Cycling Coast to Coast

12 states down, 4 to go. (12 states, if you count the few miles we did in New Jersey, West Virginia, and Kansas, even though we didn’t stay in those states)

We’re now in New Mexico, and in just over 3 weeks, we’ll arrive in Santa Barbara, which is a pretty scary thought.  Tonight we’re staying in a dorm at Eastern New Mexico University, and I never thought I’d say this, but after this trip, dorm accomodations seems luxurious.  There’s a computer room with four computers hooked up to the internet, a lounge with TV, plentiful showers, and enough dorm rooms so that we can each get our own room.  Unfortunately, since we are staying at a school, we aren’t being provided meals, but a bunch of people worked some donation magic on the road today and we’ll be getting 12 free pizzas from Pizza Hut, and a free ice cream cake from Dairy  Queen for dinner. 

Yesterday, we were in Hereford, TX, self-proclaimed “Beef Capital of the World” because of the large numbers of cattle and feedlots in the surrounding area.  Biking in, we could certainly smell it.  Two more unusual smells that we noticed however, were the aroma of petfood, and yeast.  When we asked our hosts about it, they told us that Hereford boasts a “cow recycling plant”, where dead cows are turned into rawhide chew toys, and Texas’s largest ethanol plant.

While in Hereford, we also got the chance to finally see the movie “The Dark Knight”.  It was absolutely amazing. Heath Ledger was superb as the twisted Joker.  To make our movie-going experience even more exciting, two riders on the trip, Katie and Charlotte, were extras in the movie!  Not to give away any spoilers, but their big screen-time comes in the chaos after a funeral/memorial parade.  As the charcter Harvey Dent (played by Aaron Eckhart) pushes through the crowd, you can see Katie and Charlotte in the background.  Charlotte is particularly noticeable because she’s wearing a pink scarf.