Update 3/13
There was more of the same bad weather this morning as we departed from McCamey at 9:30 AM, headed for Big Lake: overcast, a cold drizzle, and a head-wind. After about twenty miles we stopped for lunch in Rankin and had excellent burritos and hot peach cobbler topped with ice cream. We also managed to stay long enough to warm up for the rest of the trip. As we pulled into Big Lake, the first building we saw was one of the two motels in town, and we stopped to check it out. Sue went in and asked the girl at the desk what the charge was for a room. The girl could speak very little English, so she asked Sue to wait five minutes until the manager returned. We decided to go across the street to the convenience store and return to the motel later. As Sue went into the convenience store and I waited outside with the bike, a gentleman named Bill Strauss asked me where we were going, and I responded, "New York." However, he wanted to know where we were headed today. I told him that we were going to stay in Big Lake, but that I wasn't sure where. He then invited us to stay at his ranch about ten miles south of town. 
When Sue joined us outside, I told her of the offer, and we both immediately accepted. We put the tandem into the back of his pickup, and as we departed he called his wife on his cell phone and said, "I've done it again." Bill and his wife Jamie have taken in cyclists and bikers before, and he said he saw how tired we looked and just couldn't pass us up. We had a delicious meal at their beautiful ranch house and talked with them on into the late evening about many topics. Bill is a fifth generation rancher on their cattle and sheep ranch, and he said that a ranch the size of theirs (18,000 acres) is about what is needed to support one family in this particular area. We went to sleep as soon as we got in bed after a day which saw us cover only 49 miles, but in some really cold, wet, and windy weather.