Welcome to Texas!

July 14
Muleshoe, Texas

What a great day to be on the Journey of Hope! It's always great to get back on the bike after a long layoff and I'd been sidelined for three days. Even better, my return coincided to our arrival to Texas, which means a lot of things. For starters, this means I'm home and getting to see friends and family soon. This also marks the halfway point for us as far as riding goes. Everyone says that things start going a lot quicker now and I can understand that: the rides will get shorter and less hilly as we get closer to DC, we spend less time in each state once we leave Texas, and we know ourselves, our bikes, and our teammates a lot better now. Because of all this, it feels like we're even farther than halfway.
We're not there yet, however. Yesterday marked the beginning of a pretty tough stretch for us. We go for about a week without a day off, one of our longest periods of the summer. There's a three day span within that we colloquially call the Triple Crown- 305 miles in three days that will bring us from Lubbock to Stephenville, which is our last stop before Fort Worth. So we'll be handling a large swath of Texas in one swoop. I guess that's the only way to do it without spending a month in the state.
At least today's ride wasn't too bad. In fact, it was a really nice one. We're pretty chronically late getting out of lodging- we try to give ourselves thirty minutes to get all our stuff outside and in the vans and another thirty minutes after that to eat, put on sunscreen, and air up our tires before we have our daily circle-up and send the first pacelines off. Dorms are especially tough for us because there's a lot less freedom of movement in the hallways so we can't ever seem to get out on time. Today, however, the first group left a mere forty-five minutes after wake-up.
The ride itself was easy for a variety of reasons. For one, I was riding with Todd Stacy and Jeff Lehman, a couple of my closest friends on the trip. Most of the mountains are behind us and today was a flat rid with a tailwind to start the day. The lane was wide so we eschewed the concept of speed and opted to ride two-wide in what we call a "conversation lane", which gives less opportunities for drafting but allows easier conversation. We rode for almost 25 miles like this, comparing the Initiation Weeks at our various schools and simply enjoying the ride. (I-Week is the week before members are officially initiated into the fraternity. It's usually a very solemn time for the chapter.)
About twenty-five miles in we were red-flagged and stopped at a place called Joe's Boot Store. It's a team tradition every year to stop at the store and do a little shopping during the ride. Every member got a free t-shirt and most people bought hats or belt buckles. I personally came away with a new cowboy hat that I'm sure will come in handy at some point in my time at TCU. A little kid kindly informed me that I was wearing my new possession backwards. It's moments like that when I wonder if everyone just laughs at our team every time we leave a town. I guess I'd laugh if a bunch of college kids came through Lufkin on bikes for some crazy cause.
After we left Clovis we biked about eight miles before we crossed the state line into Texas, a beautiful feeling to be sure. The bike "Welcome to Texas" sign was a couple miles farther and we stopped there and took pictures in our cycling jerseys and cowboy hats.
The last twenty or so miles were pretty rough because we had a crosswind that made riding harder and kept us from being able to ride efficiently or talk much. We finished without any major trouble though, which is a blessing, especially considering I ran over a piece of glass and thought I'd given myself a flat tire.
Lunch was at lodging, which was really convenient. We're staying in the youth room at a church and we were fed by a women's group called the Jennyslippers in the kitchen downstairs. Lunch was great, and the ladies were fun to spend time with and definitely made sure we got plenty of dessert. We spent our time talking about which stereotype each team member would fulfill in different generic movies, such as a war movie or The Sandlot. It's times like this that the other guys like to point out that I'm the youngest guy on the team. It's fine by me though- I'm proud to be doing Journey of Hope at a time in my life when most of the other riders were only thinking about it. And I'm also extremely fortunate to have such a great support system that's enabled me to do this.
After lunch we went to a local pool and gave a bike safety presentation to a bunch of kids. Even our Project Manager said it was weird. We hadn't even showered and so we were tired and the kids definitely didn't want their swimming interrupted by a bunch of guys in spandex talking about wearing helmets, so there wasn't a lot of chemistry there. One of the lifeguards did, however, give my friend JJ a phone number. It really is the small victories that get you through the day I suppose. Shower followed the safety presentation and we had some free time after that. They have a ping-pong table here, so we've gotten to play a lot. We're a bunch of college guys so we're always looking for new ways to compete and so this is a new outlet. This afternoon though, most of our time was dedicated to napping. On certain days, it just seems that the team unanimously decides to sleep the afternoon away. This was definitely one of those days. Tonight's dinner is supposed to be steak and potatoes, so I have to say I'm excited.