Day 86, October 26th 2007 (Throckmorton,TX to Jacksboro,TX)

It was incredible how well I slept last night. A great lawn to sleep on had been tough to come by until Texas. Waking up to my hot bowl of oatmeal I was able to chat with David and his friend. David's friend had come into town late last night, and he was in town to preach for a weekend retreat in the area. He was a very cool guy to be able to chat with and he had also been on the road earlier this summer. In August he had taken a couple of weeks off to ride his motorcycle a good few thousand miles. I wish I could have taken a few days to stick around for the retreat, but I had arrangement ahead of me on the road. I had contacted someone on the warm shower's list and was projected to be there on Saturday. So I wasn't able to stick around and see how things happened to turn out, but I did have a couple of easy rides ahead of me. With about 140 miles from here to Denton, it was going to be a relaxing next couple of days. After cleaning everything up I was out for a ride. I was very thankful for the wonderful weather I had managed to receive in Texas. There was hardly any wind again for the afternoon, and it was in the low 70's. I had a few towns to stop in before I finished for the day, 70 miles away. With the rolling hills in front of me, I was having to work a little harder. There really wasn't too much to talk about as far as the scenery. Just another day going through Texas and moving East. The roads seemed to change at every county from good to bad. Then from bad to good. I would be riding on excellent pavement and then on the plastered gravel that I had mentioned before. Needless to say, I was glad to see the town I was ending in for the day when I did. It was probably 3:30 and I had a good few hours of daylight ahead of me. I didn't see a park anywhere in the town, but I targeted a church and darted for it. I was able to get a hold of the pastor at the church and was okay to put my tent in the lawn. It was another great patch of land that seemed far enough away from town to avoid too much trouble on this Friday evening. With all of the daylight ahead of me still, I was able to enjoy the afternoon. I sat and relaxed and then took a nice walk through the town. It was a town of about 5,000 people and with it came a lot of little shops. It was great to see some of the Texan culture. With about an hour of daylight remaining, I walked back to my tent. I cooked a heaping bowl of pasta and watched as the sun went down. Tomorrow was going to be a warm shower, and I was ready for one again.

Daily mileage: 70.8 miles
Average speed: 13.0 mph
Total mileage: 5,274.7 miles