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| Very nice house on top of the hill |
Today we awoke bright eyed and, well you know, to ride 80 miles to Stroud OK. We expected some ups and downs, but were surprised by a few things that we encountered. First we had to deal with a tremendous amount of traffic on Route 66 as we rode through and around Oklahoma City. We used GPS to get around the freeways and found a district of auto sales and satellite businesses when we hit Edmunds. We rode past every sort of dealerships and satellite stores that sell everything from car washes to auto parts. Mixed into this mess were many restaurants.
Through the heavy traffic we managed to find a deli for lunch, but leaving took us back into heavy traffic until we got out of town. Once into the country we found more traffic than expected on the 2 lane roads. We soon realized that this traffic was due to the locals going around the Interstate 44 turnpike that required locals to pay tolls.
The landscape was somewhat hilly and we did lots of ups and downs getting us to about 2,500 ft. of climbing where the net was actually not much of an altitude change.
Another surprise was when we met some interesting people.
At the hotel in Yukon we met a cancer survivor who was still on disability from a frontal lobe tumor that is in remission now. She had to quit the rodeo circuit due to cancer and economic reasons. She was excited about our adventure and cause. While talking to her we talked to a farmer/teacher who was taking a group of HS students on an agricultural field trip. He talked to us about farming and animal husbandry. That guy gave us some great information regarding Oklahoma and farming.
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| Claire, the woman cyclist from Paris |
On the road we saw a woman cycling toward us. Of course we stopped to ask about her trip. She was loaded down with bags and told us that she was from Paris. She was visiting the USA on business and holiday. She was happy to see us and said that she had not met many cyclists on her way from Chicago to Amarillo. But she talked of the same kindness and help that we have experienced.
Later on we stopped to look at the map and saw a truck stop, back up and pull beside us to make sure we were ok. We thanked him and said we were fine. Shortly after that a guy who rolled down his car window and wanted to know where we came from and where we were going greeted us. Mark rode over to his car and told him our story. He mentioned that he had just retired and cycled with a local group. He was amazed at our adventure and Mark told him we were amazed as well.
As we pulled into one of those stores attached to a gas station to get some Gator
Aid, we saw a local farmer who had something on his mind. I went to get my drink and came back to lively one sided discussion where the 70+ year old opinionated gentleman gave us his thoughts on politics, Donald Trump, world views, lawless cities run by thugs, local issues… We finally told him that we needed to get going. He sounded like the modern day Will Rogers want-to-be.
Finally about 7PM we rolled into Stroud to eat some pizza where we met Nancy who was a cancer insurance salesperson for the Family Heritage Agency out of Cleveland Ohio. She was very impressed with our work and I think she thought maybe there was a sales opportunity for her. She kept us from our dinner for too long, but we took her photo and headed inside to down a significant amount of pizza (Carol had a salad). Then it was on to the hotel to shower and sleep.
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Nancy the insurance salesperson
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