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Published: June 20th 2013
O Beautiful for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain
How y'all doin? It's taken me three days to stop looking over my shoulder every time someone says that to me.
I got my kicks ... on Route 66. For 90 seconds, no 3 minutes if you count the two U-turns because we missed the Route 60 signed turnoff.
We're back in the prairie badlands on route 60, to 412, riding through wheat fields, grazing grounds where cattle shared their space with oil drills. We crossed a handful of rivers, one called Bacon Rind Creek. Go figure. We had a fast and furious flat ride clocking in 350 kms by lunchtime, ending up with 540 kms for the day. It is 32 again, with white cumulus clouds overhead and darker cumulonimbus (I had to look that up) rain clouds on the horizon. Checking the weather this morning, they are predicting another storm heading east towards us from Tulsa. Dodging these weather patterns is becoming routine for us now but means any chance of camping is out the window. I can't believe we've, rather, Ian has packed all
of the gear on his bike for over 15,000 kms without even opening the pannier. I could have done SO MUCH MORE shopping.
I cooked the books with the mileage today as somewhere we have 500 kms unaccounted for (and no I don't make a habit of this at work !!).
We are still making lots of new contacts with people due to the bikes. We are closer to the west now than the east. But still further south than north. This area has a real bovine smell to it, and Emma would not enjoy it here. Finding a hotel for the night was time consuming, and too hot. With nothing booked, we decided to just drop in and negotiate the best rate. The first motel looked much nicer from a block away, and we aborted once we got into the parking lot. The second had rooms but was overpriced and didn't have a pool. The third had rooms, but was under construction and had no cable or internet hookup. Next. The fourth was full. The fifth was full. The sixth, La Quinta Suites, had a room for us. Good thing, because we couldn't see any other hotels
in the area. This entire process took us about an hour, with helmets, gloves and jackets coming off each time. We were told the town is busy with oil field workers who come in for a month at a time to drill and set up pumps. We are only a few miles from the Texas border. I learned that Oklahoma is the third largest producer of oil in the US, after Texas and Alaska.
We plan to be on the road early again tomorrow to take advantage of slightly cooler temperatures in the morning.
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Jo and Bill
non-member comment
Looks as if we have customers in most of your stops so far - BUT we will have to connect with you if we ever decide to to a road trip to visit ...and to determine which "place"s to give a miss~ Enjoying your posts. Jo and Bill