Day 12 Dalhart to Liberal (113 miles)

Another poor night's sleep last night, that's it I'm going with tablets tonight. Reason was partly because we had a rail road right outside the hotel. Trains are legally obliged to sound their horn at every road crossing, or in my bedroom, which ever is the closer, right through the night.

Also another easy day for the GPS. "Turn right out of the motel. Bury yourself for 9 hours. You have reached your destination. Eat a lot. Go to bed".

We were warned this morning that the winds always start from the south and then move around to the north, so get on the road early. This is exactly what happened. First 25 miles were done in little over an hour. Then one of our team had a flat, in the 10 minutes it took to change it, the wind completely switched direction and we were into it for the rest of the day.

Went through three states today. Started off in Texas, passed through Oklahoma and then crossed the border into Kansas. Kansas sign marginally more interesting than the one for Oklahoma, hence the obligatory photo. Note the attractive America by Bike cycling top. It was free I hasten to add. Not much to say about the terrain. Flat grassland / farmland as far as the eye could see, with the odd massive grain silo along the way. Liberal is the official home of the Wizard of Oz. Unfortunately arrived too late to go to the Wizard of Oz experience, and what do you know, we'll be leaving before it opens tomorrow.

Dinner was at an all you can eat Chinese buffet. $10 (about £6) for mountains of delicious food, desert and soft drinks. All you can eat, $10, America, how on earth do they make that work?

Passed through the town of 'Hooker'. Hooker, funny eh, sounds a bit like, well Hooker. It's a comedy cul de sac, there's nowhere you can go with it, as demonstrated by the terrible T shirts in the gift shop.

Struggling to decide whether today was a good day or not. It was certainly really really tough, but three of us worked an excellent paceline in to the wind taking a mile each on the front before dropping back. I think it's one for the purist. Pleased that I could do my share and very pleased to make it through, more than one arrived in the van. So far we've still only had one day when everyone has ridden in.

According to our route sheet, the next two hotels we're staying in don't have wifi access. I'll do my best, but there may not be any posts during that time. You can then gorge yourselves on three scintallating installments in one go.

By the way, please excuse any spelling or grammar errors. I've read a few of these back and there's a few its / it's and stuff like that. These are all written in one go after a long day.