Okay, so we have a conflict this morning. While I fell to sleep the moment my head hit the pillow, right through until around 6 am when our working neighbours that live permanently in the RV park started to head to work, including an Oklahoma Police Officer, Deborah had a different experience. According to Deborah, the only person I know that sticks earplugs in her ears so deep they almost touch in the middle, the RV park ‘sounded like an airport all night’. Regardless, it was time to get up.
A little earlier I had picked up an email from a student that booked to be sailing with Britsail this weekend stating she was unwell and needed to cancel. As I was getting up, I received a text from another student stating that due to illness she also needed to cancel. Upon contacting yet another student that I know has a cousin that might want to sail this weekend, to fill a space, I discovered she had informed Derek, the instructor this weekend, that she needed to cancel due to illness too.
Before the tent was packed, I received an email informing me that due to a family emergency another of the students would need to cancel. So on a five student course, we just lost four students.. a first in the history of Britsail and not the best start to the day!
We don’t cancel courses at Britsail, so knowing that Walter, the single remaining student is looking at this weekend as a preparation for his Day Skipper course in a week or so, I now had to find at least a couple of students for the weekend in the next few hours to enable the weekend to go head.
To cut a long story short, I found enough students for the course to go ahead over countless phone calls and text, all while attempting to cycle to Oklahoma City… Deborah cycling ahead while I made calls, then racing to catch up, then repeating.
As a result of our morning challenges, a few of the sites we were hoping to visit had to be passed by, with the plan for the day to cycle to the eastern edge of Oklahoma City, before finding a room for the night.
Thankfully the temperature was still in the mid-twenties most of the day and there were a few clouds to reduce the intensity of sun a little. The wind was also still gentle and if anything continuing to blow in our favour.
Shortly after we left the RV park, as we sped down our first hill of what was to become a day of hills, a lady that appeared to be collecting litter at the side of the road shouted out “Be safe”.
I can only guess this lady has experienced the road from a bike, as this was certainly the most cycle unfriendly stretch of road that we have cycled to date. While we occasionally had a hard shoulder to keep a distance for the traffic, most of the time the road was single carriageway in both directions without anywhere for us to hide. The hills that we had experienced cycling through Missouri had also reappeared, plus the traffic seemed much heavier than previous days.
While I can only guess at the reasons for such a narrow road with no hard shoulder, we discovered the reason for the increased traffic when we approached an intersection with the interstate. This section of interstate was a toll road, which upon closer inspection seemed very quiet for an interstate.
All that said, these roads that we were now cycling on are no different to the roads we cycle on in the UK. I can only put the fact that this road did feel a little dangerous down to being spoiled, with hard shoulders at the side of even minor roads, over a previous couple of weeks.
We passed by a few towns on the route, as well as a few roadside leftovers from the Route 66 glory days, but due to the stop, phone, race, repeat nature of the day, it wasn’t until all was sorted upon reaching Arcadia, the originally planned stop for the day when we thought we had a Bluegrass Festival to attend, that we could start enjoying the ride again.
The cycle from Arcadia into the city was clearly through the area where the rich and famous of Oklahoma City live, with mile after mile of enormous country estates. Even the smaller new build plots were being advertised as 3, 5 or 10 acres.
In passing that is something we have noticed on this trip so far. Rich or poor, everyone seems to have an enormous garden plot, with most seeming to own a sit on grass cutter. They don’t appear to do much with these plots, apart from growing grass and spent significant time cutting it, but they do like their big plots for some reason.
As we progressed into the city, although still on the fringes of the city the plot size reduced in size, relatively speaking, but the houses became no less impressive. Yes, at least this side of Oklahoma City was doing quite well for itself.
Unfortunately, that can’t be said for the first motel we tried, the Park Inn.
At around the 50-mile mark for the day it was the first motel we came upon at around 5 pm. The reception was closed, which is never a good sign for that time of day, with a bell to ring on the outside door.
A few minutes after ringing the bell, just before I was about to walk away in the belief there was nobody at home, an Indian lady with a strong southern (UK southern) accent opened a small service hatch at the right side of the door. Another not so good sign.
Explaining I was looking for a room the door was opened so that I could enter the dark and gloomy reception area. The lady’s husband took over the sale, explaining they were from Essex and had moved to the area a few years ago to be closer to their family.
He also explained that the internet was out and that if we needed ice he had a small freezer in the reception with bags of ice we could purchase, although the first was free, which he gave me. Upon checking out our allotted room, between two, that we could see were used either as storage or the place items of furniture and household appliances go to die, we decided we were in need of some early evening exercise and left.
The next hotel on the list was another 2.5 miles along the road, with a couple of mountain passes between us and it. Did I mention Oklahoma City is definitely trying to compete with San Francisco for hilliness?
The Lincoln Inn Express Hotel and Suites looked more promising from the far side of a six-lane road providing on and off services to the interstate highway, I-44. Ten minutes later after a well-timed dash across d lanes based on the traffic light sequence a mile up the road, I found myself standing at the reception without major incident.
While Deborah guarded our bikes, I initiated the standard round of room rate negotiation.
Me: (after checking booking.com) What is your best price for two tired Route 66 cyclists?
Receptionist: $68 plus tax
Me: I can get a double queen for $58 including tax on booking.com
Receptionist: Okay, I can give you it for $65 plus tax.
Me: No, you see if I press this button (showing him my phone with the booking.com app up) I can get the same room for $58 including tax.
Receptionist: But if you do that we will to pay an admin fee to booking.com and we won’t even get $58.
Me: So what is you best price for the room if we cut out booking.com and I pay you directly.
Receptionist: (looking confused) $65 plus tax.
Me: Okay, so I’ll buy it for $58 including tax through booking.com. I’m pressing the button now. Okay?
Receptionist: But then we will only get about $50 for the room.
Me: Yes, I know. So how much for the room if I don’t press the button on booking.com and I buy from you directly?
Receptionist: (lightbulb appeared above head) Ah, I understand. The best I can do is match booking.com, but I can give you an upgraded room.
Me: (is it really worth another 5 mins of my life for possibly another $5 saving) Okay, let’s do that.
Checked in we wheeled the bikes around to the ample sized room for two people and two big bikes and relaxed.
After a quick shower, the next priority was food. A quick check of the only possibility in the area, this hotel being on the slip road of the interstate, was a gas station. With the most appealing opinion for a veggie being a $3 tub of Campbell’s soup, we returned to the room empty-handed.
With the only option being what was in our panniers, we didn’t do too badly. With the stove set up on the balcony and the supplied microwave, we prepared a feast of tortilla wraps, with melted cheese, tomato and onion filling for a starter, and pasta with a tomato and garlic sauce for the main course. Options for dessert were limited to Cheesy Cheetos.
Fed and relaxed we enjoyed a James Bond movie night, followed by an early night.
PS. When I say early night, that usually means Deborah trying to sleep, while I starting to write the days blog. Understanding this, hopefully, my grammar and spelling mistakes are excused!!
Errr…..Bob there is always Uber Eats in a place like Oklahoma City!!!!!!!
You woukd need to be organised to arrange that Kevin. Pasta was good… tonight we are walking up to a resturant near the campsite – El Reno West