YeeHaw, I'm in Texas

I've made it to Texas. Holy Heck. And I've gotten my kicks on Route 66.

Oklahoma has been my favorite state by far. The rides into OK (Vinita) and the ride out of it yesterday into Wheeler, Texas have been 2 of the 3 most beautiful rides we had. The ride into Wheeler was 78 miles which I mostly did alone but I was perfectly content with that because the view was breathtaking, especially sunrise. We are now hitting the road at civil twilight which is 20 minutes before sunrise. It's important we get on the road early because the heat can be a killer. While this means we get less sleep, it also means we get the sunrise. The sun was behind me yesterday so I didn't have to put on my sunglasses until lunch. The pink slowly came into view the lighting of the early morning on the Oklahoma ranches was a sight to be seen.

The in between days in Oklahoma were fine. We stayed in Tulsa to build. I loved our hosts who were so gracious and such amazing cooks, but I didn't really like Tulsa that much. The one thing I noticed was how there was a serious lack of sidewalks. The 2 days out of Tulsa (into Chandler and Yukon) we followed Route 66 for most of it. While there were some fun attractions along the way (including a giant blue whale, a round barn, and Pop's), and I did get my kicks, I was glad when we got off Route 66. The road 152 into cordell and wheeler were much more scenic and made the rides, although hot, enjoyable.

The ride into Yukon, outside of Oklahoma City, was a shorter day of 63 miles for us. Kristi's derailler (shifting mechanism) had busted the day before so she was going to the bike shop in the afternoon. I decided to go as well and not ride. My gears have been giving me major issues since day 1 along with other and Jose had discovered that our shifters housing and cable were defective. One girls bike had completely stopped functioning so I wanted to fix the problem before it was too late.

I had a lot of fun in the bike shop. It took forever (we were there for 3 1/2 hours) but I enjoyed talking to the guys who work there and it was nice to talk to non-bike and builders for an extended period. And now my bike works beautifully.

Today's ride was really rough. It was a 2% grade uphill after mile 10 for the next 88 miles. I rode with Devon in the morning and told my life story but I barely made it to lunch. It was really rough and windy. Then I ate and felt better so I kept going. Devon got sick pretty quickly (stomach virus floating around?!) so she rode in the van and I ended up riding with Sophie and Jorge who were sweep. I pushed and pushed until second lunch at mile 68 before I called it quits for the day. I just couldn't push anymore and the rate I was going I wouldn't get in until 6. Like Sophie said, it's a marathon, not a sprint and you just have to push yourself as much as possible regardless of whatever the mileage is for the day.

We're now in Amarillo and we'll build here tomorrow. So far Texas is another world. A youth group cooked for us last night and somehow some of our group ended up shooting shotguns somewhere with one of the kids. That's texas for you. We also passed a feed lot (slaughterhouse) which was not fun to see. All the cows were mashed together and there was no grass. So far I'm disappointed in the lack of scenic views in Texas, but I'm glad to meet the people and feel the culture.

All in all it was a pretty good 5 day riding stretch but as usual, I'm looking forward to not getting on my bike tomorrow.