Dalhart, TX to Liberal, KS 113 miles

You guys...we really knew that things were looking up today because of some great things that happened right away in the morning. First of all, I realized I had a flat tire right after we left the hotel, so we had the luxury of changing that in the lobby of our hotel rather than outside. Great luck! Then, the next best thing happened. We did not have to use sunblock all day, because it was 45 degrees and raining! Also, the 10 mph wind that was supposed to be in our face all day ended up only being about 5-8 mph. We were just thanking our lucky stars all day. What will tomorrow bring? Who knows, but with this awesome stroke of luck we are very optimistic. But seriously, one great thing we did notice is that there were no mile markers on the highway all day, so we did not have to count every miserable freezing cold mile along the way. It was so cold that we used trash bags as ponchos under our rain jackets, and we used plastic bags over our socks for some added warmth. They worked pretty well.
We tried to keep a positive attitude all day, and at one point dad was telling me that the wind was dying down...he was hallucinating. Dad, I know those magic markers smell great, but try to resist the urge to sniff them. Seriously, you're 56...grow up already! Yeah, the wind didn't give up all day. Had we not had to deal with the conditions of yesterday, today would have been a real downer. All we could do was keep pounding it, and it wasn't too bad.
Haha, there was this really weird girl working at this burger joint about 40 miles outside of Liberal, and she told us that Liberal had a population of about 50,000 people, and we should avoid staying on the south end of town. Try about 5,000 people, and there are no sides of town. If she thinks the south end is bad here, I wonder what she would do if we dropped her off in the part of Memphis we went through four years ago... wow.
Well, that is about it...not too much happened today. I would try to type more, but game 7 of the Bulls and Celtics is on right now, and this girl behind the front desk is watching MTV (which has completely ruined mainstream music) right next to my face at an absurd volume. Goodnight.

Blake

P.S. Happy birthday to Mom AND Eric!!! See you guys soon, and I hope you had a great day.