Entry for Thursday, 21 September 2000

The Whitlaw Ranch's mailboxes just outside of Mooreland, OK.

Connie caught up with me around 11:30 about 15 miles from Orienta, OK.

Ray getting out of early morning leg warmers.

Abandoned cafe along the road.

Road construction along the way.

A rest stop a few miles before Orienta, OK.

Orienta , OK. Two grain elevators, a store and a house.

It hasn't rained in a long time in this part of Oklahoma.

Last Modified on 9/30/2000 at 5:18:47

Day's Narrative: I met with Cinda Appel at breakfast this morning for a newspaper article interview. I believe she's planning to combine the bicycling story with recipes from our cookbook "Jo'burg to Los Alamos," possibly for an article for the whole color back page of the Sunday edition. We have some copies of our book with us in the van and she bought one yesterday. She said she had to keep wrestling it back from the newsroom staff--everyone needs new ideas for dinner.

The temperature this morning was predicted to be 40F (4C) because a cold front came through last night, so I dressed warmly. Actually, it was warmer than that, about 50F (10C).

Ten miles from Woodward at the town of Mooreland I looked at the map and it looked relatively empty of towns from Mooreland to Orienta -- a distance of 40 miles. I inquired at the store across the street and discovered that my map was correct, there were no more stores until Orienta. I bought an extra bottle of water to take along.

The wind was a cross wind out of the South at about 15 mph today, which meant that it was a slow day.

Connie caught up with me about 11:30 after meeting with Cinda Appel about Cinda's newspaper article. It was good to have her take the warm clothing I wore earlier and she had some bananas which really tasted good.

Later as I was cycling along a woman from the Bemis Construction Co., the company working on the new highway, yelled "How many miles?" at me as I passed. Not knowing how to answer that, I turned around and went back to talk. Her name was Paige and she said she was too bashful to have her picture taken. Nevertheless, we talked about bicycling, I gave her the URL of my bicycle web site, and then rode on.

At Orienta I stopped at the store to eat lunch. I had some of their fried chicken, but was nervous about that after the food problems I had day before yesterday. So far this evening I feel fine.

It was also great to rest a bit before heading South for the last six miles to Fairview -- directly into the wind. I met a motorcyclist (no photo) from Dodge City, KS who said he had 55 mph headwinds coming here from Kansas. Another front will be arriving from the North tomorrow night.

Tomorrow is supposed to be warm again with a high of 94F (34C) and the wind is predicted to be 20-30 mph from the South to Southwest with gusts going higher than that. I'm not sure I can ride in 30 mph cross winds. If the wind happens to be a little more from the Southwest I may be OK since I'll be heading East toward Enid, OK. In any case, I'll try riding to Enid, if the cross wind is too bad I'll call Connie and we'll drive there. The distance East is about 35 miles.

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© Ray & Connie Poore, 2000