Today was supposed to be a short ride, but knee pain necessitated a lot of stops, and the only campground with showers turned out to be a lot farther south than I had anticipated!

In Paoli, I stopped for coffee and wound up talking with the cafe owner about the trail riding (cattle driving) he did in the '70s.  He gave me my coffee for free, but I tipped generously.

US 77 turned out to be a great ride, since it parallels the interstate, but I didn't dare stay on it south of Davis because it heads right into the Arbuckle Mountains, and my map shows some hairpin turns near Turner Falls!  So I turned east at Davis and rode into Sulphur.

Sulphur is just like I remember it, only there's more to the town than I realized.  The Chickasaw National Recreation Area comes right into town, and there are campgrounds in town, but they don't have showers.  So I went south to the Buckhorn part of the park and followed a deserted, very hilly stretch of road to the campground.  The showers turned out to be solar heated, which I was all in favor of until I got naked and had to wait almost 5 minutes for warm water!  It all turned out OK, though.

40.5 mi