Yesterday turned into a pretty interesting day. Getting up around 6:30 AM we got a great breakfast of oatmeal and Nature Valley bars while chatting with some of the locals interested in our trip. After we were on the road for an hour, I got a flat on highway 40 again and decided to jump the fence to get on Route 66. After losing an hour changing the tire with our last tube, unpacking the bikes and wedging our way through the barbed wire fence, we started to enjoy our ride on 66. I think we got passed by maybe two cars for two hours so the road was ours. Coming up on our halfway point in San Jon, we stopped to eat and fill up our water bottles. When we came out, we found Evan's back tire flat and we were completely out of tubes.
After failing to convence AAA to pick us up, I rode to the top of the exit ramp with Evan's front tire in hand, waving it around with a thumb out hoping for a ride. After 30 minutes, a blue mini van passes us, takes the median into the west bound traffic and crosses again to get back over to us. Lenyette and Gordon, two vacationers to Albuquerque, were on their way back to Amarillo and managed to fit Evan's bike in the back and mine on top. We're starting to get pretty efficient at this hitch hiking thing when we get in jams.
They brought us all the way into Amarillo and found a new bike shop that openned the next day but managed to buy eight tubes with cash. Now we have puncture resistant tubes for the back tires that, although heavier, may take the punishment of highway 40 better than standard tubes. Lenyette and Gordon then left us in the hands of their daughter, Lenna who was a regular at a local coffee shop named 806. We soon found out that the shop was a center for around town cyclist and it felt somewhat like a cycling gang. They spoke of the group like a pack, saying that they were "50 strong now". Apparently, Amarillo isn't very biker friendly and this group has taken it upon themselves to expose cycling to the community. We heard horror stories about bikers getting run off roads, thrown at and abused but suspected that we weren't getting the whole story. Amarillo, and the greater part of Texas, doesn't have clear cut laws for cyclist therefore the group tends to free ride all over the streets which is probably enraging the motorist and inciting abuse...just my guess.
Anyway, we were trying to set up a warmshower for the night but the only guy in Amarillo was out touring St. Louis. Without asking, a guy named Drew offered up his house for us to crash in for the night. After spending time at this shop, we could tell that this was a pretty safe environment and decided to accept Drew's invitation. After tailing Drew through Amarillo at break neck speed, him on his road bike and us on our weighted down touring bikes, we arrived at this small house on the edge of the suburbs. Welcomed at the door by his two pets, American Dingos, we realized that this was going to be an interesting experience.
Turns out that Drew is a side show act, like a "carney". After dating a fire breather for five years, he took up the art of laying on a bed of nails and having ice smashed on him, motorcycles driven over him...Key West Pier sort of stuff. Of course I had to try it and that thing kills! He further explained how he is going to attempt to have a SUV driven over him in order to make it big in the side show circuit. Not my idea of a five year plan. The whole house was strange and covered in crap but we found a "safe" place on the couch and waited out the day to finally sleep. Taking over the "kids room" in the back that looked like a preschool nightmare, we huddled up in our sleeping bags and waited for daybreak. I guess if we were looking for an experience, we found one but I'm happy to say we found a hotel for tonight.
Taking the day off, we taked around Amarillo for a while, catching a movie at the mall of only $1! Later, we had a limo pick us up from the hotel to the Big Texan, home of the 72 oz steak. The food was amazing but this was definitely a tourist spot. With more stuff on the walls than a Cracker Barrell, the place had a country trio playing music at the tables, gift shops and places to take that token tourist photo. Tomorrow we head further east to Lake McClellan making our way to Oklahoma City.
First picture is of me on the nail bed, not comfy at all. Others are of the Big Texan and proof that Texas does sell shit.
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