June 8. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUDREY!!! Finally made it out of Oklahoma into Arkansas on a hot and humid day. Pedaled 22 miles till we came to a what looked like a decent place for breakfast in Jay, OK (it was). Joe and Lou finally caught up with us in Bentonville after they got the truck repaired, and we got trucked to a RV park with WiFi access so we can finally update this blog! We are pretty wiped out from the heat today, but only 2 more ~60 mile days to go! The recipe for our 'success' for long-distance touring: double up on the padded shorts, use plenty of chamois-butt'r, and jelly beans. We bought a 4 pound jar of jelly-bellies in california, and they are almost gone. We keep them in our Bento boxes up by the stem, within easy reach. When we have a big hill or stiff wind to contend with, we pop a few and suck the sugar coating off, then the soft interiors! 1621 miles down, a few more to go!


Finally made it to the last state on our trip. 3 more cycling days to go.




Carrie rescuing yet another turtle from certain death. The amount of roadkill in eastern OK is astonishing - all kinds of things, but mostly armadillos.

June 7. Got the tent down just in time before the thunderstorm this morning. Looks like the truck has another problem, this time a waterpump, so we packed stuff for a motel stay and got trucked into Bartlesville this morning, 12 miles to the repair place, where we were unceremoniously dumped into the rain to continue our journey. After a couple of hours of rain, it lightened up just in time for another second breakfast in Nowata OK, and remained overcast and relatively cool the rest of the day. An excellent cycling day overall, 72 miles to Langely OK, just before the crossing over the Grand Lake o'the Cherokee Dam.

A bedraggled cyclist.

Carrie in her Mickey Mouse rain poncho on the road to Vinita.



June 6. 60 miles from Ponca City to Osage Hills State Park. All of this through the Osage Res. This is really scenic country, tall grass prairie, hills and savannah, quite beautiful. In fact, the whole U.S. east of the Rockies has looked green and well-watered, and has been quite pleasant to the eye. Saw 3 new (to me) species of birds along the way today. The Osage hills state park is also quite nice oak woodland in the hills. A very pleasant ride overall.



Local cuisine advertised in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. We had a great lunch at the Midway Cafe a little farther down the road.


A far-off picture of a great bird, the Upland Sandpiper.


June 5. We planned to go to an RV park near Ponca City today, but Joe and Lou called from ahead that all the RV parks in the region were filled up with contract workers working on a pipeline project here in oil & gas country. So, we arranged to meet them on the road, get the bare essentials to motel-cycle, and have them go on ahead and us stay at a motel at Ponca City. 76 miles today, still 100 degrees in the afternoon with a stiff south wind. We both got a pinch flat in our rear tires going over a giant expansion crack on the Chickaskia River bridge. This was Carries' first flat of the trip, almost 1500 miles! I've had 4 total. For those of you who need to know, she has Bontrager Race Lites with triple thorn protection, whereas mine are Continental Gatorskins. The accommodations and cuisine at Ponca City both rate as the low point on this trip! Deep fried foods and monster steaks seem to be the cuisine of preference for the locals.


Fixing our simultaneous flats past the river bridge. Carrie's first flat of the trip!


June 4. Needed a day off. Another 100 degree day. We relaxed, hiked the wildlife refuge and tried to stay cool. Even drove 20 miles to Cherokee to get an ice cream! I know a lot of people do this all the time but after being on a bike awhile such a thing seems unthinkable!


June 3. Pedaled 89 miles on a rare windless day to Great Salt Plains State Park. The penalty for the still air was 100 degrees! Scenery picked up some but there is a lot of nothing in northern Oklahoma. The Salt plain is where the salt fork of the Arkansas river flattens out and makes a big salty, marshy plain with a lot of waterfowl and wildlife. It's quite a wonderland for birdwatchers, but the heat was punishing.


The endless road. Most of our path has been along U.S. 64. Good shoulder in places, in others it's nonexistent. Don't know how many thousands of trucks have passed us within 2 ft on this trip, but no real close calls.

June 2. It looked too far to pedal to the next state park given the forecast, so we loaded up the panniers for a motel stay and hoped that the next reasonable sized town according to the map, Buffalo OK, had an open motel. Joe and Lou went on ahead and called back to say that the town was boarded up, like most of the towns in western Oklahoma, and suggested we look at Alva, another 50 miles to the east! Determined to perservere, mainly because we didn't want to go any farther into the NNE headwind, we got to Buffalo, asked at a gas station, and were directed to the Wooly Bison Inn, an oasis in the middle of nowhere where we had a fine nights lodging out of the 98 degree heat. 54 miles today.


The Wooly Bison Inn in Buffalo OK. Highly recommended if you are ever in this part of the country.


June 1. 74 miles from west of Guymon OK to Beaver Dunes St. Park south of Forgan. SSW wind 20-30 mph helped us most of the way. It seems like we pretty much ran out of scenery today. The countryside had not too much to attract. It started really heating up this afternoon and this could also be the reason for our general feeling that this has not been a good day. Stayed at Beaver Dunes State Park where on the Oklahoma map the Beaver River looks like the Mississippi, but in actuality has no water in it! Judging from the bird life in the trees lining the dry riverbank though, I'd say we have reached the eastern U.S. even though we aren't out of the OK panhandle.

No Kidding!