I delayed leaving the hotel till late in the morning, then took a leisurely spin around town to check it out. Pretty diverse and has a distinct working class feel, but very clean and has lots of well kept parks. As soon as I hit the state line I met Kevin, another TAT motorcycle rider who had just stopped at the state line to eat something, because he lives in Kansas. We chatted for a good while, very cool and like minded guy. There was a very strong wind from the southeast today, which helped most of the time. Gravel would occasionally run out and the road would turn to really badly rutted dried mud, but it was all still perfectly rideable. Saw my first Roadrunner today, and also several jackrabbits and a couple big snakes. And grasshoppers. As big as your hand. They were everywhere. On the unmaintained tracks that popped up sometimes today, they were all laying in the track so when I went by they would jump and scatter. And fly into me and my spokes, frame, everything. The word pestilence comes to mind. I've no idea if this is a normal amount of grasshoppers. I stopped in Elkhart and found that the main city park was actually packed. Considering it's the day before the fourth and it's a Saturday, it made sense of course. But almost everywhere I go, visiting these small towns, the parks are always deserted and they look like they're not used much. Nice to see one being used. I filled up water here from a faucet and headed north to the National Grassland. The road in was sandy at times but I only had to walk a couple of times. The trails were basically double track, and actually pretty cool. A bit sandy sometimes but mostly firm. I passed a campground that had a few full size campers, and continued on. The goal tonight was to get as far away from people as possible. I hate fireworks. Thankfully the USFS does too and had special signs everywhere in all the areas making sure you know they aren't allowed. At the Cottonwood day use area there were a couple of old steam powered tractors. The nearby Cimmaron river kept flooding in the late thirties. So the state paid farmers 5$ to move their old steam tractors to the sand during one of the floods and park them to help hold the bridge in place. The one on display was uncovered after new bridge construction in 2003. I rode to Middle Spring. The Santa Fe trail shortcut passed through here and this spring was one of the only reliable sources of water in this area. There was a big old style hand powered water pump and the water is simply fantastic. Which is in contrast to the other well water I've been drinking lately which has a bit of an off taste to it. I set up my tent beside the trail, which isn't used enough to reveal the dirt beneath the grass. No sounds of any other humans or trucks, campers generators, etc. Just me and the insects and birds.