in the early morning.


Lots of road construction in Texas.


Our dirt/sand road. We walked most of the almost three miles.






Our fan club continues to follow us.


President of the local chapter.


They really do things big in Texas. Want to buy some land?

We are traveling right now through the Permian Basin, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian_Basin_(North_America) which is an area just slopping over with oil and gas. Wells are everywhere, and the ancillary businesses that support the wells also.






One of the interesting things we noticed during the last four days was that there are a large number of wind turbines here as well. Kind of like they are hedging their bets. There are a lot of wind turbines in the distance in this photo.








We had lunch in Stanton, about 23 miles into the ride, at a very nice old fashioned drug store. They told us they were famous for their hamburgers and their shakes. In a town of less than 3,000, they go through 50 pounds of hamburger a day.


As we got closer to Midland, the traffic increased a bit on the I-20 service road we were following. That being said, everyone was polite and gave us plenty of room when they passed. We eventually turned off on Illinois Ave, and followed it to a liquor store. Blue Moon for Margaret; Bombay Saphire for me. Damn it; after such a hard day we deserve a little taste.


Going through downtown Midland.


Tomorrow we go less than 17 miles to Odessa. Temps will be higher than today; I am not sorry the distance will be so short.