Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Wednesday Oct 9 - Tulsa OK to Amarillo TX

Overcast this morning and warm (60F). The motel last night was pretty bad, neighborhood was bad, local restaurants were bad. I tried to get coffee at 6:30 but the guy was walking around in his pajamas just starting to set up with the lights off. I came back at 7:00 to luke warm coffee, bread for toast wrapped in saran wrap, watered down OJ, yuck. Had some coffee and juice and packed up, looks like McDonalds for breakfast. I skipped the rain gear but it soon started so stopped beside the road and suited up. My rain stuff is great. I stay bone dry no matter how hard it rains. It did not rain that hard. It did not last long and by the time I got past Oklahoma City, it was clear skies again. Yesterday and today I used the Oklahoma turnpike, which has weird toll booth. Real pain in the keister especially on a bike with rain gear. You keep having to stop and give them money. At one tollbooth it was exact change only and there is a bill changer in case you do not have enough quarters. The wind was howling so getting a dollar bill into it was almost impossible. A woman in front of me also gave up and was trying to knock on the office door to pay them directly but nobody came out. She said they said they would send her a bill based on the licence plate but she was from Europe. I pulled off beyond the tollbooth, found $1.50 in change and walked back to the tollbooth and threw the money in. Grrrrr.
I have seen signs for the Trail of Tears the last couple of days. Andrew Jackson forced the Cherokee Indians to move west to Oklahoma. Ugly stuff.
I had a wicked head-wind and the little 300cc engine really struggled up the hills with a headwind on the extra sized windshield. I guess that is the price you pay for a smaller bike. I still wouldn't swap back to a bigger bike. Lots of wind turbines all day so I guess Oklahoma and Texas are ok with them. They were cranking today. I must have seen a thousand between Tulsa and Amarillo. I noticed that the low beam headlight was out. I found a shop in Amarillo and they had a replacement. I tried replacing it at the motel tonight but it is tricky so I'll stop in the morning and see if they can do it. A little too much pulling and flexing for my taste. Dinner next door at an awesome little diner (Malcolm's). Turkey club, but no beer. A huge cold front is coming down from the northwest so I am heading south tomorrow and then west to New Mexico and Arizona the next couple of days.
Odometer beginning of trip = 35820
Odometer beginning of day = 38578
Odometer end of day = 38957
Miles today = 379
Miles on trip to date = 3137
Travel days = 9
Zero days = 2
Average miles per traveling day = 348

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