Goat heads and pie town

Day 59. Hunters drove past our tents before we were up this morning. They commented: “divide riders” and just went past. Goat heads. Just as we were ready to leave, Tara realized we had the dreaded thorns called”goat heads” in our tires. We had been told not to pull them out so we nervously left them in and rode. Tara’s rack bolt came loose and required a new screw. We saw lots of Mud lava - mud, hardened like rock. Moon over landscape. Jon had a flat and expertly put a plug in the tire. We don’t like goat heads! We passed a Windmill water tower and Lois ran the gauntlet to check it out but we couldn’t figure out how we were supposed to get the water out of the tank. Oh well. We kept on riding. Lunch on the road. Rolling hard pack. TLC ranch where we stopped to get water they put out in cooler jugs. We were grateful to have it and it was cold. We saw a hiker there, resting in the shade and he looked beat. The Bucks and Does restaurant at Pie town was everything we hoped for. Miracles happened there. 1. We all ate pie. 2. We all ate dinner. 3. A friendly couple (he had raced the divide in 2018 and now they were on a road trip in their van) paid for it all! Thank you Diane and Jim from Kansas! You rock and have great Karma. 4. After they left, we ate more pie. 5. We needed “Stans”, a liquid tire sealant for our tires because of the goat heads. Jon asked about the nearest store (22 miles away) to get sealant and the chef/owner (Larry) went in the back room and came out with a jug of “Stan’s” and an injector from a previous rider. Tonight we are at the Pie Town RV park. We all have tires filled with liquid sealant to fight off the goat heads tomorrow and we are all full of pie. We met a single woman rider, Carolyn, whose husband is following with a camper. They gave us drinks! Thank you! We hope to ride together. Another great day.