Wandering Retirees

As advertised, we set out early and rode about 460 miles over 11 hours from Ft Worth, TX to Tucumcari, NM, a long, sometimes boring/sometimes exciting day. Ft Worth was once an important stop on the Chisholm Trail, and thought of as the Gateway to the West. It can be hard to imagine covered wagons traversing ground now covered by 8 lanes of concrete, and arterials the size if a NJ city, but you can if you try. We’ve covered about 2,300 miles so far.  
After double checking the weather, we left Bill and Jane Hadley’s home and headed north toward Wichita Falls and I-40 for points west. We stopped for fuel and some food in a old, small town called Henrietta, home of Stewart’s Sweet Shop located across from CityHall. Ms. Brenda Estridge, a patron, showed us pictures from when it was originally a boot manufactory, making custom cowboy boots for the discriminating Texan. When the boot makers moved to different digs, the shop became a café and bakery. Cookies and other pastries are in prominent view and promise gustatory delight. Mr. Pete Langford, (photo attached) is a distinguished looking transplant from Nokoma, about 20 miles to the south. He made our acquaintance and kindly bade us welcome, asking after our welfare and where we were from. Once again, we arrived as strangers and were graciously made welcome by Mr. Langford, Ms. Estridge and her sister, and the staff. They could have chosen to treat us as customers only but did not; we found kindness and grace. In addition they have our thanks for a delicious and filling meal. 

For most of the rest of the day, we pushed on through the Texas panhandle, headed to Amarillo and beyond to Tucumcari. The weather continued to be on our minds with threats of thunderstorms and hail beset us behind and before. With a warning from another biker in Claude, TX, we knew hail was imminent. We raced north to Amarillo to find shelter.  We made it in time to shelter in relative comfort under an overhang at the Comfort Inn in Amarillo (thanks!) as pea sized hail pelted the area. Connie, the weather maven, gets full marks for getting us to shelter in time.

The rest of the way to the New Mexico border was kind of boring, frankly.  It was so vast and flat.  There were some big feed lots for cattle going to market and we held our noses and felt sorry for the animals. A lot of wind turbines, which is surprising for a state known for oil. That was about it until we hit the NM border where the land immediately became undulating with little mesas and lots of scrub. It is beautiful! A little foretaste of what is to come.

Today we head to Gallup, NM with Grand Canyon Village the day after. But first, we’re going to visit the refurbished train station here in Tucumcari. Very exciting! Really.
 

An editorial correction. The two firefighters we met in Knoxville were not named Don and Vaughn. They were and remain Tommy and Kenny as they will surely tell you. I apologize for them both. (I have no idea how my brain heard mixed up their names. Comments are not welcome.).

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