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Moon setting over Weatherford OK
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It was quite chilly this morning, in the low 50's and I was glad to have the knee and arm warmers, vest, long gloves and warm skull cap to start the ride. We rolled out heading due east into the sunrise. Since its the Autumnal Equinox, the sun was due east and creating a lot of glare for us, and the drivers behind! We were on another old section of Route 66 were happy that traffic was light.
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Lucille's Roadhouse (original)
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Just 4 miles from the replica we dined in last night, we arrived at the real thing. Well, at least the real restored thing, it no longer operates. When the interstate bypassed the site, the business, like many others on Route 66 suffered a significant decrease in business. Still, Lucille operated the business until she died in 2000. It is on the Register of Historic Places and the outside has been restored to its original condition!
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Rolling farm land
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Beautiful pond and 'farm house'
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Lots of round hay bales in this area
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Lots of rollers in open and rolling farm land. The road surface was good
and yesterdays cross-winds were just a light breeze. They would remain
light for the rest of the day.
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Wind turbine under construction
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We had quite the tour of energy evolution this morning. There was quite a
bit of heavy oversize truck traffic carrying the blades for the large
wind turbines. When they went by they create huge wind turbulents, and
take up 2/3rds of the road.
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Abandoned oil pump
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Just a few miles up the road, we noticed several old rusted oil pumps. All were out of service, some also had rusting tanks nearby.
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Drill rig at fracking site
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Another few miles up the road we came upon this drill rig running full tilt! Based on the equipment installed at the site (various tanks and elaborate piping), it looks like a future fracking site. Another few miles up the road, we saw a completed fracking site in operation.
After that flurry of energy production sites, it was back to farms and roller after roller.
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Bikers Welcome at KT's BBQ
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Oh baby, that's real BBQ
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Great shade tree at the lunch SAG
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Lunch was at KT's BBQ. The lunch trailers were set up in the parking lot, and we ate a wonderful BBQ meal under a beautiful shade tree on a grassy hillside with expansive views. Much better than eating inside! We could have stayed there much longer and enjoyed many more ribs, but we still had 32 miles to go!
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Two of these rolled by the last SAG
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We headed out at a very easy digestion pace, which was not easy to do with the constant up and down in the rollers! We finally warmed back up and found our rhythm. By apply steady pedal pressure and increasing gears on the downhills, speed increases rapidly, and that momentum can carry you part-way or even over the top of the next roller. On the successive uphill rollers, we could carry our momentum about half-way up before having to get out of the saddle or pedal harder/downshift to hit the top. On many of the downhill rollers, our momentum would carry us most or all the way over the top.
The last SAG suddenly appeared and we reloaded for the last time. We were about to push out, when two tractors appeared. They took up most of the road, so we waited a few extra minutes and let them pass!
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The road flattened out toward Purcell
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The rollers flattened out as the route took us from farm roads to highways for the final 15 miles on the route. Many quarter horse farms dotted the landscape!
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PacTour turn arrow
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To avoid most of main street Purcell, the route took many turns through the surrounding residential area. With the Garmin, cue sheet, and these handy PacTour arrows painted on the road, it would be hard to get lost!
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Everyone gets a first floor room!
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We rolled into Ruby's Inn. Its a 'cheap but clean' classic independent motel. Happily all the rooms are on the first floor. After a long day in the saddle, dragging your bike and duffel up stairs is no fun!
We had dinner at a great Mexican place across the street, and hit Walmart next-door for some supplies.
That was a day, 113 miles, 3,700 feet of rollers; in 8.5 hours!
Tomorrow you can practice your momentum roller technique, it looks like a carbon copy of today! See you in the parking lot at 7:30!
Click here for GPS details.
2 comments:
Give me a long steady uphill climb any day over those rollers. I feel for you.
Thank you for the roller lesson. I love it when I can get that momentum and rhythm going well. September in Tucson the rollers all had debris in the bottom. I had also wondered about riding after lunch earlier in your adventure. You are doing such an amazing feat.
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