Austin to Lubbock, California ride day 1
The day started late. I finished packing, cleaning, planning, and then took a nap. No point leaving tired. After filling the tank and running an errand I snapped the obligatory trip start odometer reading. And I got one of the bike. A woman gave me a hard time for taking a picture of my bike in an REI parking lot then gave me advice on where to go on the trip. It didn’t matter that her recommendation would take me about 500 miles north of where I told her I was going.
About 60 miles into the trip I slow down for a stoplight and hear an unfamiliar rattle. In fact, any rattle on this bike is unfamiliar. Not thinking much of it I passed an Ace Hardware. I’d already been planning a stop at Target to pick up the things I forgot: ear plugs, swim shorts… A side of the road stop revealed a loose chain guard, and I turned back to pick up the required hardware. Barely an hour out of town and already having mechanical failure! Easy fix though, and I picked up the ear plugs and sunglasses to make the trip go easier.
The temperature wasn’t bad; it reached the low 90s before clouds set in. The rest of the day was shady and breezy making things quite pleasant. I rolled on and on, only stopping for a hamburger and a short nap about 30 minutes later. Things went smoothly until I saw this.
and then a few more
and then a few hundred, then thousand more. Evidently I had ridden into the largest windfarm in Texas, no in the US, no, in the world! Us Texans have to do things BIG!!! From my vantage I could see a few hundred windmills, but that was just over one little rise. I measured the distance from the first sighting to the last, and it was over 15 miles. On both sides of the road for as far as I could see were windmills. A conservative estimate would be 2000-3000, but that’s surely a low number. The windmills went on for miles beyond what I could see, and probably more likely were there 10,000 than 3,000. Pretty impressive, but that wasn’t all.
and then I met the definition of juxtaposition. In case you don’t know what that means, just look at these images
I had tried to take new roads today. Going north and west usually lends itself to the same old highways, but that gets boring, and my map of highlighted roads never fills out that way. So I took some new roads and was surely pleased. I also avoided the interstate except for an 8 mile stretch that saved me about 30 minutes. Stopping for gas I found a gas station with an inordinate amount of pretty girls. That’s when I realized it was time to call some people and take a break from riding.
Back on the road north I found even more windmills, but not as dense as before and only on one side of the road. Still, the impression one gets when riding through there is that these people are serious about wind energy.
Finally the topography changed, and the flat plains gave way to colorful mesas covered in brush or flowers. It was a sign that the Llano Estacado was ahead. The Llano is about 900 feet above the surrounding plains, and for the most part smells like crude oil. It is also the home of Lubbock, Texas and the Texas Tech Red Raiders. I had a hard time not throwing the horns \m/ as I passed the TT signs.
Here are some mesas to get an idea of what it’s like riding up to the Llano
Notice in the last one how the clouds break near the topographic change. Pretty interesting, and seen better here on the slope up to the Llano near Post, Texas
Finally I arrived in Lubbock and quickly found a hotel with a pool and hot breakfast. Here I’m relaxing thinking back on a nice day riding in the Texas panhandle and looking forward to New Mexico Mountains.
Here’s a link to all the photos and a slideshow if you want.
and for those of you who don’t ride motorcycles, a view of the cockpit and what you might see if you take the opportunity to ride.
The first is looking down, the second what I actually see while riding.
July 7th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
be safe and have fun