Cycling Coast to Coast

Today we left Route 66 and rode on SR152 for most of the day to Cordell, OK.  The last few days have been shorter rides in the 60 to 70 mile range, but today we’re back up to 83 miles.  The weather has been getting noticeably hotter, but on these shorter days, we arrive at the host location early in the afternoon and so miss the brunt of the heat.  Today, however, was a long day, and a real scorcher.  At 11:30am, it was already 103F, and as I was sweep, I didn’t get in until about 4pm. 

As we ride along though, I find it really interesting to see how the terrain and vegetation changes.  So far, we’ve seen a lot of grazeland and livestock in Oklahoma.  Yesterday, I noticed that the earth is now reddish-colored.  Also, up until today, Oklahoma has been relatively flat, but today we started to climb up to the Great Plains.  It was a hilly day; not steep, but lots of gradual hills that when summed together (and with the heat) really wore me down.

Yesterday, we had a fun ride from Chandler to Yukon.  As we were riding along, just west of Arcadia, suddenly we saw a giant modern sculpture of a soda bottle across the street.  Of course, we had to stop to check it out, and turns out it was a gas station/cafe called Pops that has over 500 varieties of soda (LaVerde’s, take that!).  It was awesome.  I bought a t-shirt, and enjoyed an awesome chocolate milkshake.  The building walls are glass, and filled with shelves stocked with multicolored soda bottles.

Since leaving St. Louis, our trip has been roughly following the historic route 66, and will be all the way to California.  Yesterday, riding from Vinita to Tulsa, we rode on 66 for 48 miles.  I found it really fun to see all the signs marking the road as the historic route 66, and all the business along the road with “66″ in their names.  We even stopped at the Blue Whale in Catoosa, a classic route 66 roadside attraction.

Most appropriately, our wake-up song when leaving Vinita was “Get your kicks on Route 66″, performed by Nat King Cole.  I’ve included the lyrics below, and we are hitting up most of the towns mentioned in the song.

Well if you ever plan to motor west
Travel my way, take the highway that’s the best
Get your kicks on Route 66

Well it winds from Chicago to LA
More than two thousands miles all the way
Get your kicks on Route 66

Well it goes to St. Louis
Down to Missouri
Oklahoma City looks oh so pretty

You’ll see Amarillo
Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona
Don’t forget Wynonna
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino

Won’t you get hip to this kindly tip
And go take that California trip
Get your kicks on Route 66