Thursday, June 28, 2012

Western OK/TX




Driving across western Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle, I am awed at the vastness of the land. People think of it as flat, but listening to my Jeep on cruise labor one incline and decelerate down the next--it's not flat. Not even relatively. At the OK/TX state line, we were at 1900 feet. Now, 50 miles from Amerillo, we are at 3200 feet and climbing, speeding across I-40 through mini-grand-canyons. But it's boring.


I think of people who have ran across the US, and how many go right through this part of Texas. Yikes. I don't think I could do that.

I asked a friend who runs every weekend in the Colorado mountains about how a 2000' elevation change affects the temperature. He said that climbing 2000' at night could find temps 15 degrees colder. I'll be dragging a travel bag with me I suppose. If I slow to a drag-butt walk while climbing, and it's 30 degrees with wind, I'll need layers.

About that temperature decrease--it was 107 in Erick, OK at 2000'. It's 105 here at 3385'. Woo hoo two degrees.

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