Day 30 Clovis, NM to Plainview, Texas

Today started for me at 2:30 am. I awoke sick to my stomach.   Was up again 3-4 times before crawling out at 6:30 am to attempt eating breakfast. I had some oatmeal and yogurt and hoped for the best.

We took off at about 10 minutes before 8:00 am and faced our first bout of rush hour traffic in a long time. . I was struggling to ride.It was cold. My bones ached.  Everything felt out of place and I was tempted to pull over and just lay down.  But I didn't. I just held on to Don's wheel and hoped things would settle down.

We soon found ourselves stopped at a train crossing. As the train cars whirled by, we could see a sign on the the other side of the road: "Texas state line".

No "Welcome to Texas."

The first sign we saw in fact said "Don't Mess with Texas, Up to $5,000 fine for littering".  I made sure my candy wrappers were well tucked in my pocket.

We then rode into the city of Farwell. Don kept reading it as farewell and was worried that they wanted us to leave.

Eventually we did see a "Welcome to Texas" sign and we stopped for selfie.

The road shoulder was nicely paved and wide. No complaints there. It was a bit unnerving that the speed limit on this 2 lane highway was 75 MPH, but cars gave us tons of room.

At about 10 miles, Dennis drove by and stopped. I got off my bike and laid down in the back of the vehicle. Dennis then offered me some Pepto Bismo he had stopped to pick up at Walgreens. Dennis is truly a great mother hen! Really looking after us.  I took a dose and felt better but still couldn't shake the queezy feeling.

Don and I then rode on, alternating back and forth to give each other a break from the wind. I certainly did more drafting than he did and really appreciated the help. We rode through Muleshoe and then worked our way over to Earth, Texas.

We stopped a a gas station in Earth.  The cashier was curious about us and Don handed him a HAA card. He seemed impressed. We then rode on a bit and found some picnic tables and stopped for lunch.

I was able to eat my sandwich but still felt ill. We did some stretching and then back on the road.
I'm still struggling...

We stopped with about 20 miles to go and refueled. I found a small real Coke in the cooler and drank it up. I never drink Coke. But I did today and it settled my stomach almost instantly...We then gave Dennis the go ahead to head for the hotel.

As we were riding, and fighting the increasingly strong cross and head winds,  I saw some sort of farm equipment coming up behind us. It straddled both the road and the shoulder so I hollered out to Don to move as far to the right as possible. The vehicle gave us good clearance and as it passed us, I thought, I wonder if we could draft behind it.

We tried and soon found out it was the ideal draft vehicle. It sat up so high, we could see the road ahead and it completely knocked out the wind. Even better, the driver held a constant 21.9 MPH pace. It was almost effortless. He carried us for 20 miles, all the way to our hotel. Considering how bad I had been feeling this was a most welcome gift. You can see the effect of this in Garmin data uploaded to Strava: (Power is down, speed is up and steady) HR is down).

So now we are in Plainview and tomorrow is a true day off. My body needs it. Legs and lungs are good but everything else needs some R&R.