Day 23
Friday 28th August
Whenever we get a motel room I always make sure I have a sleep in to get my money’s worth. This is standard behaviour for Ed, but as I actually like getting up early it’s a treat for me. It’d be rude not to make the most of the bed and the air con, and as far as I’m concerned it would be a waste getting up and out before the check out time. Really, staying in a proper room should mean it’s quicker and easier to get going in the morning, but it actually has quite the opposite effect with us. This does however lead to a late and lazy day, and I never expect to get very far.
Ed needed to collect some things from the post office, but as we’d been so late getting up and packed it was now their lunch break and we had an hour to kill. Fortunately we met a lovely guy called Steve at the garage as we fuelled up, and he kindly gave us the use of his office complete with wifi and air con. This was particularly appreciated as the sun was blisteringly hot again, and as we set about ordering some bits and pieces that we’d forgotten to do, another rider came up in to the office to introduce himself. I love hearing an English accent, and as Charles bellowed out ‘Good day Mr March’, we were surprised to discover that he lived about 15 miles away from Ed and had been following him online for quite sometime.
We love meeting other TAT riders, and it’s always fun to look at a ‘proper’ bike parked up next to ours, it shows just how ridiculous they must look to other riders.
After food, fuel, and chain oiling it was 5pm when we eventually left town. That’s late even by our standards, but we still managed to do around 80 miles or so due to flat and easy gravel and dirt riding.
It was a beautiful evening ride, and although we try to have a camp set up by the time the sun starts to set, I actually love riding at that time of the day.
We took a small detour to the town of Liberal as we were in need of fuel, and found a somewhat questionable RV park to put the tent up and rest our heads for the night.
