Yes. Amarillo is hell. Like many hellholes, though (Chicago and Savannah, for example), the people are really nice. Shared adversity, I guess.

Dumas, Texas. The Lord Jesus Christ bought me a hotel room last night. I love you Jesus!

And now it’s going to rain a lot. Damn you, Poseidon! I always knew you weren’t the one true god! Jesus gets me hotel rooms and fried chicken, and Cthulhu brings me cheap virgin souls. What’s Poseidon done lately? Nothin’ for nobody! I know who -I’m- voting for at religiousidol.com

Anyway, I extricated myself from Amarillo yesterday, and as I was leaving town I happened to notice this one big cloud covering the entire western edge of the sky. As I went north it kept getting bigger and bigger…and bigger…and bigger…. It reminded me of Independence Day, actually. I hung out under a bridge for a while, waiting for the rain to pass, and then I went north most of the way to Dumas. But then it got dark and rainy and I saw this church, so I went in and told them I was a Presbyterian and asked them if I could crash there for the night. Nah, they said, let us buy you a hotel room instead. OK, sez I, and then I stayed up all night abusing cannabis and caffeine. I finished thumbnailing issue three, by the way. There was absolutely nothing good on TV.

Every day I spend on the road I learn to pack my bike a little better. It’s actually getting easy to ride around.

Now I have to go north again, and it’s gonna rain on me for the next few days. I might be done with the bicycle phase of this trip in as little as six days! We’ll have to see.

I’d like to point out (because I feel a little guilty) that I was acutally raised Presbyterian, and…um…some of my friends are Presbyterian. I don’t consider myself specifically UN-christian. Actually, I have a lot of loopy religious beliefs that I never talk about because everybody would think I’m insane. Fundamentalist Christians are very interested by these ideas, and I ended up talking to the pastor of the church for like an hour about the Bible and stuff. I do a very good Christian impression. It’s not that I disbelieve the Bible — I think the Bible’s a fascinating historical document, and Jesus Christ was a hell of a guy. And I think I keep at least six of the commandments, possibly as many as eight. I just don’t think that Christianity has a lock on the truth. They got one little bit of it. If you look at reality from just the proper angle, Christianity makes sense. And if you look at my beliefs from just the proper angle (and I strategically keep my mouth shut about a LOT of stuff) I look Christian. Therefore, everything’s cool.

And I slept really well last night.