Cycling Across America #59
Storm
Part 59 of the Cycle-Across-America series. (Read from the start in Boston or see the full index)
Having cycled south right through the Panhandle of Texas, I’m now turning west and heading into New Mexico, my 22nd State on the trip. At least, that’s the plan.
Monday 21st October
Snow Advisory, Yoakum County. Never mind the 5-day forecast, I don’t trust those weather people much when it comes to the 24-hour affair.
It had never happened before. My arms, from shoulders right down to my fingertips, numb.
It occurred to me my arms were like Action Man’s with a rubber grip degenerating into a plastic one - the earlier model of Action Man. It hampered my waving. Not too many people were, in heavy rain, but I see them staring at me a lot. All I could manage was to raise my gripping hand slightly by bending my elbow a bit.
When I tried to move my arms around a bit to bring them back to life I simply got pins and needles and got giggly. With an icy rain beating into my face helped by an 18mph wind from the north, I was worried about falling off the bicycle so was relieved to see the space burger water tower of Denver City.
[The rest of this day is continued below the fold]
When I left the motel this morning the forecast said there was a 30% chance of light rain only. Eating breakfast in McDonald’s - a “Big” breakfast or something, I so despise Mc Donald’s for reducing my English - it rained, using up all 30% of the light rain.13 miles in the rain to Wellman. Like a lot of towns in the southern part of the Panhandle its elevator was a dour unpainted grey rather than the popular brilliant white up north.
A truck was leaving a cotton gin. It was loaded up with pillow shaped plastic-wrapped packages. I understood them to be the next stage in the life of the cotton. About a hundred of the pillow shapes on the truck I counted. There was no population count on the town limit marker but judging by yesterday’s towns it was about 400.
Highway US 62 continued south-west to Seagraves. The wind and the rain on my back I made easy progress in the safety of the wide shoulder. Without the wind filling my lungs I was able to sing again.
There was a railway track on my right hand side but it was separated from the road by a small ridge. This ridge was comprised of a deep orange-brown soil, probably the colour most people call red. Perched on top were many bushes I was thinking would look at home in the Pine Valley.
I crossed the tracks coming into Seagraves and a train coming out of town waved at me. There was no real need to eat with Denver City only 14 miles west of here but I decided to take a break from the rain and cold and supplement the large breakfast. The County Cotton Cafe and Motel had a great mural accurately depicting the surrounding countryside but it was closed. The Dairy Queen, as ever in Texas, was my only option.
Eating my burger and chips I was the only person there. One of the members of staff came out to me.
-Sir, I don’t mean to be nosey but me and the girls were all wondering why are you going around on a bicycle ?
-For the laugh.
-For the love ?
-Laugh.
-For the life ?
-Laugh. Ha ha. For fun.
-Oh.A trucker came in later and spoke with me. He lived 60 miles away to the south but came up here for the peanut harvest season. I had cycled on 2 miles of spilled peanuts earlier wondering if you could get a puncture from peanuts.
I kept hearing about, reading about, and indeed seeing peanuts but I felt stupid - I hadn’t seen, or at least noticed, any growing. I was used to them over in the East but all I was seeing in these parts was cotton with some grass and the odd field of milo.
The phone outside was a 25 cent a minute to anywhere in the USA so I rang a contact I had stayed with all the way back in Connecticut. She wasn’t there so I left an unintelligible message where I forgot the name of the town I was in and possibly didn’t even say my name. I told her I would ring again in the coming week from New Mexico.
In the hard beating rain I set off wondering if it was the wise thing to do. I had intended to go into New Mexico and stop 32 miles west of Denver City but there was nothing in between and I was fearful of the rain increasing or a thunderstorm.
I knew there was snow up in Amarillo. Once my arms went numb I had stopped debating with myself. My face was sore too, the rain strong.
When visibility is this bad it’s so much safer to have the wide shoulder. I wouldn’t've liked to have been without one and was wondering about whether they would be as common in New Mexico as in Texas. When I crossed frontiers in Europe I usually gave myself a lot of time to adjust to the new roads among other things. In the US changes aren’t so drastic but road policies can be very different. I concluded that if I had to lose half a day at least I could enter New Mexico when it wasn’t raining tomorrow - I hoped.
Like entering Brownfield last night, entering Denver City today I got a repulsive chemical smell. It wasn’t petrol although for 2 miles coming into town there was nothing but oil wells on either side of the road.
The last mile was directly into the wind and rain, and it sent me straight into the first motel. He never said hello and he never smiled. The place was immaculate but I couldn’t see why he should have my custom. He never said good-bye either.
This motel, the Crown Inn, is on the main street called Broadway. I had to be given a towel to warm my hand up so I could write. It took 15 minutes to write my name and address with my hand and arm still somewhat numb. I have a huge bed in a large clean room with everything you could expect from a motel. As the sign says, you could pay more - but why ?
Once I’d warmed the place up and got all my senses back I rang Kansas City and heard news of my hosts from all the way back on August 7th in Maryland. It was all so much easier then. And warmer.
The forecast is still for snow through the night but only an inch and maybe it’ll melt. At the moment the temperature is about 32 degrees Fahrenheit which is about 15 degrees with the wind-chill. As Lovington is only 32 miles away I might set off a bit late tomorrow giving the day a chance to warm up.
I need to visit the Post Office having added to my unstamped correspondence with a another card last night. There’s also a museum in town I could visit. Alternately if I find out there was lodging 20 miles north of Lovington in Tatum I could head there and from there take a new route along US 380 to Roswell. That way I’d get my lost day back but it’s not that important and it’s down to the weather really.
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