Man what a trip this has been so far! The ride from Pell City to Oklahoma City was not near as exhausting as I thought it would be. I really thought that we would be exhausted on the 750 + mile first day jog, in fact I thought the girls would demand we stop short of our target. Everyone was great with the millions of white divider lines that zipped past our bikes that first day! The scenery was not really much to look at though, but we knew as much before we started out. I really enjoyed the ride and could have ridden on through the night, but would have probably slept too much the next day! The Federal Trade Center was a great stop the first thing the next morning. To think that there are selfish idiots out there like this one that destroyed this building and the lifes of so many in a few seconds is discouraging. The Tree of Remembrance was what I liked the best of this memorial. That old tree is over 100 years old and was the only living thing in the area that remained both standing and alive. They had started to cut down the old burnt tree with its knarled and damaged limbs littered with parts from the once nearby automobiles that were sitting idle in the parking lot next to the building. Thankfully they did not get around to cutting her down since there was so much to be done. They noticed new sprout beginning to grow from it and not only left it there but dug up the thick layer of asphalt that once choked its root system so that the very cars whose parts were stuck in it could park waiting for their drivers that would never return. After loosening up the ground around its massive roots they build a huge concrete deck well up over its roots but around the base of it, complete with an automatic watering systems and regularing feed and tend to this old rugged tree like a patient in the recovery room. What once was a ugly tree that was never given a thought, except to shade the interior of parked cars is now one of the most important and cared for trees in the nation. They collect the seeds from this old girl and send to them to nurseries to grow and give them out to people on certain days at the base of the old tree. They are also available to purchase by website. Its seems that there is hope for all of us with this lesson. No matter what you have done in the past or how unimportant your life has been to date, your lot in life may change in the wink of an eye and it could actually be you that resonates and builds the strength of those around you.

Yes, our second day of travel was superfantastic and is hard to put in word. It as so humbling to go through Oklahoma and Texas, because you can see nothing but vast grasslands that are as level as a football field yet go on and on and on forever! You seem so small in the midst of all this. It is really strange, because while once living many years in extreme south Alabama, which is flat, for some reason you just cant see the edge of the world like you can in Oklahoma and Texas. To imagine the days of the buffalo and the only manner of transportation was horse or foot compounds the vastness of the open range. Our trip this day also took us past the huge windmill farms where by these giant several story 2 armed windmills slowing but continuously turned generating electricty for so many people. I never tired of looking at these unusual monstrosities, like aliens from another world. We rode for miles and miles in amazement of this strange and thought provoking region of the country and was finally getting use to seeing the grasslands that stretch forever with only a few deserted homesteads and hundreds of the old fashioned windmills some still pumping water up to small ponds for thousands of cows and horses, when, all at once the world as we have come to know it changed to a wierd landscape with only scrub brush and these hill that come from nowhere that somehow are as flat as a tabletop. It was as if we were insects in a yard and someone mowed our world and cut off every mountain top level. This started just a very few miles east of New Mexico on Interstate 40 and continued for miles and miles and we had to get used to the strange landscape all over again. We are ahead of the plan by a few miles and are now in Albequirque (sorry I dont have time to check the spelling, we are getting ready for our 3rd exciting day out west) I did not get a chance to mention the Old Route 66 road we took through Groom Tx where things remain much as they one did, or our stop at the Cadillac Ranch where the several very old Cadallics half planted in the ground, front bumper skyward as corn plants would be. I could not believe that there was a continuous line of people actually trudging out 100 yards into a field to see this oddity. The custom is to take a can of spray paint and paint whatever you desire on this metal plants of old. Thanks to Kim and Scott and later Wolfie and Juanita, who dug around in a dumpster to come up with some half-used cans of paint, we all painted our own remembrances there.

Well its time to get ready for more exploring of this country. I cant wait until we get on the bikes again in a few minutes.