Day 19: Saturday June 16, 2012

After a stormy night we woke to light showers and the realization that someone had stolen my motorcycle jacket. Too irritating to get into it on the blog, I can only hope the thief needed it more than me and he will be dealt with later. Needless to say, Kansas has left a bad taste in my mouth! We left the hotel continuing south on highway 83. As we crossed Kansas we passed several feed lots and with the recent rains the air was rich with the aroma of cattle manure. We left Kansas and entered Oklahoma and after 30 minutes we were in Texas. We crossed Oklahoma at the skinny part :-) one of the things that Dave and I both noted was how dry southern Kansas and the brief section of Oklahoma that we crossed. Texas too was dry and the border towns were very blighted. The scenery was so different from when we were getting rained on in the pacific northwest. When we stopped for gas we felt good and decided to not stop for the evening and head on the Dave's house in Abilene where Myrna and Laura await us. The girls were expecting us on Sunday the 17th (fathers day and my 34th wedding anniversary) but we wanted to surprise them by coming in early. When we passed thru Childress Texas we could see off to the south thunder heads building. It was too hard to determine exactly where the storm was. We continued on about 35 miles and could see lightening bolts crossing the sky and huge red dust clouds with sheets of rain following them. That ominous whether was right where we were headed. Knowing that riding a motorcycle in the rain is a challenge, dodging lightening strikes and possible hail is too risky! So we stopped and turned around 120 miles from Abilene! We drove back to the last town we passed (Paducah) and found out they did not have any adequate lodging, so we had to drive back to Childress for a hotel room, all the while watching in our rearview mirrors the lightening strikes. We were both really disappointed to being so close to holding our wives, yet so far away! We hope to get a good nights rest and knock out these last few miles first thing in the morning, some of which we have already travelled. It's gonna be like "déjà vu all over again". Total miles today 458 total for the trip 5185.

Psalm 86:5 You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call you.