The sun shines east, the sun shines west, CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! Deep in the heeeeeeeeart of Texas! :-D I couldn't resist typing/singing that to commemorate my first full day in Texas! :) I spent the morning in Brownfield before Glenda and Leyna arrived at 12:30 p.m. I visited the town library again (and had a delightful conversation with the friendly librarian at the counter), ate a McDonald's breakfast and walked along Main Street and the downtown square. I also on the county courthouse lawn and captured a photo of the Texas flag! Yay! Today was going to be a fun and social day with friends! Bottom Photo: West Main Street in Brownfield, Texas.
	Glenda and Leyna drove me to Levelland, where we ate with Shaun at Savannah's Mexican Restaurant. I captured a picture of Glenda's minivan with a ColoradoGuy.com bumper sticker. That's my personal web site! :) Inside Savannah's, I regret not taking more pictures of us eating and enjoying ourselves. Adjacent is one shot of Leyna and myself showing off our food, and oh my goodness, I look ghastly in that photo! U-G-L-Y! :(
Above: Wind blows dirt across the highway as we traveled north from Brownfield to Levelland, Texas.	Glenda, like many locals in west Texas, complains about the strong winds and "dust storms" they sometimes create. It was hard not to sympathize with her. Being a Coloradoan living in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, I have worked very hard at not coming off arrogant toward others regarding my much better geographical lifestyle. Buena Vista, Colorado really does have amazing and inspiring mountain views in nearly all directions, and my town is packed in the summer with out-of-state vehicles with Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas license plates. Still, I genuinely saw many redeeming qualities to west Texas and I tried to encourage Glenda. Firstly, the weather is wonderful! High temperatures at this time were reaching the 60's and 70's and their 90-100 degree days in the summer are a dry heat. (We have a solid six months of winter in my town.) There are bicycle-friendly shoulders on most highways in this region and the sunsets are excellent! If I lived in west Texas, I would probably take pictures of the sunset every evening. I am, after all, the webmaster of www.Sunset-Pictures.com. ;)
	My best picture of Shaun, Leyna and Glenda. Shaun is a coach and teacher at a local high school, and so they took me to a high school playoff basketball game that was of particular interest to them ...

McLean 50, Grady 47 It was the first round of playoffs for the division of the smallest schools in west Texas, and the games were taking place inside the Texas Dome on the campus of South Plains College in Levelland. McLean High School (McLean, TX) faced Grady High School (combination of Lenorah, TX and Tarzan, TX) in the first round. Shaun, being a local high school coach, has friends and connections somehow to Grady High School and so we sat on the Grady side to presumably cheer for them. Before I knew which team was which, I looked out on the court as the two teams performed their warm-up drills and noticed the white team (McLean) only had eight players suited up. Good heavens, their lack of depth could really harm them later in the game because of lack of rest or foul trouble. Perhaps out of a propensity to cheer for the underdog or maybe out of pity that McLean is situated in the northern panhandle of Texas, I decided to cheer for them. ;) I had to be careful not to cheer vocally though, because I was sitting in the center of the loudest Grady supporters. I kept my mouth shut! Others, particularly the woman sitting behind us, had a hard time staying quiet. She continually yelled - more like screeched - as she complained about the officiating. She traveled! ... That was a lame call! ... THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A FOUL! ... blah, blah, blah, blah, blah! :( I kept looking over at Glenda and Shaun, with a look of "Will she ever shut up?" but they did not know what to do. In retrospect, I should have covertly gotten a picture of the bellowing woman with my digital camera. ;) The game stayed close the entire way with just seven points as the largest gap between them. McLean's #00, a tall freshman, scored a few times in the post and I dare say she is destined to dominate even more in upcoming seasons. She will likely be "college scholarship material" if she works hard and stays out of trouble. Meanwhile, Grady's #34 had a strong and aggressive court presence and had a few impressive steals leading to scores. It was the most well-played girls' high school basketball game I had ever seen. As the fourth quarter neared the end, the game was exciting and close! With one minute remaining, Grady was up 47-45 and McLean had possession. #5, on the perimeter, passed to #00 who was posted low. #00 was double-teamed and kicked it back out to #5 who hit a three-pointer to take the lead 48-47. The McLean side of the arena roared in cheers. That totally shut up the annoying woman behind us! :) After a failed offensive effort by Grady, #5 hit two free throws to seal the win by the score of 50-47. Way to go McLean! It was great to be off the bicycle for the day, and I got a glimpse of the intensity of Texas high school sports. Weeks later, after I had peddled much farther into the southeastern states, Glenda pointed out McLean lost by over 20 points in the second round to the team that would go on to win the state championship.

	An oil pump somewhere west of Levelland. Oil is big business in this part of the country.
	Ahhhhhh ... a leisure rest day. There I am, drinking a Milwaukee's Best beer as I played on the family laptop.
	Glenda and I photographed the sunset in Whiteface, Texas. Before the sun had set, we stood on the edge of a cotton farm that had leftover cotton on the ground. Glenda held some cotton to her chin like she was a goat, and as for me, I was utterly grossed out by it! :(
	My generous hosts live in this small town of Whiteface, Texas and there is a dormant trailer truck in their neighborhood. Colorado has scenic mountains, but Texas has piece of junk vehicles to look at. I am not making fun of this at all, for I truly love seeing things like rusted-out cars and junk on people's property. I got the full Texas experience today! :)
	In the evening, we enjoyed a barbeque with grilled chicken, bratwurst, spicy sausage, salmon, potatoes, corn, and chocolate chip cookies. I ate so much food! Later on, Shaun showed me one of his three pet snakes right there in the living room. :p) It was a fantastic rest day and I was so grateful to have these friends. Sadly, I would say good-bye to them the next morning.