June 13, 2017. Miami OK

                               Sapulpa OK - Claremore OK

We started out with a great breakfast at the hotel. The temps were already high when we started. Gonna be a hot time today! We started out by going the wrong direction uphill!,  I hate that, but by doing that we were able to stay outside of Tulsa so that was a good thing. Great roads today with light traffic. At one point we had a road block of a huge extra extra wide load. Some sort of a cylinder thing that took up the whole lane. There were actually two of them. We were able to get by them just as they were going around a sharp corner. It was amazing watching the driver negotiate the turn with that huge load. We stopped to see how it was done. We went through Tulsa downtown past Oklahoma State University, OSU. Not THE OSU but A OSU. Not much traffic at all going through the downtown area. Where are all the people?

Today we had a side wind again. And wow is it humid with temps in the 90's. Although the winds were from the south so we actually had alittle assistance since we are now heading northeast towards Joplin MO. For lunch we stopped at Annie's Cafe in Vertigris OK. Good food but alittle greasy. Great homemade onion rings. We were on mostly four lane highway (Route 66) with a nice shoulder for much of the day. 

We started hearing a noise in the bike, and spent a lot of the day trying to figure out where it was from. As Hap was trying to figure, he would have me stop pedaling, now pedal harder, now stand on the pedals, now pedal backwards.........mmmmmm...... ok now pedal harder, no not that hard easier when I tell you.......    Enough already! Hap can fix anything, he just needed to understand what was going on. Before we went to our hotel, We stopped at a bike shop in Claremore OK, to see what parts they had available in case he needed something. He is suspecting the bottom brackets. He had all the tools he needs to replace or repair the bottom bracket. What a great bike shop! Bike About Bicycles, Claremore OK. The girl took our picture, gave us her cell number and said if you need anything give me a call and I'll bring it to you! 

After the bike shop, we stopped at the grocery for Gatorade and bananas, and the liquor store for .... well, liquor supplies. The owner helped us to find some IPA Beer. We have had a hard time finding any good beer for awhile now. We started to leave the store. And he handed Hap a bottle of gin too! He heard us talking about what our ride and said I'm buying you guys some gin. How cool is that? 

We got to the hotel, checked in and the owner said let me know if you need anything. And if you need to go somewhere I'll be happy to take you. Nice! While Hap worked on the bike, I walked down the road to get us something for dinner. Wow, is it hot! It feels like I'm walking in an oven. 

For bike repair, Hap took crank arms off the front, took out the front bottom bracket, cleaned and lubed everything. Cleaned up the sprockets and chains and put it all back together. Hopefully that took care of our noise/creak. There's nothing worse than having a noise that you can't find. 

                                    Claremore OK - Miami OK

For our first breakfast we had bananas, peanut butter and Luna bars. It's a start anyway. We got away about 7:45a hoping to beat some of the heat. NOT! It was already hot. Although it was overcast so that helped some. Still very humid and very sweaty! We didn't get far before we realized we still had that annoying noise. Grrrrrrr....... So once again we went through, OK pedal harder now, no not that hard, now stand up, ok now I'll stand up, now pedal backwards......Whew 

he makes me tired! The road today for the most part was a nice four lane highway with a big shoulder. One section was a two lane highway with no shoulders, and that was of course when the traffic picked up as well as some road construction. Everyone moved over except for one, there's always one! But we all made it! 

We stopped for our second breakfast at a Subway in Chelsea. They sure do have good breakfast sandwiches. We had a fun chat with a lady, who asked what we were doing, where we were going, how far in a day. She also asked how we trained, did we start with a few miles a day then build up. Well yes sort of, we started with a few miles thirty years ago and built up from there! 

As we were riding today, we were talking about our trip in 2007 around the perimeter of the US, 10,300 miles. I said something like you know our big trip in 2007. Then I realized that the trip we were on is about 2800 miles. Isn't it a BIG trip? I guess some would say it is. Just shows how we think of our trips as just some normal thing to do. 

In Afton, we discovered Clanton's Cafe. It was a diner that was featured on the show "Diners, Drive IN's and Dives". A fun place with great food. After leaving Afton, we got on the two lane narrower road. Oh, I forgot to mention the tailwind! We were cruising today. Fun riding. We finally got the tailwind we have been looking for in the last three states. What a great day!  Tomorrow we will be in Missouri, our sixth state. Woo hoo......Actually it will be a three state day. We'll be in Kansas for about two minutes. So it counts. Tomorrow is Oklahoma, Kansas and then Missouri! 

Trying to get out of the hotel

Route 66 in Tulsa, OK

Downtown Tulsa OK 

Road block! 

Nice shoulders leaving Tulsa

Lunch in Verdigris, OK 

Bike About Bikes in Claremore OK 

Yep it's the bottom bracket I'm sure of it 

That should fix it 

June 11, 2017. Sapulpa OK

Sunday June 11, 2017.      Sapulpa, OK

                           Oklahoma City, OK - Chandler OK

In Oklahoma City, OK we made plans to play pickleball with the OKC pickball club. After eating breakfast at the motel, we left the parking lot just like we knew where we were going. No problem, just go east a few blocks, north for about ten miles and Stephenson Park is right there, you can't miss it. Except for the detour! We didn't get two blocks before we saw the dreaded orange sign DETOUR AHEAD. Usually we find a way to get through, but not this time. Dang it! We turned around, and stopped to "discuss" our options. I promise there was no screaming or yelling, and no one was hurt in the discussion. But no one was speaking when we started out the second time. We arrived at the park, alittle late but after all that it didn't matter anyway. Jimmy had a couple of paddles for us, so we got to play pickleball yeahhhhh. We played for about three hours (in the wind!). How hard can it be? We are playing with a plastic ball, a ping pong paddle (sort of) and a short tennis net. It's very frustrating for us. Especially since we haven't played much lately. We've been busy....... It's a great game, though we love it. After 40 years of racquetball, pickleball fits us very well. 

We finally got away from the courts and headed east. By this time it was noon and in the 90's. Wind was 20-25 mph from the south (yep we are still going east). We stopped to eat before leaving OK CIty at "Pickles" Cafe. I'm not kiddin, that's the real name. Great food! After leaving OKC, we were on a narrow, no shoulder two lane road. And to make it extra fun/special there was a lot of traffic, who were in no mood for our bus. Sometimes I feel like a "lookout" on the back of the tandem. Just wish I had my gun.....ok ok.... a paintball gun. Whew what a day. The hills were long, steep and relentless. That added to the wind made for an interesting and tiring day. There is nothing like zooming down a steep hill, starting up the other side of the hill and coming to a dead stop, because of the wind and how steep the uphill is. 

We stopped at "POP", a tourist attraction on Route 66. It had any kind of pop that you would want. An interesting place. We both had a Lime Pop and sat outside drinking it. The only problem was that everyone else was also there. It was packed. And all those nice people who spoke to us at POPS, passed us in their car or motorcycle. Seems like they would move over alittle bit. But I guess they had to get to the next tourist attraction. 

We passed at least three RV parks, but none allowed the riff raff (tents), so we had one option for the night in Chandler. We both agreed that this was the most difficult day of the trip so far. We treated ourselves to a steak dinner! 

                        Chandler OK - Sapulpa OK

Weather forecast: Hot/humid 90's, wind out of the south 20 mph. Another long day in the saddle, although the hills today were constant just not quite as steep as yesterday. There was also not as much traffic, although the ones that were out there didn't like our bus. We stopped several times for a break, just to get out of the intense sun. The terrain seems more like Ohio than what I expected. I guess I thought Oklahoma would be like Texas, with lots of brown, desert like terrain. Boy was I wrong. Rolling green hills, lots of trees and ponds. Beautiful area.  The other thing that we see a lot of is, drilling equipment. Lots of oils wells around this area. 

We stopped for lunch in Bristow OK. What a great lunch at the Beach House.  One problem with biking this much is that we are always hungry. But when it is this hot, eating a big made day lunch is not a good idea. So no two cheeseburgers for me today. We split a baked potato and a Indian Taco. 

One good thing about the route today, is we are now following I-44 (instead of I-40) which heads more northeasterly instead of east. Since the winds are out of the south, at times we had a sort of 
tailwind at least until the road had a curve in it. 

Before we got into Sapulpa proper, we stopped at Walmart to get dinner supplies. (Caesar salad, kit, with the following added: tomato, avacado, cucumber, pistachios, strawberries, turkey and roast beef. The problem with Walmart was everybody else was there too, and they brought all their relatives. 

We just heard that this heat wave is sticking around for the next week! You know what I always say, "That's bike touring!" 

POP'S Diner

Bike maintenance 

Trying to get out of motel not always easy!

Dinner! Diane's famous salads 

June 9, 2017. Oklahoma City, OK

                                                          Elk City, OK - Weatherford OK


After breakfast in the motel room, we got on Interstate 40 until we got to the other side of town. Sometimes riding on the interstate does make it easier to get across town! We got off of I-40 and got back on the Frontage road. The frontage road had some nice long hills again. But the really good news is we did not have a big headwind. That was nice. I think that summer is starting though with temperatures in the 90's!

The terrain is changing again. Now we are riding more in very large green fields, more trees and more farmland. Another interesting note about riding on Route 66, is most of the towns we are going through seem to be dying. Lots of bordered up businesses and not many people walking around the towns. I was thinking how sad it was, but then I thought about Circleville where we live. If someone was traveling through Circleville, they would probably say wow, look at all of the places that have gone out of business. Although when you drive (or bike) through our town, you do see a lot of people walking around so maybe its not so bad.

We stopped for a break in one of the small towns, Canute OK. The town consisted of one street, a few houses and a huge church. The church had a nice porch that we were able to use for some shelter from the sun. The temps were in the 90's by 11:00. We are going to have to start riding a lot earlier.

We stopped in Clinton OK at another Brahm's Ice Cream place for lunch. Both of us were starved!
The Hap recovered nicely from his bout of "no power" from yesterday. We both got cheeseburgers and after I finished mine, I said I'm still hungry I think I'll have another. That was a first for me. A two cheeseburgers lunch. When we got back to the bike our thermometer on the bike said 118 degrees. Ouch. It was sitting in the sun. When we got to the bank in town the thermometer there said 92 degrees. All I know is it's hot.

After leaving the restaurant we ran into the two kids we saw a few days ago. They were looking good and still moving forward. We wish them the best of luck!

In Weatherford, our target for the night, we couldn't find a place to camp. There was a nice little local motel, Traveler Inn so we stayed there. Now I have to describe my WIFI pet peeve. So bare with me. All motels or even campgrounds that you go to all advertise they have Free WIFI. But when you try to use it, there's a good chance it won't work. I don't understand WIFI, but it just seems that if you advertise it's there, it should be there. I have heard all kinds of reasoning from the front desk. Let me give you a couple of examples:

1. We checked in, asked for the code (doesn't it seem like they already know you want the code...just sayin). Got to the room, no worky. I walked to the front desk with IPAD in hand and the kid said mmmm...let me reboot it and I'll call you. Back in the room, no call, no WIFI. Called again, this time he said, I need to call my manager. What time is it? Huh? I'll call you. No call. I call him. Oh, my manager had to go get a new box, the wiring was bad. It will work by 8:30p. By now I'm laughing. I said he's going to go to the store and get a part to fix it? How do you know it will be 8:30? He repeated it will be fixed by 8:30. Needless to say, I didn't bother anymore to call. But sure enough the WIFI finally worked, sort of.
2. We Checked into room, see above about the Code. Same deal. Walked IPAD to office. Kid said. It should work. Maybe its your IPAD. Of course it is, hadn't thought of that. He said let me reboot it.


Nice try but still no work. Walk back to office. It really should work. I said has anybody in room 117 ever had trouble he said no. I said in the history of that room no one? He said I live next door to that room and its the same WIFI I use all the time. See above about WIFI sort of working.

Sorry about the rant, maybe I'm just overheated.

                                                  Weatherford, OK - Oklahoma City, OK

The ride into Oklahoma City was more of the same, riding on the frontage road. The hills seemed a lot longer and steeper today. Temps still in the 90's. Altille headwind but really not that bad. The frontage road got away from  I 40 which was nice. We were riding on a two lane road in the pretty country side.

At one point we saw a group of Mustang cars that passed us.. On the windshield was written "KIWIS DRIVING ROUTE 66". Apparently Route 66 is a popular destination for foreigners to drive.

We had a longish ride into Oklahoma City. We have been in contact with the Pickleball Ambassador
of OKCity and have planned an extra day to play some pickleball. The closer we got to the city, the more traffic we found. We also saw a lot of gas/oil drilling sites.

Getting to our hotel was pretty exciting, with traffic, freeways and more traffic. But we made it. At the motel, I asked for a ground floor room. Even though I requested it online when I made the reservation. Now mind you the parking lot of the motel was empty, the motel was empty. She said sorry no ground rooms are available. I said, do you see that bus out there, that's ours. If we don't have a ground floor we have to carry it all upstairs. She said we have an elevator. I said it won't fit. She said we have a suite for $10 more. I said no, that's not ok. How many ground floor rooms do you have? She said eight. She ended up calling her manager and got permission to let us have one. As it
turned out it was a huge suite! Nice.

We plan two days here in OK City, so that we can play pickleball.

We made plans with Rocky, the pickleball ambassador to pick us up this morning and take us to the
gym. We met some great people and had some awesome games. It's just alittle frustrating that we can't play better. Perhaps peddlin doesn't help our picklin at all. Oh well, it was fun anyway. We went out to lunch with Rocky and Hal. Great conversation and meal. Hopefully we'll be able to play more ball tomorrow before leaving town. We'll see how that works out. The forecast is for even hotter weather and 15-20 mph winds out of the south. Guess which way we are going.......

90 ++degrees......it's hot

Abandoned business on Route 66 

Terrain change! Now we see farmland 

Almost there

A TWO cheeseburger lunch

Which way Hap? 

Extrex 20 GPS

 Long straight hilly road to OKC

Well deserved Summer Shandy 

How do you work these paddles? 

June 6, 2017. Elk City OK

                                                                               Amarillo TX - Groom TX

Buddy fixed us an awesome breakfast before we left his house on Sunday morning. Homemade Belgian waffles!  Can't get much better than that. Leaving Amarillo was interesting because it seemed like no one was in town. We went through some of the downtown area, I think. Lots of wide open road, closed businesses and no one around. We did see a lot of people sort of loitering around here and there. Not sure what that was about. But the empty roads made for some nice easy riding. Once we got out of town we could feel that we had a side/headwind. The wind had shifted from SE to NE. Instead of the wind coming from our right it came from the left. It was a beautiful sunny day. Hopefully all of the storms that have been happening the past two days are done. There was some major downpours with a lot of standing water on the roads. 

Eventually we got back on a frontage road running alongside of I-40 on the east side of Amarillo. Once again we saw miles and miles of windmills on both sides of the interstate for about 60 miles! There must be a lot of wind here. We came upon sort of a strange little park on the frontage road. We couldn't figure out what it was. It was some sort of a veterans memorial park. It had displays made out of metal with lots of dates that had historical meaning. But it didn't say what the dates were. Some were obvious, others made no sense. I wrote them down so we could look them up later. In the evening I looked up what the park was and found out it was called The Peace Park. Some man just made this memorial with dates and images that meant something to him. Interesting. At least he didn't bury any cadillacs! 

Back on the road, there really wasn't much scenery. It was sort of like running on a treadmill with wind. It's interesting that the traffic was running along at 75 mph and we were seeing the same sights at 12-15 mph. We stopped for what we thought was going to be lunch at a cafe, but turned out to be a Subway at a Loves Travel Center. What a busy place! For the next several days we have zero options for camping. Bummer! So I called THE motel in Groom to make sure there wasn't a big event going on and we couldn't get a room. Because here's the thing.....if you are in a car and get turned down, you just say darn and get back in your car. On a bike, you say something else, get back on the bike and ride another 30 miles! All in all for us a fairly easy day of riding in beautiful sunshine, wind in our hair (mine) and a clear road. What more could you want!  In Groom we checked out their tourist attraction. It's a huge cross (it is 190 feet high) with all of the stations of the cross surrounding it. You can see this cross for miles before getting to Groom. We also stopped at THE grocery in Groom for dinner stuff. Not much food but it's food/fuel.

                                                          Groom TX - Shamrock TX

We had oatmeal, peanut butter and tortillas in the motel before leaving. Another sunny, NW wind day. Frontage road again. Windmills again (for part of the day anyway) and no traffic again. It seemed like there were more rolling hills along with more trees instead of the flat lands. I also think I actually saw one corn field. Not sure about that, but I've seen my share of corn and it sure looked like it! 

We stopped for lunch in McClean TX.  FYI there are TWO stops today. One town and one roadside rest. We really are in the middle of nowhere. I always wondered where nowhere was. Didn't know I'd find it in the Texas Panhandle. At the top of this page you can see on the map where we are! It's marked "nowhere". OR you could look it up in the dictionary under "nowhere". 

In McClean, two other touring cyclists stopped to eat at the same time. They are from California and on their way to Boston. They are traveling with their dog, Goofy who is riding in a basket on the front of his bike. This is their first tour. Both are college students on summer break. They were having some bike issues so Hap took a look. Unfortunately he had a broken spoke and we have 

different size spokes. It was fun talking with them about their adventure. We remember our first tour in 1985 from Portland, OR - San Francisco CA. It was so much fun! That trip changed our lives because we got hooked on bike touring and have spent 32 more years seeing the world by bike. 

We just had a short ride up to Shamrock TX to another motel. One thing we have noticed is that there are RV parks along our route. They just don't want the riff raff in their parks. They don't know what their missing! But the important thing is we are safe and sound, have clean laundry and full bellies. Tomorrow we ride into our next state, O-O-O_klahoma where the sun shines mainly on the plain..........

                                                           Shamrock TX - Elk City OK

Before leaving the motel, We ate a couple of "breakfast bowls" that we purchased at the grocery store the night before. How can you go wrong with Jimmy Deans??

Today seemed like a pretty straightforward day. Eat breakfast at motel, start riding early, get on Frontage road alongside I-40 heading east. What could possibly go wrong? First of all the temps were a lot warmer, in the 90's in the afternoon. Then, It seemed like there was more climbing today. Not the usual climbing that you expect. Noooo it was the climbing that you don't see, those sneaky mile or more long climbs that don't seem like climbs when all of a sudden you realize your heart rate has been climbing and climbing. I knew that something was up when Hap said mmmmm (I hate it when he says that) I don't seem to have much power. We stopped on another one of the loooonnnnggg climbs along the frontage road and his heart rate was way too high for Hap. I asked, how much water have you had to drink? Seems like a reasonable question to me? Considering the temps in the 90's AND Hap's history of cramping and heat issues over the last 30 years. I mixed up another bottle with a NUMMS (electolyte tablet) in it and we went back to climbing. 

Our goal for fluid replacement while riding is to drink one bottle (20 oz) of water per hour. We usually average about four-five hours of riding per day. On days like this you just can't drink too much water. When riding you don't realize how much water you need. Even though this is a dry 

heat and you don't sweat much, you can still lose a lot of fluids by just breathing. Hap has had heat/cramping issues many times so we know to be very careful about water intake on days like this. Towards the end of the ride today, he really struggled with "no power'". We stopped several times to try to keep him cool and hydrated. He wears a helmet liner, so I soaked it in cold water after one stop. 

We only had two service stops for the day. Two opportunities to refill water and get something to eat. We also stopped at every opportunity to try to cool down and drink water. 

Once we got to Elk City, we stopped at Brahms Ice cream shop to figure out what we were doing for the night. The only campground was another 18 miles down the road. There are several motel options in town, so we went with one of those. Hap hadn't actually started to cramp yet, but we didn't want that to happen. There have been several times when we have been on rides that Hap 

has had severe cramps. No reason to push it. On the way to the motel, we stopped at a grocery store to buy dinner supplies. 

We finally got to the other side of town to the Bedford Inn. As it turned out we paid $39/night for the hotel and camping (18 miles further down the road) was going to cost $35/night. I guess God knows what he''s doing. Why do we worry about the details?

Veterans Peace Park I-40 leaving Amarillo TX 

I think the sky IS bigger in Texas

Lunch stop 

What are you looking at Hap? 

Dinner! 

Yes Diane, Of course it's good! 

Rest area on I-40 

Does that sign say Watch for Snakes? WHAT! Are you kiddin me?

Windmill country Texas

Other riders on Route 66 

"Goofy" just waitin to get back on the road! 

God provides ALL just when you need it 

A wheat field in Oklahoma 

Oklahoma!

Brahms Ice Cream tastes better when it's 100 degrees