June 22nd - Day 1 of Alaska Trip
Our plan to begin our epic adventure to Alaska was for Leroy and James to ride up from Kerrville and I would ride from Austin and we would meet in front of the Courthouse in Eden, TX... I was as confused as a hungry baby in a topless bar when I found out there IS no courthouse in Eden! No problem, in this one stoplight town, we easily hooked up and off we went in the direction of Santa Rosa, NM. Riding out of TX is nothing short of a test of endurance. The only break from the mind-numbing boredom of West Texas was a great picnic we had in the city park at Levelland (Indian word for Flat!) where we shared whatever we brought with us in our saddlebags to eat. We were anxious to get behind the noxious blasts of bad odors from too many oil pumpers and too many bovines in confined feeding pens and rode right past the "World's Tallest Windmill" in Littlefield without so much as a glance. The landscape changed for the better once west of Clovis - empty roads with sparsely covered prairies, blue tinted mountains, and off in the distance scattered storm clouds dropping rain . After 620 miles, we finally pulled into the first hotel we saw in Santa Rosa and found a room to our liking. There was even a restaurant across the street named "Restaurant" that had tasty Mexican food and yummy salads. A great first day!