Wheeled Migration

This morning dawned dry, but with a front moving in with astonishing speed. I packed up my gear -- all dry -- and waterproofed it. Rain started sprinkling as I was leaving the park.

I rode past Enterprise Square, the Kirkpatrick Center, the Legion of Doom, and several familiar parks on my way to Janmother & Ralfather's place, which looks exactly the same. Shepherd Mall is booming now that it's no longer a mall -- it houses a high school and lots of offices. The rain finally stopped as I reached the Oklahoma City National Memorial, so I left the bike uncovered.

I slept in this morning, secure in my concealment from view, but when I emerged well after dawn to dig a cathole, I found that although I'd been concealed from headlights, drivers in daylight could see me just fine! Fortunately if anyone called the state troopers, they had better things to do than check up on me.

This morning I headed south on OK-48 until it met up with OK-66, which follows what's left of Route 66 from Tulsa to OKC. I got to Bristow around 1 and spent over an hour at the library. Although this will save me the trouble of visiting a library in OKC, it meant that the sun set while I was still in Stroud rather than at a campground.

I rode off into the sunset prepared with plenty of water for informal camping, but I wasn't prepared for what I found: miles of barbed wire and not a single door to knock on. I wound up camping in a deep ditch formed by a highway embankment.

I left Tiff's house around 6:30 or 7 with every intention of following the route Shawn showed me yesterday, but I must not have been paying close enough attention because I missed my turn and wound up going at least 6 miles out of my way, which meant that I was an hour late for church. Fortunately Justice wasn't expecting me until the second service. Instead of attending the service itself, I went to a discussion with some young adults that turned out to be on the subject of Democracy. It would have been a better topic for last month... we were all pretty discouraged and cynical!

Shawn was up until 2 or so with his friends, so we got a late start this morning. Breakfast wasn't until about 10, and we didn't leave for the aquarium until after noon, which pushed lunch back until after 3 and dinner to 8!

The Oklahoma Aquarium is less spectacular than Omaha's, but quite nice for Oklahoma. The shark tank is particularly well designed, though it was a little short on sharks today. Tiff says they've been gradually adding to the place since it opened.