We left the hotel late due to the previous day’s long ride, but it was no problem since we had planned already to cover less miles this day. We rode the entire afternoon on the I-40 Service Road with no flat tires, no dogs chasing us, no rain.
We passed by a small city called McLean, where there was only one restaurant / market open. The owner was very friendly and prepared a giant pizza for us. We eat there and had coffee as well before returning to the road.
We also stopped at a rest area, where we had a chance to enjoy a very nice view of the canyons surrounding the road.
By 8:30 pm we arrived in the planned destination, the city of Groom without any hassles. While entering the city we saw a beautiful sunset.
This city has the largest cross in the United States which can be seen from far away, and the view of that cross with the sun behind it was exquisite. We stopped for several pictures and then entered the city looking for a place to buy food. To our surprise, there was none.
The only grocery store closed at 6:30pm, and the only store opened in the entire city was a gas station convenience store. We got a bread, juice and chocolate milk and then headed to the hotel.
There we eat what we had and slept early in an attempt to wake up early in the next day.
With winds of about 50 mph we could not hold the bicycles safely. Besides, a little rock came flying and hit me straight on the face. No injuries because it got on the left leg of my sunglasses, but it was close.
But that's just today! Tomorrow we'll leave early and move forward no matter what!
We'll visit Gallup's cultural hotspots and Indian trading posts this afternoon, so atay tuned for that!
Due to our early stop in the previous day now we had a long course to complete. Our objective was to enter Texas this day, and the first city after the border was Shamrock, about 20 miles after entering the Lone Star state. With the GPS was marking 85 miles to go we packed our bags early and were on the road in no time
For the first time in this trip the winds were helping us, and we did the first 20 miles fairly quickly. We arrived then in Elk City and decided to go have lunch. Also, we had to pass by a Walmart and get new spare tubes since we had none left. As usual, we found a Subway restaurant that way and so was Walmart. Upon arrival on Subway I asked permission to place our bicycles inside the store and the cashier said that would be fine. We did, and I decided to go the restroom before ordering. When I came back, my uncle told me the manager had told bicycles were not allowed there and that we should go away.
So I shared that little piece of information with the world with a review in Google and then we moved on. There was a close by supermarket where we found sandwiches and chocolate milk, and that was our lunch. Then we decided to go find Walmart, but there was nothing where it was marked in the map. A seller informed me that this was an old location, and that the new one was four miles away, in the other side off the city. With no other option, we decided to take a detour and go buy those tubes. The whole thing took about an hour and then we finally resumed our ride.
The next city we passed by was called Seary, still in Oklahoma. We stopped by a nice coffee house and chatted with a couple that was in the store. They were very impressed with what we were doing. They even insisted to pay for our coffees.
Around 5:30pm we were ready to start riding again. The way to Shamrock as a long one, but the winds were helping so we could move fast. After about an hour we reached the Oklahoma/Texas border. As usual, we stopped for pictures and to update the blog, then resumed or ride.
We ended up arriving in Shamrock close to 9pm, and the only place to eat that was still opened was a McDonalds. With no other option we had a burger each and then headed to the hotel. When we arrived we realized that day we had ridden 100 miles, our absolute record!
You know what happened next: shower, diner, wash clothes, update blog and sleep.
