Welcome To The Wild, Wild West

Yesterday was the first day where the entirety of our ride resembled varieties of western terrain.  

We departed Amarillo for the 82 mile ride to Dalhart.  In the morning we rode through the rolling hills just west of the city. 

As the day progressed, we moved from the Amarillo plateau to the Dalhart plateau.  Things leveled out and we began passing fields decorated with oil wells.  I suppose you know you're in western Texas when you see drills lining the highways.  

As an aside, every morning at our route meeting before we hit the road, a teammate talks about the city to which we are traveling and one major component of that discussion is median income and poverty rate.  The median income here in Dalhart is high when compared to that of many of the other cities where we stayed and I surmise that this is because of wealth generated by oil money.  

Just for your own pleasure, here is a picture of today's route meeting.