As I mentioned yesterday, the weather has gotten progressively better each day of Elizabeth’s week as my riding partner and today was no exception. Today was sunny and low wind. It started off in the low 50s and is now about 80 degrees. Elizabeth and Marie started the day with breakfast at the Rustic Cafe across the street. Marie loves breakfast so we try to fit in a good breakfast once a week. I was on the phone so they brought me back a delicious egg, bacon and cheese sandwich. Before we even got started, we noticed Elizabeth’s tire was flat. We found the culprit, a piece of wire, and she quickly changed the tire. She is now a tire changing whiz.

We decided to try something different today. Since we had driven ahead on Thursday to the next town for lodging, we decided to bike back to the town we finished in yesterday instead of driving back and biking from there - same route but backwards. We wondered if we would experience less wind since we were going east to west but it was hard to tell since it was such a windless day. It was a truly fun ride as the traffic was low and we rode side by side most of the way and at a moderate speed. I caught up on wedding details 🥳.

We did have some fun sights today on the way. We passed through two huge windmill farms. We also had three trucks (each was about two trucks in length) pass us carrying a windmill blade per truck. The blades are simply enormous. We also passed a metal sculpture of a steer that stood about 20 feet tall, although it was dwarfed by the windmills and vastness of fields behind it.

We landed in Throckmorton, Texas around 1pm and Marie had scoped out a restaurant for lunch: Double D’s Grill and Saloon. We knew she had made a good choice when we got there as the parking lot was filled with pickup trucks. Marie’s motto is to eat what is grown in the area so beef was the obvious choice. Marie doesn’t eat beef so I had enough for both of us - a 1/2 lb hamburger. It was that or a 1lb hamburger or 1 1/2 inch thick ribeye. Marie and Elizabeth each had a chicken strip salad which turned out to be an interesting choice. The waitress showed up at the table with two plates filled with pieces of chicken (and nothing else!). She then told them to go to the salad bar to make their salads. The salad bar was iceburg lettuce, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, shredded hard boiled eggs, onion, shredded cheese, and bacon bits. A little bit of a different approach 😊. They enjoyed it nonetheless. We also got an interesting call from Sam while at the restaurant asking if we were ok. He is tracking me on my iPhone and noticed we had gone backward 30 plus miles and showing us at an urgent care facility. He didn’t know we were riding backwards today or that the restaurant was across the street from the local health center. Glad we could let him know everyone was doing well.

Tomorrow is my last ride with Elizabeth and the weather should be the best yet. She has been a joy to ride with, very upbeat, supportive and feeling blessed to have this opportunity to see this part of the country by bike. I am feeling blessed as well.