Welcome to Texas

Wind Generators ignore the storm,
eating wind to light our houses

Wind would be strong leaving Adrian yesterday morning, and it would be from the east, beginning in earnest about ten in the morning.  I knew this from the forecast.  But the day was to be a more complicated and difficult day that than simply starting early to make Amarillo, fifty-five miles, before  the wind got strong.  There were greater concerns that stormy evening in Adrian.

Ramona, owner of the Fabulous 40 Motel, where I was staying, the only motel in town, came to my room at dusk and said she has an automatic tornado alarm in her bedroom which sounds if a tornado touches down nearby.  She said that if it sounds, she will pound on my door, and I must run to the shelter immediately.  She showed me where the shelter is. 

The sky was already filled with violence—thunder, swirling clouds, strong wind, heavy rain, tornado warnings on the TV.  It was hard to sleep that night with war raging high above, and visions of Apocalypse.

Hundreds of wind generators east of Adrian

 go right on turning in early morning

I was up an hour before first light to get an early start.  But it was still raining and wind was strong, so I hung around until an hour after sunup.  I rode into the wind, sometimes thinking I should turn back to Adrian and try again tomorrow.  03 Hundreds of wind generators east of Adrian go right on turning

in early morning

a cloud

floats on a puddle

in Route 66

had it been horse piss

on a muddy trail

still lovely the cloud    

As the day progressed, thunderstorms that had plagued the people of Adrian all night, finally gave way, and left only headwind.  The sun even came out for an hour or two and wind settled down to a moderate ten miles an hour.

The ghost motel at Bushland
would not have been much shelter

As I approached Amarillo, a nearly clear sky changed within half an hour to black thunderheads racing toward me from the south.  I sped, as much as tired cyclist can, to the motel as wind from the thunderstorm increased and rain began.  

About ten minutes after checking in, hail began, stones about an inch in diameter.  I looked out my motel window and wondered how a day like this could end so fortuitously.  A hard day could have become much harder if this storm had hit while I was out on the open plane.

 After the storm in Amarillo

I’ve heard stories of baseball size hail doing a lot of damage to cars and houses.  I would not be telling this story such hail had come to the shelterless plane of Texas yesterday where I was riding. 5/10 – 15 after the storm in Amarillo

Just who am I and what am I doing to be so fortunate?