CCMA - Day 30

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Day 30



We got a pretty early start today – we left at 7:30, a little after sunrise. There were clouds in the east, but the rest of the sky was clear. It was very cold, probably the coldest day yet.



As we rode toward the east the sun became obscured by clouds, which was good, because we were riding directly into the sun and it was difficult to see. For the first hour the ride was good, there were only a few trucks.



After about an hour of riding we encountered wind, it wasn’t as bad as the wind in South Dakota, but still enough to make riding miserable. After an hour of riding in the wind we had to stop because the wind wears you out, so we stopped for gas and coffee.



We saw a group of windmills (about a dozen or so) up really close and they were spinning faster than any we have seen so far. The wind was brutal. When I started this trip I looked forward to seeing windmills, but now I dread seeing them, because the engineers tend to put windmills where there is a lot of wind



I hate the wind. I am not real fond of cold and wet either. When you combine wind, cold, and wet with boring scenery it makes for one hell of a lousy ride. I suppose I shouldn’t complain, though, we have had almost four weeks of perfect weather.



We stopped in Oklahoma City to have lunch with Bill’s friend, but Bill was unable to contact him so we ended up eating lunch and continuing our trip without meeting him.



Later in the afternoon, we ran into some drizzle and Bill said something on the radio, which I didn’t understand, so I pulled over under a bridge to find out what he wanted. He asked if we thought we should put on our rain gear. As it was only a little drizzle I didn’t think we needed to, so I asked Rick what he thought. He told me he didn’t think so, so I told Bill we didn’t think it was going to rain so we didn’t need to put on our raingear.



I found out when we got to the motel that instead of asking what we thought, Bill should have said he wanted to put on his raingear – we have faring to keep us dry and he doesn’t. He was soaked, his shoes were waterlogged, and he was generally all around miserable (more so than usual). And to top it off, he had no vodka, and when we asked the motel clerk where we could buy liquor, she told us that we couldn’t because it was a dry county. She told us that if we drove 15 miles across the river to the next county, we could buy liquor there.



I rode across the river and stopped in the convenience store right across the county line, and found out they only sell beer and wine. I asked where I could buy Vodka and they told me to drive 17 miles to Altus, Arkansas. It had started to rain a little harder, so I decided to head back to the motel. Bill’s mood wasn’t any better and he said that he couldn’t go to dinner with us because he had nothing to put on his feet.



It stopped raining while we were at dinner so I decided to ride to Altus and buy Bill some Vodka. It seemed to cheer him up a little.



There are no pictures today because it was too cold to take my glove off to take pictures while I was riding, and there was no scenery worth stopping for.



We rode over 400 miles today and should do about the same tomorrow.

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Comments

[Nancy W]

end of trip
what a day... I guess the good news is, you had this not-so-good adventure towards the end of your trip, and not the beginning!