The most luxurious hotel room since the JW Marriott Chicago two weeks ago, but the worse night sleep for no obvious reason. Maybe we need the sound of the road to help us sleep these days.
The advertised ‘full breakfast’ was disappointing. The only hot buffet items were a single piece of fossilized bacon and a vat of watery scrambled egg, so waffles and maple syrup it was.
The stretch goal was to make it 70 miles to Claremore, so we were packed and checked out by 8:30 am. The roads out of town were quiet, with all of the traffic lights through the town turning to green in our favour for once. It’s no mean feat getting a 50kg bike up to speed only to stop 100m further down the road at the next set of lights. It’s these little things that make all the difference to morale when you are sitting on a bike seat the size of a small outstretched hand when all you can think of is why I’m not still tucked up in bed.
We had checked the road out on Google Maps and the route on Garmin so had concluded the 70 miles to Claremore was doable, even for us. What we hadn’t done was check Windy, the app we use to check the wind speed ad direction when sailing on the Firth of Clyde. Silly us!
While we have had the wind in our face since Chicago, it has never been so strong that it slowed us down too much, that is until today.
We knew today wouldn’t be the most interesting of rides, however, if we had set out to design a road that could support an easy 70 miles, this would have been it. It was flat, smooth and at times the hard shoulder was wider than the road itself. There were only gentle ups and plenty of gentle downs. Perfect!
What we hadn’t figured into the equation was the impact of a 20 mph headwind on two bikes with the aerodynamic credentials of a house. Three hours into the day it was very clear that we were not going to make our target, so a lunchtime replanning session was required.
The only other town before Claremore that had any chance of accommodation was Chelsea, although nothing was showing up on the usual accommodation websites.
We had accommodation arranged in Claremore through Warmshowers with Karin. Another demonstration of how generous people can be, Karin had left her door open for us as she was working until midnight. Note, this is a lady that we have never met, just communicated with through the Warmshowers website, that trusted us enough to leave her door unlocked and offered full access to her home while she was out. I continue to be amazed by how generous people can be and am determined to be more trusting and generous myself in the future.
I sent Karin a message to thank her for her generous offer of accommodation, but regretfully confirm we would not make it to Claremore.
If there wasn’t accommodation to be found upon arrival in Chelsea, then we would just need to find a square a grass behind a tree and stealth camp for the night, which I have a feeling is going to get more frequent an occurrence as we head west
The going continued to be tough without any break from the relentless wind. The temperature wasn’t doing us any favours either and hovered around the 33oC mark much of the day. It was like cycling in a fan assisted oven but without the door and baking trays.
We did pass through one town during the course of the day, Vinita, which was very pretty, but that’s about it.
While we sat in Vinita’s single service station to allow Deborah to freeze her brain on something unnaturally blue in colour a group of about ten Harleys arrived with a support van following, with a trailer attached containing a spare Harley. I guess the spare is required in the event one of the ten breaks down, but it did seem just a tad overkill.
I’m not sure what it was exactly, but having lived and worked in Europe with friends from most European nationalities I knew immediately the nationality of these Route 66 tourists… German! While this observation may be difficult for my friends from around the world to understand, I am sure most of my European friends get it. PS. I love the Germans! š
We rejoined the road and after about 20 minutes I could see the ten Harleys, lights on, in my rearview mirror. While most biker we pass on the road, almost without exception, acknowledges us as fellow two-wheelers of the road, with an outreached hand or a wave, not a single one of our European Harley riding friends acknowledged us. I guess they were late to their next hotel and had not arranged for beach towels to be placed on the pool loungers in their absence. PS. Did I mention already that I love the Germans? š
There really isn’t much more to write about as the road was as boring as we thought it would be, so I’ll leave it at another photograph rather than waffling on about it.
Just before we arrived in Chelsea as if the Route was saying “Hey, sorry for this stretch being boring, but before you stop for the day, why not come over as see this really cool bridge”… so we did.
Five minutes later we were in Chelsea and five minutes after that the charming Trudy had welcomed us to her (and her husband Frank’s) delightful Motor Inn. Our bed for the night.
The Motor Inn is not listed on booking.com but is one of those treasures that you happen across once in a while. It is clear that Trudy and Frank take pride in their motel, with the room decorated in Oklahoma Native American paintings and photographs.
Hungry, we walked across the road to the supermarket rather than either of the other two choices for food in town (yes, it is that small) Subway or a Mexican restaurant.
After eating more than I thought possible, we are now chilling out, having checked the Windy app to confirm that the wind is not going to give us a break tomorrow either, but Tulsa it must be by tomorrow night.
I always make it a point to read your blog every night. Absolutely love the fantastic journey that you are having. How long will it take for you to reach LA ?
Great to hear from you. We hope to be in LA by mid-November, then in the Bay Area before the end of December so we can catch up with friends before the flight home on December 7th.
Great to hear from you. We hope to be in LA by mid-November, then in the Bay Area before early December so we can catch up with friends before the flight home on December 7th.
A tough day but you lucked out with a nice finish.
Not sure how you’ve planned for make up days in the itinerary so will be interesting to read.
Happy October! Maybe the temperatures will now start dropping a bit, but not so much that you are feeling back in Scotland. It does stay windy on the plains so maybe earlier rides to avoid some of the daytime heat/wind? At least a tactic to consider.
We don’t really have a plan, so no need to make up lost days. We have accommodation organised in Tulsa, so not making the miles yesterday just means a longer today today rather than a very short one. The next one is Arcadia next weekend for a Bluegrass Festival, which is easily doable to the point we could be a day early. When we planned this all reference said it woukd be around 20oC… so far we haven’t had a day below 30oC. E eryone is telling us it is unseasonably hot. Fingers crossed it cools soon as it really is energy sapping. The wind look like it drops off tomorrow then switched to a northerly. Time will tell if that is acurate!!