Everything's bigger in Texas...

There are a lot of stereotypes about Texas. And, now that I'm here I can tell you that they are all true.

First, there was the state sign. The Texas state sign was the biggest state sign we'd seen so far: a towering green homage to the Texas flag, driving safely, and underneath it, a plaque proclaiming Texas "the proud home of President George W. Bush." Yee-haw. I rode in with Jo, Jess Leon, Dani, and Jorge. Jorge, a native Texan, kissed the ground.

Before we got into Texas, Jorge taught us the UT fight song. Here's how it goes, sung to the tune of "I've been working on the railroad":

The eyes of Texas are upon you, all the live long day.
The eyes of Texas are upon you, you cannot get away.
No you cannot escape them in the night or early morn.
The eyes of Texas are upon you, till Gabriel blows his horn.

After 15 uneventful miles, we arrived in the small farming town of Wheeler. We showered in the locker rooms at Wheeler School (one school for K-12) and admired the rows upon rows of football trophies lining the halls.

The First Baptist church hosted us and really did a great job of welcoming us and also, showing us what Texas was all about. They fed us a delicious dinner ("We made brisket. I know ya'll have vegetarians, but this is Texas). The church had a really cool youth center in the basement, complete with a giant movie projector: I'd never seen the Bodies and Motion video so big. And while, you might think a group of college kids mostly from the coasts and a group of high schoolers from a small town in Texas wouldn't have much in common, we discovered that we shared one important thing: a love of Chuck Norris quotes. We shared our favorite quotes and they told us theirs: "Jesus could roundhouse kick Chuck Norris in the face ... but would he?"

The next day we had a tough ride: 99 miles into Amarillo, on jarring roads, uphill and into a headwind the whole way. But actually, it wasn't so bad. I spent most of the day with Lynn, Jess L., and Jo. After second lunch though, I ended up on my own. I was a little daunted by the idea of riding the next 3o miles on the flat, boring road all by myself, but it actually went by pretty quickly. In Amarrillo, Lynn caught up to me again and we road the last few miles together.

It's time to get ready for our build day, so I'll have to share the story of Jorge and the 72 ounce steak another time...