The only road for bicycling to Fort Smith, AR was closed because of work on bridges.
The only road for bicycling to Fort Smith, AR was closed because of work on bridges.
Now that's some store that sells TNT. Actually, it turns out that TNT is the name of the store.
Last Modified on 9/28/2000 at 9:59:24
Day's Narrative: This has been a strange bicycle ride. This morning early I decided to ride the remaining 20 miles to the Arkansas state line. Connie could meet me there about 9:30 a.m., and then we could drive to Tulsa to meet her cousin. I got up just after 6:00 a.m., went to the lobby to get some of the complimentary breakfast, then left the motel after waking up Connie and going over the route and plans for meeting later at the state line. She was not happy being woken up so early. Four miles outside of town a sign said that US 64 was closed and I should use Interstate 40. Well, in Oklahoma, bicycles are not allowed on the interstates. I went back up the road a bit and stopped at a convenience store to inquire why the road was closed. The clerk said that they were working on a couple of bridges. It really didn't matter whether I could get past the bridges on a bicycle or not since Connie couldn't get through in the van. The are no other roads to Fort Smith from Sallisaw except US 64 and Interstate 40. So the ride <1>really is over in Sallisaw. [Connie's comment]: Ray forgot to mention that he was up, from 1:30-4:00 a.m., with the lights turned on, "playing" on the computer. Even though we got a special tensor light for this endeavor, the light still wakes me up. When he woke me at 6, I had just really gotten to sleep, and was pretty much down a deep hole. So much for sleeping late this morning. Observations, Conclusions, and Remarks This is the end of this ride. I always seem to get depressed on the last day of a ride, and I did yesterday too. Still, when I read back these daily logs of the trips, I can almost relive each moment. Here are some things that I have noticed on this trip: - Almost all the cafes and restaurants in the small towns now have nonsmoking areas. This has really changed in the last 2-4 years. I guess a smoking awareness has filtered down into the small towns. - Last year at this time Connie and I did a cycling trip very similar to this one across Kansas. We ran into bad weather then too. This year I watched the weather in Kansas as the cold front came through Oklahoma. It was a lot colder up there, which tells me that if I want plan future bicycle trips the last two weeks of September, it's best to stay South of the Oklahoma state line. There were 10 cycling days with two days off. The total distance was 670.9 miles. That's an average of 67 miles per cycling day. I had no flats on this trip. Not one. Actually, Oklahoma roads are pretty free of trash. The next ride I plan is from San Diego, CA to Orlando, FL starting around March 15-20, 2001 -- next Spring. The time of year was chosen so the temperature in the California and Arizona desert would be reasonable. This also makes it really nice weather in the deep South later in April and May -- hopefully. Tune in again next March. © Ray & Connie Poore, 2000
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