Today I shouted at the wind. The song from the Broadway musical Oklahoma kept playing in my head. "Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain". In my head it was, "where the wind comes screaming down the plain". It was the first pleasantly warm day on the ride. We've not had under 103 degree plus highs and the only time it's been in the eighties is for about twenty minutes in the middle of the night. Today my therm never topped 90. It was a mid-eighties perfect temperature to ride. We walked across the street for breakfast at about 6:30 and it actually felt cool -- and the wind was howling. Prevailing winds are typically SW. Today they were a stiff crosswind the first twenty and right on the nose all afternoon at 25-35. It was only gusting occasionally but because all the climbing came in 100' chunks, you had to pedal downhill into it to experience a reprieve while climbing -- until 50 meters from the top where you would get blasted. After lunch it was a twenty mile run directly into the wind on a stretch with no berms or buildings for a break. That hurt. We made it to Oklahoma City though. Purely due to Chandler Rhinehart's and Lauren Liberty's tenacity. They are great to ride with. I pulled us the last twenty so both will have a much left as possible for tomorrow. 100 miles to Tulsa, but the incentive of a day off on Saturday is inspiring. We'll see how far we get, but we have been working hard these past few days.
After the first twenty. There were big black storm clouds around but a man came out of Sonic and told us Channel 9 forecast the weather to be there in an hour. It was Sonic wisdom.
The ladies coming up about a 12 percent grade. They a actually did appreciate this off route short cut. On a steep climb into the wind, the hill shelters you.
The view all day. Pretty exposed to the wind. The surface is concrete and pretty good. You know you're on the mother road when your riding on this surface.
Apparently there were 8 fried onion burger joints in town. Now there are only three. All in a two block area downtown Yukon, OK. We think we picked right with Sids. It was awesome. Especially the chocolate malt. It's nice to be burning 4-5 thousand caliries a day.
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