A big open sky

There are still no trees but the hills are starting to roll and the mountains are starting to show themselves in the far distance. We came over a hill 3 miles out of Culbertson this afternoon and the landscape transformed. It looked like Ireland on a smaller scale but with rocky ridges and red rock. It was beautiful. A man at the church says we still have 400 miles of very flat land, but it's good to know the mountains will greet us at the end.

This morning at the campsite we woke up at 7:30, a luxury we have not experienced yet (it was 8:30 our time since we just crossed time zones). The winds were so fierce our tents were going crazy. Luckily they were tailwinds. Once we got on our main road we flew with no effort at all. It was incredible and so quiet because the wind was not blowing in our ears. I could coast at 20 mph.

Unfortunately we couldn't continue to enjoy the wind because our road turned, but we never had to face it head on. Today was a 50 mile day, piece of cake, so lunch was early in a small town. One thing we've learned to do well is spot water towers. When you see a water tower, you know civilization must be nearing. Today a water tower marked lunch for us.

After lunch we had 25 miles to go. The land here is so open that you can see for miles and miles. We watched rain clouds start to approach and could even see it raining in the distance. Finally we were sprinkled on a bit, but it felt great and smelled great too.

Our host is so sweet. We walked into an array of snacks, which included homegrown red plums and cherries. They were to die for. The plums were teeny and I ate probably 20. I just couldn't stop. Before dinner a bunch of us went to the local museum, which was a flashback for me to all our family trips to historical villages. There were tons of rooms set up like different buildings around town and the musuem was full of old collections of things of days gone by. I particularly enjoyed the case packed full of spurs and horse bits. There were so many different designs.

Dinner was superb...lasagna, Texas golash, salad with real greens and veggies, bean salad, pasta salad, sticky buns and other dessert, and lots of fruit. I am now thoroughly stuffed and looking forward to sleep.