God Blessed Texas - sung by Little Texas

” First He lit the sunshine
Then He made the waters deep,
Then He gave us moonlight
For all the world to see.
Well everybody knows that the Lord works in mysterious ways,
He took a rest, then on the very next day……

God blessed Texas with His own hand,
Brought down angels from the promised land,
Gave 'em a place where they could dance,
If you wanna see heaven brother here's your chance.
I've been sent to spread the message -
God blessed Texas”

This song is on my iPod’s TRANSAM playlist. I love it. As we chip away at the mileage, I ruminate that fully 3 weeks of our seven week bike trip are spent in Texas. That’s almost 25% of our trip! Certainly Texas is huge. So, if God is into quantity, then Texas is indeed a blessed state.

However, today’s ride took us into parts of Texas where angels fear to tread. It is barren, windy, dry and empty. In the nearly 200 miles on Route 90 between Marathon and Del Rio, there are only two towns – Sanderson and Langtry. Sanderson is where we stay to night, a bustling metropolis of 861. Langtry, once home to the infamous Judge Roy Bean, has been called a ghost town with a visitor’s center. We pass through it tomorrow.

The ride itself today was pleasant enough. Up until lunch we had a tail wind and a gradual descent. We proceeded at a clip averaging 18 miles per hour. After lunch the winds shifted to the east and we had headwinds, but not too bad. We logged 85 miles.

How do you pass the time when there is nothing to look at but cacti, sagebrush and creosote bushes? Each of us has an iPod, and we fill our heads with music. Whether it makes good safety sense to wear headphones while riding is hotly debated. I fall in the camp that it is OK. I can see cars in my rear view mirror about half a mile away. Even without headphones I can only hear them when they are within 100 feet. The strongest point in favor of an iPod is that it can be energizing and stimulating when the scenery is not. Think of the way a sound track is used to enhance a film. Music is certainly enhancing my trip in just that way.

For my TransAM sound track, I have created playlists for the states we have traversed. Texas is easy; there are heaps of Texas songs.Whatever else you say about Texas, folks love to sing about her. In addition to God Blessed Texas, my Texas playlist includes:

All my ex’s live in Texas

, by George Strait,

Texas in my rearview mirror

by Mac Davis,

Beer for my horses

by Willie Nelson and Toby Keith,

If your gonna play in Texas, you’ve gotta have a fiddle in the band

by Alabama,

San Antonio Girl

by Lyle Lovett,

Texas

by George Strait,

Luckenbach Texas

by Waylon Jennings , and

When I die I want to go to Texas

, by Tanya Tucker.

If you have any state related theme songs to suggest to me, please send me titles – we still have another two weeks of Texas to go!