Gar's #9

Clovis, NM - Sweetwater, Texas ; day 8

There was something in the air last night. As we took a jaunt from the hotel to our diner for the evening...the rib crib, all was peacefull on the texan border. An hour later and after a good feed of ribs and catfish, we walk outside into a storm; no rain, just winds that you struggle to stay upright in. We did however invent a new game for the SCW and it's 5x60 officers, tumbleweed dodge, it's like dodgeball, excePt they tend to sting a little more, and sizes vary.

This morning, it's a whiteout. The winds have brought snow, another indication of our altitude and how quickly mother nature can put a hold on things. It would be interesting to see who'd come out on top, mother nature or our pal, chuck norris.

Meeting over breakfast, and its decided We wait at the hotel to get all the radio interviews done. It'll be safe to leave at around half ten, says the judge Stoney. Thankfully, he's refering to the campervan, cos if we cycled in this, we'd get blown to Chicago. According to the weather channel, we've been caught in the worse spring storm for years, the weather channel have actually named it 'the epic storm'. Towns in missisipi have been blown apart by tornados, it's ok, we don't hit mississipi for three days!!!!

Who knows...40miles or so, and the weather might settle. At this moment in time, it's so exciting, Rich has downloaded a spirit level onto his iPod and is measuring the 'flushness' of the walls in the room...I now understand what you saw I'm him Jenny!!! A chat with Jonesi for Radio Cymru, and away to go.

Away to Wal-mart, and after getting lost in a store the size of Pontweli, we finally hit Texas. Unfortunately, not on a bike, and after interupting the local 'happy hour' at a run down burger shack , we head towards Lubbock.

Due to the weather conditions, we lost about 130-140miles or so, but when the opportunity arose, we went for the bang. In total, rich and myself hit almost 40miles in under 1hour twenty. Flying, and the mornings frustration was taken out, possibly went a little too hard as a little bit of the bonk stated to set in, more so because I think mentally, we were already at the hotel, and the feed of chicken burger and strawberry milkshake (which had a milk content of nil) almost came back up. Food of champions, it certainly was not. But now, we're in Sweetwater, TX; and In Texas, they do steaks...bloody big steaks. 240miles tomorrow, so it's only right we stock up.