Day 29 - Erick, Oklahoma to McLean, Texas

Day 29 of our tour
November 1, 2016
45.2 miles today
(1346.2 miles, cumulative)
1978 feet of climbing
(53,659 feet of climbing, cumulative)


Out trip has now included cycling in Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and today, Texas. 

We started shortly after sunrise (which is after 8:00 a.m. now) and we had the roads to ourselves:

Here is the spot where we entered Texas:

The large, expansive fields continued along the side of Route 66:

Today was "grass day" in that we saw several different species of grass. It's hard to see here, but under this bridge over a river bed were growing some extremely tall grass-like plants:

The mornings have been some of the nicest times for riding. It's cooler, very quiet and peaceful, and the light is different from later in the day. I liked this photo of Jean up on the bridge during our short break:

The small town of Shamrock went all out to refurbish this former Conoco gas station which had a cafe inside. It is owned and maintained by the town, and inside there is a gift shop, free coffee and a lot of furnishings reminiscent of the past. It was one of the best (if not the best) Route 66 attractions we've come across:

We visited with other Route 66 travellers while we were there, including a fellow from Switzerland who was on a five month tour of the US to celebrate his retirement. He preferred French over English, so we chatted a bit in the same Swiss dialect I learned in Lausanne years ago. The local fellow pictured below was inside telling stories. He pointed out the hotels across and down the street where Elvis stayed in the 60's when he drove through on his way to Las Vegas before the interstate freeways had been constructed:

Outside, at one end of the station, there was a Tesla charging station. I just had to give Jean an extra boost of power:

The sun became brighter and hotter as the hours passed. We stopped occasionally to put water on some handkerchiefs and cool off. We preferred to do that in the shade, but shade was sometimes hard to find. One tiny bit of shade we found was next to an abandoned gas station. Hard to see is the wire fence that surrounded the area. We had to find what we could outside that fence:

Here are three more photos of grasses that were alongside the route. It was interesting to see so many different types right next to each other:

I thought this station in McLean was simply a fake one made to catch Route 66 travellers. Read on... 

That's it from our first day in Texas. The bike again performed just fine. I'm thinking that maybe one small pawls fractured, and was initially in a couple of large pieces rattling around, and has now been ground down to multiple little pieces that make less noise. We plan to carry on to Amarillo to see friends, and then I'll open the hub and see what I find.