day 22: Quitaque to Dimmit, TX

“I went to the pain cave today.”

Bruce Van Bebber

81.3 miles – 2,028 ft climb – wind: in face

Day 22. Half way through. More than half way by mileage. It’s like in the summer when you get to 4th of July. It always makes me think of all the things I meant to do. Obviously Bruce IS doing what he meant to do. But I thought I would get a lot more done. I brought my new Swahili text book because I’d have so much time to work on it. I brought several tea towels to embroider during the times I’m waiting for Bruce. I’ve only touched them once. Well, I’ve touched them many times, but it was only to move them to the seat next to me or to the couch close to me or back to the bed by me. Not much embroidery getting done. I also brought several books and books on my laptop because I would have SO MUCH time to read. I have no idea where my day goes. But it goes.

Today was a hard day for Bruce. He left around 8:20 and enjoyed the first part because even though it was a big climb, there were some great views and it was only 55 degrees. He sent me these pics and posted on facebook, “Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.”

The roads were pretty good today with a decent shoulder. These roads are part of what was originally the Texas Plains Trail. The day got steadily hotter with the wind in Bruce’s face all day. I thought the road today was completely flat but Bruce said it was continuous climbing. I guess it’s a little different when you don’t have Harvey to do all the work. At about 60 miles Bruce was really hurting. He called his friend Steve Richards for a pep talk. They reminisced about other hard rides they had ridden and survived. It got him through the next few miles. At about 70 miles God felt sorry for him and sent an angel disguised as an elderly farmer driving a combine. This guy turned onto the highway right in front of Bruce and chugged on along at 25 mph. Remember when I taught you about pacing? This was it again. Seven miles of drafting relief. When the farmer turned off after 7 miles, Bruce waved to thank him and then realized that the farmer had no idea he was even there.

When he finally “staggered” in to our little RV Park at 4:30, he said “I went to the pain cave today. It was a real Sufferfest.” That’s biker speak for today was hard and I’m glad it’s over. Bring on the chocolate milk. And then a beer.

I caught up with Bruce at about 30 miles, near Tulia. There was no place to pull over, so I pulled across a driveway. Because there wasn’t that much traffic and what are the chances that someone would be needing to actually use this driveway. Bruce came in for a break. You know, the basics: take off his shoes & rest his feet, refill his water bottle and Blendrich bottle, eat a pb&J and some Stacy’s, watch an SNL clip. He was outside getting everything set on his bike when up roared a big, red truck pulling a big, red trailer filled with several horses saddled and ready. A guy got out and sauntered casually over to get his mail from his mailbox. When Bruce apologized for blocking his driveway & told him what we are doing, Brent said it was no big deal and to take our time. I went ahead and backed up a little, planning to back up completely past his driveway. But as I checked the mirrors to finish backing I was aware of a red blur in front of me. Brent had clearly pulled that trailer a time or two before. He went from parked across the street to zipping down his driveway in the amount of time it took me to check my mirror.

After our rendezvous there was really no place to stop in Nazareth because it was mostly just pretty houses on big farms, so I went all the way to Dimmit and “checked in” to our RV park. It’s a bit sketchy but it does have full hookups. It took me a while to find someone in charge. After knocking on a few RV doors, I finally got the number for the manager. When I called her on the phone she said to pick any spot I wanted. But check the electricity because some worked and some didn’t. So here we are. And I will not be walking here tomorrow.

This morning at Caprock Canyons however, I had a great walk through God’s creation. I wish I could have captured it on camera, but it just can’t be done. It never looks as amazing in pictures as it does in real life. It was beautiful. As I was walking I saw these sparkling things along the road. I looked closer and I think they were kinda like fossilized wood with crystals on it. Very cool!

On my way back I noticed a large water trough out in the rough. This struck me as funny because there were signs all around talking about keeping nature natural etc. So I decided to take a picture of it. After I took the picture I looked a little closer and there was a lone bison standing about 15 feet behind the water tank. He was standing completely still staring at me. For some reason this totally freaked me out. I walked as fast as I could past him and tried not to look at him because that’s what you do with wild animals, right? Avoid eye contact? He was around 50 feet away from me but he watched me steadily as I tried to decide what I would do if he decided to charge at me. The trees were way to small to climb but I decided I could try to hide behind one at least. Seeing that one bison made me feel so vulnerable. I looked over to the other side of the road and sure enough there were 4 more bison moseying through the woods about 60 -70 feet away. I thought about all those bison we had seen last night blocking the road and started worrying about what I would do if I came around a bend to a huge group of Bison headed my way. I had no where to go. I was thinking what a dumb idea it was to go for a walk by myself and started to get pretty scared. As I quoted scripture to myself, God reminded me that these bison see people all the time. Other people go on walks or ride bikes. Or camp in tents. Before I knew it I was back near the RV park. Civilization! It started me thinking about the difference between my walk down the road and my walk back. For all I know there were bison looming in the trees all along the road on the way out that I never saw. I suppose it’s better to be aware of dangers out there, but it was definitely more enjoyable when I was completely oblivious to them.

On the way out of the park I had to drive through a huge herd of bison very close to the road. They weren’t quite as scary from inside Harvey. I actually drove within 6 feet of a baby bison nursing his mom. So cool! Unfortunately I couldn’t take a picture because I was on the phone at the time. And I was focusing on sauntering through the herd unobtrusively.