Day 14 - Elk City to Chickasha: Half Way There

Today was another cold start with temperatures in the low 40’s at 7:30 AM. We left a little later in the morning in order to let it warm up a little. Today’s wind was from the south southwest, so we started today’s ride with 15 miles to the south. While most of the ride was on roads that ran due east, the wind never seemed to be of any help today. Most of today’s ride was on rural county roads and we had more turns than usual because many of the roads are unpaved in sections. We came upon several intersections where a perfectly paved road suddenly became gravel or dirt. This required the route to zig and zag. It also meant that if you got off route you were likely to discover yourself on a gravel road – as sure sign that you had missed a turn. While several riders found themselves in this predicament, I was not one. I rode with three other riders this morning, but I left them at the lunch stop and finished the ride on my own. This required a little more effort and some more mental work to stay on route, but it also let me ride at a pace that best suited to me.

There were lots of farms with crops of hay ready to harvest. There were lots of cows in the pasture. At one intersection a fellow rider commented that this was a long way from everywhere and that he would hate to run out of milk. Within a few yards we realized that there were dairy cows on this farm and that milk was probably closer than we had thought. It being Sunday the roads were fairly free of traffic but we did see a lot of cars around the many churches we passed.

We passed the half way point on the ride from coast to coast today and Mike took pictures of each of us as we approached that point. A few riders decided to ham it up for the camera. I simply rode to the sign on the road, had my picture taken, and rode on. The goal is to get to Georgia, not to get to Nowheresville OK. Well in point of fact we did pass a water tower that proclaimed that it was in Nowhere OK. I didn’t see a sign for the city line, but I may have missed it.

It was a long day, 125 miles, and I didn’t finish until 5 PM. Even the usually fast riders did not get in until after 4 PM. Tomorrow is the longest day on our ride , 145 miles, to McAlester OK. When the last of my laundry is done I will be going to bed as early as possible and hoping for favorable winds tomorrow.