Groom, TX is very small and there were only two real options for breakfast – Dairy Queen or The Grill, the same restaurant where we had dinner last night. The Grill it was! Last night the proprietor had recommended the fried biscuit with peanut butter and grape jelly!
This morning I tried it and it was yummy! That was in addition to my regular breakfast. Then it was off to Amarillo. This part of the country is flat!! There was only 579 feet of climbing in the whole 45 miles we rode today!
But it did get a little windy and that kind of grates on you after a while. There is not much between Groom and Amarillo but after about 20 miles ( of incredibly straight, flat road) we stopped at a wide spot in the road called Conway. We had the requisite Gatorade and then stopped to see the Slug Bug Ranch!!
It is a take off on the Cadillac Ranch which we should pass tomorrow. As you can see -a bunch of VW Beetles sticking out of the ground. After that it was on to Amarillo. Shortly after arriving we found out that two of our riders were dropping out. Randy and Meg from Moscow,ID had rented a small Uhaul to put their bikes and gear in and we’re going to drive back to Idaho.
Really nice people and we were sad to see them leave. The wind has certainly been demoralizing at times and we are all dreading the three days climbing to Santa Fe but they had reached their limit and decided to pull the plug. We started with 16 and are now down to 13. Once we saw them off we headed for dinner at a nearby, famous steakhouse. They have a challenge that if you can eat a 72 ounce steaks, baked potato, salad, and three grilled shrimp in an hour it’s free!! Although we have all become eating machines, none of us even thought of doing that. The place even dispatched limos to pick us up! So, the day ended on a high note and the rest of us will carry on. We are expecting rain tonight and possibly tomorrow so hopefully it won’t be to bad. Tomorrow we ride to Adrian, TX which is the official midpoint of Rte 66. Big milestone!