Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Day 17: Shamrock, Texas to Weatherford, Oklahoma
Halleluia!
We are out of Texas. We are not out of the wind however, but at least we have left Texas behind.
The Ride: 105 miles 2,500 ft of climbing. Our path was northeast...the wind-straight south. According to the locals it is always windy here as well. Its fairly flat with few trees and the wind has no barriers. We heard that they consider today a cold front....it was cloudy and only about 84 degrees. Last week there was a heat wave and temps were around 110 degrees with humidity. I WILL TAKE THE WIND THEN...that beats unbearable heat (although I am sure we will be getting there soon)
Riding Companions: Tom, Jay, Young Greg from NY, and Jason. After 2 weeks of riding hard we are finally settling into smaller groups that are more similar in riding style and goals for the day.
Notable differences in Oklahoma (vs Texas):
Its greener! Much more lush vegetation all around.
The dirt is red. Really strikingly red in some areas.
The road kill...Today I saw a dead porcupine, armadillo, and a turtle. (gross I know but wow)
Our route today took us primarily along the Historic Route 66. It is now basically a very seldom used 2 lane frontage road along the larger Interstate 40. Since we only had 105 miles to ride, we were able to stop at a couple of Route 66 museums and experience a bit of nostalgic Americana. Bryan Jones, our Fresno City Traffic engineer might be interested in this historic roadway. In some areas it still has the original 1930's pavement. Unfortunately, the larger interstate has sucked the life away from the small towns along the way that used to service Route 66 with small cafe's, gas stations and shops. There was virtually no traffic on this road, nice for bike riding, but the little towns were like dead ghost towns with abandoned businesses and homes.
It seems pretty amazing that after those 3 or 4 grueling days of 130, 156, and 145 miles...we feel like 100 miles is so easy. On these days we are more relaxed, eat more, get off the bike more, and in general get to remember we are on vacation! For those of you worried about the state of my derriere...I am happy to report that it is in good shape, skin intact, no more blisters! What a relief! I still am happy when I get OFF my bike seat though! Jeanine's friend Steve from Fresno sent us an inflatable ring as a joke....we love it. We both sat on it last night while on the computer... Thanks Steve!
Its so windy here all the time that they farm it! Wind farms are all around Weatherford, OK.
So tomorrow we head south....that is the way the wind has been howling for the past 4 days. I totally expect it to change directions tomorrow...its just been our luck. It will probably blow north. We'll see. And now as we start to head south in Oklahoma the terrain will start to change with a lot more hills. And more trees....
Take care,
Ride your bike somewhere!
Love,
Lori
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