Sunday – Broken Bow, Oklahoma

A long day today to get to some twistys in the east of the state, but did I find any?

After some thorough study of the road atlas that I have, I could only find some twisty windy roads over in the east part of the state. There was a couple of tiny bits way back west, but not worth the lost time or fuel. Maybe I can cover them as I go past the other way later on 🙂 Anyway, to start with, a long ride east and away from the town of Lawton, basically just taking secondary roads as far as possible but heading towards a place called Ada.

Once again I have a headwind, well just off head on, but close enough. Yesterday I had the same and it played hell with my fuel economy, so I am expecting bad numbers today as well and it was also quite cold again so I had all the gear on, but not the under daks as it was clear skies, so maybe it would warm up 🙂 Now, I saw this sign for a local lake and thought maybe the original settlers had a warped sense of humour like me 🙂

There was a lot of farm land around here before getting to a small town where they used a lot of bricks to build a horizontal building which they now use as a road!

Just a wee rest stop at a river to raise the flood levels.

After reaching Ada I turned southeast on the hwy 3 until I found a nice little Subway shop at a place called Coalgate. I was still real cold so I needed a break and here you can get a good deal. Now, let me mention I have had Subway back home, but a long time ago, but here there is a deal called a 1 foot sub for $5. When you add a hot chocolate drink and the chips it comes to $8.30. So, with the size of it, I can eat the 2nd half for dinner, which means I may have found a decent feed at a decent price, finally 🙂

I diverge, so a nice sit down in shelter from the wind and after a hot baked chicken sub and hot chocolate drink, I am now ready to continue 🙂 Ooops, I seem to have taken the wrong turn and ended up back near home, well 4000kms from home anyway 🙂

After Darwin, I finally reached Antlers, which they proclaim to be the deer capital of the world and this is where I head north on 271 for the scenic route I was here for. It was only 2.30 so I had plenty of time to do a fair bit of the roads in this area. As I started, I realised the road is not the best for bikes. Check out the lines in the road in the following photo.

The centre bit in my lane is the original road, the two bits on either side have been compressed over time by traffic and created a hump in the centre, so they filled in the wheel tracks with some bitumen, which has made things worse. Now, there are three levels of pavement to travel over and the front wheel is all over the joint. I try to stay close to the centre line normally, but with the width of the panniers I have to be careful of oncoming. This goes on for about 20 miles or so before they stopped the repair work and left it natural.

Now, you only have one surface, but two valleys(wheel tracks) and a centre ridge, a bit like a dirt track actually 🙂 The scenery was nice though before another wee rest stop.

I bore left at the junction and went towards Wilburton and then east on 270 towards Wister, the lush countryside showed evidence of a lot of rain and they had some nice sweepers as well.

When I got to Wister, I had planned on a particular road, but I found out the lakes were full, well actually a bit more than full and I had to turn back and find an alternative route south as I did not bring my snorkle.

Now, remember me saying about the deer capital? Well, what struck me was the fact there are no warning signs for any type of fauna at all along these roads, in fact anywhere in this state. I had seen heaps of dead racoon, armadillo and small other things, maybe chipmunk, but this state does not seem to care about wildlife at all. I had also found it very hard to find a free map of the state, maybe it is a poor state? I prefer a map on the tank bag just in case I want to change my route, without one I have to stop, get my atlas from the top box and write down any route changes on a piece of paper, very annoying.

Anyway, I was lulled into a false sense of security by the lack of signs for a while, but while heading back south and the lengthening shadows, I started to worry a bit. But, the roads were great to ride and I just went with the flow 🙂 I figured, as this area is only about 500ft above sea level, this is where the deer congregate during winter, but now spring has arrived, they have migrated north, I hope anyway 🙂

I eventually go into Broken Bow around 6pm and decided to call it a day, I did consider finishing the loop back to Antlers, but decided it was more touristy, so may be more expensive and here, on only the 2nd stop found a cheap motel which was clean 🙂

I did the usual during the evening, relaxed, had a shower, nuked my Sub for dinner and answered emails etc. It was actually a long day, my longest so far I think, but it was a good day over all and I was set for the rides tomorrow where I would be heading into Arkansas, which is pronounced not how I would think – Arr Kansas, but Arr Can Saw, real weird. When I get to Kansas, maybe it will be pronounced Kan Saw 🙂 🙂 😉

Day – 416 miles and 669 km
Trip – 9,105 miles and 14,653 km

Cheers
TravellingStrom
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