Day 24 - Bristow to Edmond, Oklahoma

Day 24 of our tour
October 27, 2016
64.2 miles today
3728 feet of climbing
(1128.3 miles, cumulative)
(43,663 feet of climbing, cumulative)


OK, I admit it. I must have been passing notes to classmates Marsha or Gayle, or maybe I was arranging the next marbles game with Chuck. But whatever was distracting me back in 5th grade on the day our geography lesson was about Oklahoma, I missed it. All these years I thought Oklahoma was flat. You know, just like the Dakotas, but farther south. How wrong I was! We did a lot of climbing again today, even more than yesterday.

But we slept well last night, were rested and ready, and our day went well. No big mechanical problems helped, too. We are having a small problem which I think is due to grit getting inside one of the cable housings. I'm having trouble shifting the internal gear hub into the lowest gear. This started three days ago, and I think I need to do some more cleaning and lubricating. I had it working flawlessly when we left this morning, but by the end of today's ride it was again hesitating on me.

As we packed up in the little house where we spent last night, I had to take three photos to capture some of its uniqueness.

The headboard in the smaller of the two bedrooms:

The wash basin in the bathroom, set into an old dresser:

The lariat, apparently well-used, on the clothes' stand in the larger bedroom:

I did not get a photo of the ceiling, the majority of which was corrugated steel panels. Cowboy photos and nicknacks were everywhere. It was a comfortable stay of a different sort. Fortunately, we slept well and had lots of energy for today. It helped that there was no wind to speak of, and the sun did not make an appearance until the afternoon.

We started out in the dark watching the weather channel and hearing about the fog alerts on the very highway we were to use. By the time it was light, we decided the fog was OK to ride in, though we donned our hi-vis vests and put fresh batteries in our very bright rear-facing blinker that sits atop our safety triangle.

Morning fog ahead of us:

And to the side of us:

So thick that we got wet just riding along in it:

But we could tell the drivers were seeing us when they moved over long before reaching us:

I thought Jean looked great in her hi-vis vest and wind shirt, buttoned up to keep the morning breeze from chilling her front:

She wasn't so sure that the reflective ankle bands really added anything to her fashion statement:

This former gas station and the older cars in one of the small towns the route went through caught our eye. (I wonder what color it would have been when open.) There have been fewer of the old stations still standing here in Oklahoma:

Not all of them get renovated. I wondered how old this rock work was:

Our road was not exactly "long and winding" as much as "long and up-and-down," though I cannot find the melody in my head for the latter description. We'd make our way up the long climbs at under 7 miles per hour, and then blast down (well, "blast" for us) at 28 mph. Here's a segment of Route 66 in the afternoon after the fog has burned off and the sun has been out for a while:

Pastoral scenes at the side of Route 66 were frequent, and the closer we got to Oklahoma City, the nicer the farms looked:

We were somewhat surprised to see large fields with very red soil:

The geometry of the round hay bales is always attractive to us:

This big circular barn with a domed roof was interesting. Alas, we did not stop to investigate:

There were other photos we did not get with the camera, but only in our minds. For example, we've cycled past quite a few farms with horses, and some with donkeys, too. The animals often stop eating the grass and look up and follow us as we pass. It's been fun to watch.

Oklahoma has the most of two events, one pleasant and one less so, of any state we've been in. The pleasant one has been the number of motorcycle riders either coming toward us and passing, or coming from behind and passing, who give us the motorcyclists' two-finger salute. Held out to the side, or slightly pointed down, two fingers in a V means (as I understand it) "greetings, it's great to see you making your way on two wheels." To be so honoured by motorcyclists is a neat feeling. 

The less-pleasant experience has been the number of pickup truck drivers who have to wait a moment to get around us, and then pass with less than optimal clearance and accelerate in such a way as to leave us in a cloud of diesel exhaust. There have not been many, and no one has come dangerously close, but there have been more here than in other states.

This area called Edmond is really an eastern suburb of Oklahoma City. We have not done route planning for the next few days yet. But, we will continue to head south and west. Hot weather is in the forecast again.