October 11, 2016 – Sun, 75 degrees

Miles Today: 69

Miles to Date: 17,746

States to Date: 45

O give me a home where the buffalo roam

Where the deer and the antelope play

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word

And the skies are not cloudy all day

Today was a day for singing! Back in the wide-open spaces to begin my fourth swath across the Great Plains – this time traveling east from the Sandia foothills across the New Mexico sage and the Ogallala Aquifer nourished South Plains of Texas to Fort Worth.

I spent the whole day on broad shoulders of I-40 and US 285. Road sign mania! None in the cars or trucks zooming past could hear me vocalize. They don’t know what they missed.

The temperature was perfect, the sun was bright and the wind nudged me forth from behind.

I actually did see antelopes play.

I feasted at The Encino Firehouse Mercantile and Deli, the only business in the town of fifty souls. Victor Gallupe, City Councilman, Fire Chief and cafe proprietor, explained that the town used to be four or five times larger. But he has hopes for the future: the largest wind farm in New Mexico is being built fifteen miles due west on US 60.

Over 100 trains a day pass through Encino, along a main east/west corridor that parallels US 60.

Live horses make Vaughn’s welcome sign authentically Western.