Today was mostly a quiet day travelling Northeast on US 54 to Dalhart, Texas. We’ll be riding on this arrow straight road for the next 3 days. We were able to skirt the morning rains but we could not avoid the steady northeast wind.

Because of the wind we were riding in a paceline, in which the bikes ride single file close enough to draft off each other (typically less than 10 inches apart). The front rider pulls off to the side after a few minutes and drops to the back of the line while the next rider takes his or her turn, just like a flock of geese. With about 8 miles left Chad dropped to the back, but when I moved into place ahead of him we touched wheels, sending him tumbling onto the shoulder. I was untouched. Chad was scraped up a bit and the front wheel of his bike was bent but still rideable. Disaster narrowly missed. Crossroads has a mechanic, Peyton, travelling with us. He was able to true Chad’s wheel in the hotel tonight.

But that’s not all! Growing up we referred to our home of Columbus, Ohio as a cow town. Not so. Dalhart, Texas is the real thing, surrounded by acres of feedlots with thousands of cattle. Of course, the flies and smell are pretty thick, too. A steer escaped and had 4-5 cowboys on truck and horseback chasing him. They stopped traffic and asked us to back away. The steer ultimately went onto the highway where he lost his footing and went back to the cowboys. They roped him and steered him to safety and traffic resumed.

It was 95 miles today. Tomorrow is another 72 miles on the same road to Guymon, Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plains.