Days 38 & 39 - Texas: Friends Are Better Than Curvy Roads

If you believe in creation, then certainly God must have started with a rolling pin in Texas -- and if you believe in the big bang, then someplace had to start as flat lake bottom! I gotta say, if I lived in Texas (or Kansas or eastern Colorado), I wouldn't even be interested in motorcycling because most of the roads are flat and straight, and well, from a motorcycling perspective -- boring. I get little pleasure from riding straight and flat even if I can fly along above 70mph. But, many things in life are much better than fun motorcycle roads -- and friendships are among them.

Early in my planning I set Fort Worth as an enroute stop both because I knew I would be traveling a southernly route (October weather patterns) and because of an enduring friendship with a former co-worker and his wife. Then coincidentally just a week or so ago, I got an email from another former co-worker I'd lost track of -- now living in the Fort Worth area. So, while Day 38 didn't add any fun roads -- it did add some wonderful stops and a home for overnight accommodations. Having home-fixed lunch with one couple and then a home-fixed dinner with the other -- made traveling Texas' straight and flat so "worth it."

Interestingly, Texas treated me to some very northwestern-like weather with low-hanging clouds and some light drizzle now and again. Of course I had to comment that I traveled to Texas for sunshine and got weather I could have gotten most of the year at home! But from a motorcycling perspective, the cooler weather was nice when the roads were dry.

I wasn't sure how long I would stay in Fort Worth -- but in watching the weather patterns, I decided to only stay one night and get back on the road to avoid another dose of Portland-like weather. So, Day 39 (Monday, Oct 12), I aimed the bike west and ended up the day riding out from under the cloud cover for the first time in 4 days, stopping for the night in Lubbock, Texas on my way back to some mountains and curved roads in northern New Mexico.