Eastward to Gainesville and Texarkana

Before riding out of Lubbock yesterday I dropped by a couple of places that pay tribute to a legend of music who was born here.

 The farther east I go the more the landscape looks greener and the more wind turbines are present. In some places they extend for miles on either side of the highway, sometimes as close as 200-300 yards apart. It is interesting to see how Texas has moved so aggressively to adopt this source of alternative energy.

I stopped for lunch at the Rock Inn Cafe in Seymour, 

a place where probably little, inside or outside, has changed much since the 50’s or at least the early 60’s. The chrome of the red plastic covered stools at the counter are more rusted and the holes in the faux-leather seats in the booths are covered with layers of black duct tape. The daily special, a staple of any vintage diners menu that I have with iced tea, a beverage I tend to get a lot of on these trips, is hamburger steak with raw onion pieces and mashed potatoes all drenched with some kind of beige gravy, and black-eyed peas.

I make it to my hotel room in Gainesville just before the announced heavy rain starts to fall. It’s a short storm but still I am glad not to be riding in it.

This morning I know I have overshot my destination when I start seeing signs along the highway and I eventually arrive in Paris. Yep, Paris, complete with a Paris Bakery, where I have a tasty lunch of bagel with ham, cheese, tomato, chili flakes and capers, plus a croissant and a cappuccino, and an Eiffel Tower, albeit of a more modest scale and topped with a red Stetson.

And then with the compass on my GPS hardly moving from its due east bearing I go from Paris to Detroit to New Boston and finally to Texarkana. By the way do you know in what state Texarkana is located?

See you tomorrow as we continue to head east.