{"id":205,"date":"2010-09-06T15:15:34","date_gmt":"2010-09-06T21:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/ChainsBreakingChains\/?p=205"},"modified":"2010-09-06T15:15:34","modified_gmt":"2010-09-06T21:15:34","slug":"day-2-books-bugs-buzzards-buteos-and-a-bemwu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/2010\/09\/06\/day-2-books-bugs-buzzards-buteos-and-a-bemwu\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 2: books, bugs, buzzards, Buteos and a BeMWu"},"content":{"rendered":"
NOTE: Dedicated to Robert and Ivette, on their wedding day. \u00a0These are some awesome Christians. \u00a0They were engaged at the time when Don and I shared with them the NotForSale Campaign story. \u00a0Shortly thereafter, they added contributions to NotForSale as one of the gift possibilities on their wedding registry. +++<\/span><\/address>\n
——————————————————————————<\/div>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>

Texas Flag - Archer City<\/p><\/div>\n

I could have said hawks and falcons, but then I would not have had all the B’s in the title. \u00a0Art is important after all, and Buteo is the genus for some of these rapacious birds. \u00a0It has been a long and hot day, and with 724 miles behind me now, I needed some creativity. \u00a0 I am in Amarillo now, and in the comfort of what is essentially a log cabin tent with air conditioning, I am winding down. \u00a0My writing this evening has to take us back to yesterday after I was done journaling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Notable from last night was this group of photographers from Wichita Falls, who were at Fort Griffin to see a cowboy poet that was performing there. We talked for a while, and they invited me to attend a cowboy church in Wichita Falls today. \u00a0Service would start at 10 in the morning, but they recommended that I would get there at nine to get a good seat. \u00a0More about this later.<\/div>\n
We then went an listened to the poet for a while. \u00a0He performed in an open field, often taking sips of water with lemon juice, which he said should help him get over this bronchitis which has been plaguing him since February. \u00a0He read poems about horses, appaloosas to be precise, revealing in his discourse their uniquely tricky nature. \u00a0He read poems about getting sick as a kid, from eating green fruits. \u00a0It did bring some very precise memories, which I shall not detail here. \u00a0He praised bailing wire, and lamented its disappearance from the markets, and he talked about wonderful red birds, which turned out to be coke cans, once he put his reading glasses on.<\/div>\n
There was also an astronomer there, who patiently showed people the M13 something or another, along with the Sagittarius constellation, shaped like a tea kettle, pouring over Scorpio.<\/div>\n
It was finally time to call it the day, so I packed myself into the tent, and went to sleep, incredibly early for me, at 9:00 pm. \u00a0I woke up repeatedly, and transitioned between sleep and wakefulness. \u00a0In dreams I chased after little rascals, who were running around my tent, and then got awakened by howling coyotes in this cools mid-Texas night.<\/div>\n
I finally got up at 7 in the morning. \u00a0 I made myself a quick cup of espresso, with this amazing travel stove, and then packed it all up, and headed out. \u00a0I did have to make a quick stop at the gates of the camp. \u00a0Yesterday, as I rode in, I noticed several longhorns and horses, and this was too much to let it pass by. At this point it was already 8:30 in the morning though.<\/div>\n
It was a beautiful morning to ride. \u00a0The night temperatures had fallen into the low 60s, so the air was cool and dry. \u00a0I rode on curvy roads, nice hills and prairies, and eventually Archer City came into view. \u00a0Following the advice from the photographers I met last night, I made a quick stop at the Dairy Queen. \u00a0Now, those who know me, have already raised their eye brows. \u00a0Me, at the Dairy Queen? \u00a0Well, in this case, I had to make an exception. \u00a0This particular DQ had been part of a movie based on one of Larry McMurtry’s books, Texasville. \u00a0Inside, tucked away in the corner were all sorts of plaques and news paper articles framed for all to discover, well hidden behind a DQ promotional poster. \u00a0The lack of excitement about what makes this fast food place unique, as I asked the lady behind the counter, and her seemingly pregnant young daughter if this was indeed the place, and only get an ‘I guess so’ in response. \u00a0Still, excited about this little pearl in the middle of nowhere, I purchased a bad cup of coffee, and a very freckled banana, and sat there, enjoying the glow of Larry McMurtry’s fame.<\/div>\n
Further up the road I came to Archer City’s main square, and dismounted the BeMWu to talk a short self guided tour of this small town, so full of bookstores that there must be 100 books for every person in the town. \u00a0I sat for a while at the steps of the court house, and got a thumbs up from a couple driving a long RV with a couple of BMW motorcycles in tow. \u00a0My hair cut got a number of stairs, and a scream of ‘Cool Mohawk’ from a kid riding in the back of a large SUV. By now it was already 10:15 am, and Wichita Falls was at least 30 to 45 minutes up the road. \u00a0Looks like I will have to wait for another day to attend cowboy church.<\/div>\n
It was time to get on moving again. Since the begining of the day, I saw quite a number of hawks and falcons, flying in the early morning breeze, or patiently perched on telephone posts. What a pleasure it is to watch these birds patiently \u00a0but instensively scrutinizing the ground for a fat rodent destined to become their next meal. \u00a0This is indeed one of the many experiences that cagers, aka car drivers, deny themselves, along with all that decide to travel on the flat, straight, multi-lane insterstate. \u00a0Missing from this collection of experiences are also the smells of the road. The aroma of rotting bodies that have sucumbed to fast moving vehicles, the smell of fried food as one approches towns, and the distinct signature of aromatic hydrocarbons delivered to the traveler courtesy of the petroleum processing centers are but a few of the experiences that car drivers and highway travelers deny themselves. \u00a0There are also the numerous insects that splash against the various parts of the motorcycle, finding themselves quickly broiled against the scalding fins of oil cooling grills and fins of the motorcycle’s jutting cylinder heads. \u00a0Broiled that is, when they do not happen to hit the windshield, or various parts of one’s body.<\/div>\n
Notable amongst the sights today was a stretch of highway numbered 1919, where pools of water all over the place looked like they had sprung up from Adelina’s painting palette, colored by the deep red iron oxides from the soils in the area. \u00a0At some point I made it to an overlook, where I got my first blimpse of the flat mesas of the South West. \u00a0As it always happens, my heart was filled with calm and peace. \u00a0This is a sight that never fails to bring me to a place I feel that I belong. \u00a0I had been sitting there for a while, when I was joined \u00a0by a couple riding a red Goldwing. \u00a0We chatted for while, and shared stories of storms and rain on the road way. \u00a0Just before taking my leave, the guy riding the wing said: ‘Be careful riding up that canyon. \u00a0There are two mule deer with antlers this big. \u00a0You don’t want them landing across your lap’. \u00a0Good advice indeed.<\/div>\n
I carefully rode up the canyon but the infamous mule deer never made a show. \u00a0Eventually I made it to Claude, a small town named after Sandra’s dad, I am sure. \u00a0From there it was a short ride to my campsite, where I finally settled down in a small log cabin. Here I am, writing the last words of the day, under the light of a flash light, since the power went out, and a room full of bugs.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NOTE: Dedicated to Robert and Ivette, on their wedding day. \u00a0These are some awesome Christians. \u00a0They were engaged at the time when Don and I shared with them the NotForSale Campaign story. \u00a0Shortly thereafter, they added contributions to NotForSale as one of the gift possibilities on their wedding registry. +++ —————————————————————————— I could have said… Read More »Day 2: books, bugs, buzzards, Buteos and a BeMWu<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journey"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2o6Hc-3j","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaderiderjourneys.com\/2endslavery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}