I swear that Cow looked at me like I was crazy

It was the second day of my ride....and it was hot...and the Texas road didn't make it any cooler...and these roads while not traveled heavily because it paralleled Interstate 30 had expansion joints every 8 or 10 ft...imagine this even after being softened by a 90 degree heat...an inch strip of molten soften tar....and traveling at an average of 10 to 16 miles an hour added up pretty quick...

Unfortunately for me the gel filled bicycle seat had not been invented yet or had not been readily available before I decided to be a human guinea pig on how long one can go before extreme irritation occurs....trust me it didn't take long...and it was something I never really became accustomed to...

I had stopped at a small convenience store before this stretch...there I bought a banana and a Pepsi, a snickers bar, and a bottle of cold water....and sat out in the shade next to my bicycle at the front of the store next to the ice machine...I don't know why, but I thought sitting near the ice machine would be cooler...but all I got was the hot air coming from a compressor that seemed to never stop running...with the little fan blowing the heated air from the condenser around the back of the machine and conveniently onto me...

I pulled out a couple of my little "24 hour meditation books" and read from them for inspiration and while chomping on my banana...pulled the map out and looked at the long stretch of line that represented the road that I was about to travel on and noted that it didn't look like much in the way of noted civilization for the next 18 or 20 miles....while doing all this people were pulling up in cars...some walking up from a nearby apartment complex...most looking at me like..."Is that guy crazy or what"....you know the kind of look, don't you...well if you don't go to Texas one day and find a convenience store in the middle of nowhere and sit down next to a bicycle loaded down with a bunch of stuff and you will soon find out...you will know "what that look is like"....

Well just about the time I was getting ready to get back on the road...after taking some of my carbohydrate powdered drink mix and mixing it with the water I just bought in two water bottles I had on the frame of my bicycle...when a middle aged man approached me and asked, "where ya headed young man...Dallas"....I looked up and said..."No Sir, I just left Dallas yesterday...I'm headed for Fairfax, Virginia"....I looked up after saying this and the mouth of the man was wide open for what seemed the longest with a random look at my bicycle and then a look at me...he replied, "What in tar nation would you want to do something like that fer"...I thought to myself..."I know he didn't just say tar did he...images of repeating tar strips and that constant sharp pain came to my mind...but he did say tar"....so I replied..."well Sir...I'm a recovering Alcoholic and I feel I have been called to do this as a spiritual journey to get closer to my Higher Power and get a better idea of who I am"...he looked at me intently for a moment while his mouth made a constant chewing motion...and he turned and spit a big wad of tobacco out and said..."Well I guess what ever floats your boat, Son...so I take it your headed down this highway going East...just let me tell you once you leave here you might see one shade tree in between here and there...and it will be on your left hand side...also you might have one place to get water...and that's if the man is home and he's in a good mood...if you try to get some on your own...the dogs will probably take you out of your misery....Virginia you say...mah Lord I neva heard of such befo"...and with this he spit a second time....I replied, "Thank you Sir...I better get me a couple more of cold water bottles from inside"...he told me to wait there and he would be right back...sure enough he came back out with two of the biggest coldest bottles of water he could come out with and handed them to me..."These should help you make that stretch...but I don't know how long they will stay cold in this heat...maybe you should wait until the sun goes down some"...."Well Sir...I need to make it to the next town before it gets dark so I can find a place to pitch tent or stay, also I'd like to make a Sunday afternoon meeting"....he looked at me and said..."Well when you get to the next town you'll run into a T in the road...take a left away from the town and you will find a small Baptist church there...they meet at 6 p.m. and are some purty nice folk...good luck to ya Son"...he walked away toward his truck half shaking his head while muttering something...got into the driver's side...looked up and slammed the door...spit out the window...and waved...grinded the gears some putting the clutch into reverse....grinded them a little putting it in first and gravel flew slightly as he drove off waving back at me...I'm sure he was muttering something like..."That's the derndest thing I have ever heard and seen"...but I guess I will never know....

It was about 3:30 p.m. in the afternoon...and I knew for the most part I could average anywhere from 12 to 16 miles per hour and had about 20 miles to go...I wanted to be early to this church service...I knew I was going to have to depend on people to help me when it came to laying down my head...so I said a quick prayer and left the precious confines of the shade from the convenience store....and started the steady thump...thump...thump of going down the road...in the middle of the day...on July the 9th, 1989.....

The thoughts that go on in the head when you are exerting all the energy you can...are amazing...one reaches into the inner soul when confined to such a situation...where the idea that you are one with yourself, the natural elements around you are now one with you, and while the 90 degree heat was a dry heat...it's like the sun is daring you to break...and many thoughts of just why you start such a crazy endeavor to begin with come to mind...but you know turning back is admitting failure before you have even given yourself a chance to succeed....nonetheless...you still question heavily....

The good thing about all of this is that before you know it you're 7 miles in your journey and you see a small ranch house off to the right...and think to yourself...that must be the place the guy told me about...by now I had almost consumed all of the water that I had...and was sure that I would need more...so I wanted to fill my bottles to full capacity...so I went to the door and knocked...leaving my bicycle close to the road...I could see the spigot on the front of the house with a short hose on it...and was enjoying the little 3 foot stretch of shade...when a man came to the door..."How can I help you" in a semi defensive tone...I looked back at him and said..."Sir, could I fill my water bottles up with some water from your tap"...he looked at me through the storm glass door without opening it...and looked beyond me at the bicycle next to the road...and replied, "Sure...just make sure you turn it tight off when your done, don't worry about the dogs, I'll keep them in the back"....you know up to this point while the dogs had been barking intensely...it didn't even register with me of any kind of danger...I knew I needed to get the water....so I stepped off to the side and filled my water bottles and made sure I tightened up the spigot good...all the while the man stood at his storm door never opening it up...I am sure this was a natural reaction of his to some stranger riding a bicycle on a 90 degree day in the middle of Texas...and I am sure he probably had some kind of gun powder actuating device not far from him near the door...just something you know being in Texas and all...I walked back to my bicycle and placed the bottles in the cages and looked up at the man and waved...you know the "Thank you" kind of wave...as far as I know the man never came out and he never really smiled although he did give a slight wave as I departed....one never knows what is going through the mind of someone like this...and I wasn't going to stick around to see...

One other thing about this day was the uncanny way it was so hot and there seemed not to be a breeze one...when riding bicycle and sweating profusely it is some relief as you force the air around you...but you need sweat for this to happen and you need plenty of water to keep the sweat coming...so water is needed and shade...one thing that amazed me about the man's house is that he didn't have one shade tree...not one...in his front yard...and that was truly a bummer....this just so happened to be only one of a couple of days on my journey where clouds and rain didn't make it's presence known....and a minute, or a mile, seemed like an eternity....the only thing you can do here is just keep peddling...I had a small pedometer on my bicycle so I had a general idea of how far I had gone and how far I needed to go...and I also knew how fast I was going...and could look at my average and kind of guage how much energy I could use and what I needed to try to conserve...fortunately for me this stretch of East Texas was fairly flat...next thing I knew I could see what appeared to be a brush next to the road on my left....then as I got closer...I grew more excited...it was the shade tree I was told about at the convenience store about 13 or 15 miles back...I knew taking a break from the sun here could give me the last bit of recovery I needed to make the other 5 or 6 miles to the church I was headed to...as I got closer...this tree was humongous and gave a massive shade on two sides of the fence...and on the other side of the fence was a group of cows....about 20 or so...I remember as I approached the fence and the shade the cows were looking at me as if to say..."Wow...now I have seen it all"....

Now let me tell you...when you are out in the heat in the middle of nowhere...so it seemed...cows are like people...you talk to them...and while it sounds crazy...you might even think they talk back to you...so I struck up a conversation...you know...the quirky kind at first when you first get to know someone..."you cows as hot as I am...shewww wheee it's a hot one"....then they look back at you like..."can you believe this idiot...of course it hot...you think we like being clumped together in a group grasping for the last bit of shade we can get...you're lucky were not on that side of the fence as well...dummy"...."yeah...but I have water"....and then something inside of you say's...do you really think it's smart to tease a 400 pound cow or group of cows with something they may desire...and the only thing between you and them is some Texas devil wire and medium size branches for support..." so I leaned up against one of the posts and and said a gracious prayer to the Lord above for helping to give me this shade...and I couldn't help but think of the story of Jonah given shade and shelter and how he had such an attitude against the people he had just given a message to and the Lord withered the protection from the vine...I was making sure I was thankful...and enjoyed every minute of the shade...but knew that I needed to get back on that bicycle and beat that late afternoon heat and make it to the church I was headed too...

As I was putting my bicycle helmet on...I looked over at the cows as they looked back at me...and it was very apparant that they thought I was the craziest site they could have ever of witnessed....and in my head...I could almost hear them laughing about it as I pulled away....

Sure enough...I made it to the church and made it early...by now it was around 5:45 in the early evening and civilization brought forth more trees and shade...the long stretching shadows told me that cooler hours were soon to come...I waited and drank the last bit of my water as one car pulled up and then another and before long there were six or seven...and as always there is the one who makes themself the ambassodor and introductions all around...we went into the church for a Sunday evening prayer service...the Church wasn't air conditioned but had huge ceiling fans and the air was like heaven as it circled my sun baked skin...I gave my testimony and was told about a park not far away where I could probably pitch my tent and rest for the night....

By the time we finished the hours of darkness were soon approaching...and I was nervous because I wasn't prepared for riding around at night...I had no lights...or if I did they were minimal at best...I followed the directions given to me and found the park...and noticed that I had passed a small sonic type restuarant...so I rode back to the restuarant and grabbed a hamburger and cheese fries and bought as many cold drinks as I could afford...I tell you I was exhausted...while worried about the darkness of the area I was in...I had to give my protection over to the Lord and soon drifted off to sleep...occassionally jumping up because of a noise or two...but then drifting back to sleep...you really don't rest in this situation...you just get sleep....I had just got into a dreamy sleep when all of a sudden I was startled by a sound that became more and more invasive...it turns out that the park was next to a mainline and I was feeling and hearing the train as it moved on the tracks I found out the next day was just a quarter of a mile away....the train soon moved on...and if another one came it sunk into the dreamland I had found....

The next thing I heard was the sounds of people talking and birds chirping....the morning sun was starting it's daily cook...but I was still in the shade of a big oak tree...I popped my head out of the tent to see several young men walking around picking up trash with little sticks that had nails in them....a few checked me out...and then I noticed a man with a police uniform on and a badge...he came over and said..."How are you"..."Did you camp out here last night"...I looked back and said, "Yes Sir"...he then told me..."you must be the guy that's riding to Virginia on that bicycle"...I looked back kind of surprised and said yeah...well we checked on you a couple of times during the night...I was thinking to myself if you knew that then why did you ask...hahahahah...."that train sure didn't help none though"...I said...he laughed..."well good luck on your trip"....

I then found the bathrooms and washed up some and gathered up my stuff and read my daily devotionals...and reviewed the map...found me a convenience store and started day three of my journey...

I look back and as I share this...I think to myself...man has a strength that only the good Lord can reveal....without faith in this strength I don't think I would have ever been able to do what I did...and trust me it took a lot of faith....

Bicycling Birdman Blue