Storms, Chicken and New Friends
Topic: June 11, 2005
Let me start out by saying not all motels are created equal. If my journal entries are not posted daily forgive me. We aren't getting in to the motel until late each day and not all of them have Internet service. We started out the morning in Oklahoma with a 2 hour delay due to a severe storm. We saw the dark clouds ahead and were lucky enough to be near a small Sinclair gas station in Vinita, Oklahoma. Grandma had brought her 3 grandchildren with her to work that day so Buzz was kept busy playing with them. They were the BED kids: Brittany, Emily and Dylan. Once Grandma started the deep fryer going for the fried chicken Chuck said he knew Larry was going to be OK. The chicken was good coming fresh from the fryer and the kids were well-behaved. Brittany ran over to her Grandma?s house next door and brought back an Oklahoma pin for Buzz?s leather jacket just before leaving. Traveling on a bike is a lot different than in a car. People will come over to you at gas stations and talk to you about your bike and tell stories about their bike experiences. In our case, they gave us a safe place to weather out the storm. I was trying to put on my rain gear. In the picture below you can see where I held them up so I could get them on.


I read a book about a girl of 14 who grew-up in Oklahoma during the 1930?s called: "Out of the Dust". It is a book for pre-teens but it's a great book for any age of woman. My mom grew up traveling around through the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas surviving the difficult times of the Depression.





The Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah, OK was excellent. I?ll share the details with my kids when we get back together this fall. Buzz stayed at the bikes with Chuck. Not everyone likes museums. I am taking lots of pictures each day. Computers are great! We will check out the pictures to see the geographic changes that occur as people travel west.



Route 66, What a diverse highway! During the last two days we've traveled an 8 foot wide broken pavement in the country, short strips of dead ends along Highway 44, a service road, Main Streets in small towns, and Interstate 40. We?re safe and tired yet we keep our saddle backs are packed and ready for a new day.