day 21: Goodlett to Quitaque, TX

How many are your works, LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

Psalm 104:24

84.6 miles – 2,785 ft climb- 459.3 miles this week

We found out today that we were actually in Goodlett, TX overnight. It’s a suburb of Quanah. It was actually kinda chilly this morning so Bruce waited to leave until around 9:15. Harvey & I rolled out around 10:45.

Since Bruce was having a good morning, I decided to do my 5K in Childress because it looked like it had a cute little historic downtown. Sadly as I walked along I noticed that probably half of the buildings were boarded up or empty inside. Thankfully as I drove out of town I could see that the town actually was thriving a little more than I had thought. Pizza Hut, McDonald’s and of course a Dollar General.

The first 50 miles Bruce was cruising along with the wind at his back, listening to his music, going almost 20 mph. Totally in the groove. When he realized that he had missed his turn and ridden 3 miles past the turn off onto Hwy 86. Then he had to ride 3 more back to it. We were talking to Harriett later and she said that she was following him on Find Friends and on her map and wondering why he was going off route.

The surface of Hwy 86 was chip and seal which was not fun to ride on. Bruce called the calvary to bring his gravel bike. Much better. “Like butter” according to Bruce. He again got in the groove and was kinda excited when Map my GPS routed him onto a side dirt road. He enjoyed it for several miles until it disappeared and he found himself basically riding through a field. Bruce loves gravel grinding (that’s gravel bike speak for riding on gravel roads). But this was not that. Luckily he found another dirt road that took him back to Hwy 86 and on to Quitaque (pronouned Kitty-Ka according to the lady at AllSup’s). Thankfully I had decided to stay on the highway and forgo the back roads today because the highway was back roads enough for me. I can only imagine how things would have played out if Harvey and I tried cruising the fields. Even though he does have great shocks.

I waited for Bruce in Quitaque. The first RV Park I called was no longer in business. The next one was full. I usually wait until the day of to call the RV Parks because Bruce doesn’t always adhere to my well planned schedule. We drove out to Caprock Canyons State Park hoping for an RV site, but willing to just settle for the view. I had already tried calling them and booking online but neither worked. When we got there the ranger did not seem hopeful. Bruce asked her if she wanted to hear a sob story and she said that she had heard them all. He told her anyway. Now she has one more to add to her collection. But luckily she also had one more site. Perfect! Thanks God!

We got set up, Bruce washed his bike and then we cruised around on the cycle. It is beautiful here! There is a herd of bison and a pack (?) of prairie dogs that live here. We had to cut our cruise a little short because the road took a steep dive and we were afraid our little cycle couldn’t make it back up. The guy that had our cycle before us changed something out to make it faster, but it also made it struggle more on hills with 2 people. We still need a name for our cycle. Any suggestions?

We cruised around a bend and there, smack in the middle of the road were a big group of bison milling about. Boy do you feel vulnerable that close to bison on a little cycle! Right before that, I had seen one loan bison at the side of the road and as we cruised by he snorted and kinda stamped his feet. I thought for sure he was going to charge us! So when we came upon the bison in the road we turned around and drove away quickly. And then of course had to stop for a pic.

When I came out of the shower building the bison had moved and were grazing right on the path between the shower and Harvey. Yikes! Since I’m pretty sure I wasn’t invited to the party, I took the long way home. Which was annoying because I had forgotten my flipflops and so had my feet kinda half stuck in my Hoka’s kinda tiptoeing along the whole way back. But I did get to walk by the prairie dog village. They are so cute! I don’t think I’ve ever heard them make a sound before. These were kinda chirping. A lady on her way to the bath house told me that they were warning other prairie dogs that danger was a-brewing with all of these people walking so close to their little village.

As I am writing this I can hear coyotes howling away. It almost sounds fake they are so enthusiastic. We are in the wild west. I’m partially expecting to wake up to a bison out in the front yard. There are actually people tent camping here. Did they not see the sign that there are bison here? And they are wild. And big.