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Canadian River at dawn
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A bit nippy at the start in Purcell, just 50 degrees as we huddled in the parking lot for breakfast. After turning in our keys to the motel office (yes, they still had metal keys!), we backtracked yesterday's route into downtown Purcell. We rolled through town during morning rush hour and headed east on Route 77. The bridge over the Canadian river is at least 1/2 mile long! The river is not that wide, but the bridge also goes over several rail lines and a very wide flood plain.
After crossing the river, we are back in forest and farms. Most of the farms had grazing cattle in rolling fields.
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Canadian River...again
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We rolled through the first SAG at about 30 miles. After a quick reload we were back at the road and we crossed the Canadian river a second time!
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Byng Community Park
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Snack selection in the Red Truck SAG
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The next SAG was in Byng at 50 miles. It was in a great little community park in a very small town. Its going to be a long day, so we made it a quick stop to move on to lunch.
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Road under construction
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Soon after leaving the SAG, we encountered a construction zone with one way traffic. A flagman was holding up cars, but didn't seem to care if we rode through, so we did! Actually the pavement under construction was better that the surface further down the road.
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Tall water tower
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We saw several of these tall water towers on the route today. All were at the tops of climbs and are run by local rural water districts.
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Patriotic display in Calvin OK
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Stuart Memorial Park
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We rolled through Calvin OK before stopping at the last SAG of the day in Stuart OK. The SAG was a few hundred meters off the route at a park in town.
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Bikes at the Stuart City Hall and Hotel!
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Shady Gazebo with treats!
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More fresh watermelon, bottle reload and we push out for the last portion of the ride.
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OK Route 1
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We rode OK Route 1 all the way to McAlester. Rural farms teeming with livestock slowly gave way to the urban outskirts of McAlester.
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Downtown McAlester
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The Aldridge Hotel (now apartments) dominated the downtown skyline. Traffic was heavy and we headed through town to our hotel near the Kiamachi Tech Center. One more bout of road construction on the frontage road, and a bit of gravel and we arrived at home for the night.
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Making Progress
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We rolled in a little after 4pm, covering 114 miles in 8.5 hours. Same after ride routine; clean the bike, get hotel key, clean the body and kit, and find dinner.
Tomorrow we finish in Arkansas, put on your climbing gear, we have over 8,000 feet in 99 miles!
Click here for today's GPS data
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