I was well rested, hydrated and fed. Bladder emptied. All positive. Bike in good shape. All systems "Go". Four of us took off from hotel in Tucumcari at our assigned departure time. I'm on Team Seven as we depart @ 7:00 each day. Preceded by the "Scouts" who leave @ 6:30 and followed by the fast guys @ 7:30. Thought it would be great ride.
By the time I reached hotel, I wanted someone to just put me down. Like the cattle we saw in the XIT industrial feeding lots, just get it over with. Butt sore, ankles sore, wrists sore....put me out of my misery. I know the restorative properties of a good night's sleep and hope to take the overnight cure yet again tonight.
This part of the country has had severe drought for many years and recently received a lot of rainfall. I acknowledge we were lucky indeed to have cool dry day for riding. We missed a big storm front by just a couple days. I guess a steady headwind is what we had to get through.
Because of the wind and pancake-flat terrain, this was a mentally tough ride. Long flat roads with what felt like mild grade climbing for miles. Can't explain the sense of isolation and vastness of eastern New Mexico and the tip of Texas. We did form a pace line to reduce the monotony and mitigate the effort needed for today's trip into Texas. See the random shots of the open road (spectacularly wide blue sky), pace line buddies, Texas border, and massive feeding lots.
Tonight we were on our own for dinner as there weren't many places that could take a rush of all of us at once. Peter had asked the desk clerk for a Mexican restaurant nearby so he, Cynthia, Maggie, and I walked over to one lonely looking building with a solitary pickup truck parked outside.
Once inside it showed itself to be a no frills venue with maybe a dozen tables and half dozen booths. There was one couple sitting in a booth. The place looked deserted so I went back into the kitchen and found a 20 something year old man working the stove and asked him if he was still open. As he grabbed some menus he indicated we could seat ourselves anywhere.
Peter, never shy about asking anything, found out that Alberto was running the whole show himself. He was a great kid with a nice smile and engaged with us for quite sometime. When we asked him to guess what we were doing in town, he guessed we were Mixed Martial Arts Fighters. He was a hoot! He was equally surprised when we told him we were riding cross country. We had such a good time with him.
We placed our orders and he went back to get drinks and prepared our dinners. Peter. and Cynthia had the Chile Verde,, Peter also had a chicken soup, Maggie, a fish fillet w/rice & beans, and I had the chicken enchiladas. I was a little disappointed they didn't have hot sauce. When the meals arrived we started eating when I heard a breathy hoot from Cynthia followed by a similar noise from Peter.
A bite and a half into my enchilada I knew what they were talking about. That food packed a kick. Wow! It was delicious but fiery hot. My eyes teared up and my forehead began to sweat, we asked Alberto if that was the usual preparation and he grinned and said yes. Man did we have fun that nigh.
No comments:
Post a Comment