Oklahoma!

DAY 2, MONDAY, June 3, 2013

I woke up at 6:20 AM, ten minutes before the alarm sounded.  WOW!  A full eight hours of sleep!  As I reached for my phone to turn off the alarm before it sounded, Ken woke up.  We both got up and got dressed for the day.  We packed most of our stuff and then went down to our Motors.  Rise and Shine Motors, it’s time to get up and get ready to ride!  We uncovered our Motors and packed our bags.  Chuck was already with his Motor.  As we were getting our Motors ready, Jan came down and got his ready also.  We finished and walked to the breakfast area of the hotel, where we found the other four already there having their breakfast.  We got our food and sat at the other side of the room and ate.  It’s not that we were being unsocial, that’s where there was a table that sat all four of us.  When we finished, we went back to our room and got the rest of our stuff.  We finished packing the Motors and then we all lined up.  Bruce got the lead again and we rode off at 8:20 AM.

Bruce led us eastbound on I-40.  The sky was clear and it was cool.  There was not a cloud in the sky.  As we continued eastbound, the weather got a little cooler.  For the longest time, we were riding in 64 degree weather.  It was nice!  We rode for 115 miles and stopped in Santa Rosa, NM for gas and a pit stop.  We got off of I-40 on a large circular ramp and came to a Stop sign.  To the left was a gas station about 200 yards.  We turned left and gassed up at 9:56 AM.  We also took a little break and a couple of guys got some coffee, some water and some soda.  I got nothing!  I told Chuck, “I hate you!”  Chuck smiled at me as asked, “Because we are drinking coffee and you can’t?”  I told him that because of him, I was limited to one cup of coffee at breakfast.  For me, one cup equals five trips to “you know where!”  Chuck asked me if I wanted to smell his coffee.  Turd!  OK, we finished what we needed to do and it was now C.E.’s turn to lead.  We left at 10:24 AM.  All we needed to do is go about 200 yards north and enter the on-ramp for I-40.  As we turned onto the road, there was a construction crew working in the immediate area and had a street sweeper blocking one of the ramps.  A few feet south was another entry to the ramp.  It was the same one we exited out of and stopped at the Stop sign.  C.E. continued south, passing the on ramp.  We all followed, but everyone was looking back at the on ramp and slowing their speed.  Chuck rode up next to C.E. and told him that he missed the on ramp.  We all made a u-turn with C.E. leading.  We got on the on ramp and were now headed in the right direction…eastbound on I-40.

We continued on I-40 for another 100 miles and at 11:42 AM stopped at the Russell Truck Stop in Glenrio, NM.  We needed a pit stop/butt break.  This truck stop had a Subway, Russell’s Café and Russell’s Car Museum.  Since we were there at 11:42 AM, we decided to have lunch at…you guessed it, Subway.  We ate and then toured the Museum.  They had some nice old, restored cars, Motorcycles and toys.  We were rested and left at 12:32 PM.

C.E. continued to lead us eastbound on I-40.  It was warm and the hottest I saw on my thermometer, was 93 degrees.  We crossed into Texas and lost another hour.  Another 82 miles of I-40 and we stopped at a TA Truck Stop in Amarillo, TX at 2:38 PM for gas.  We all gassed up and parked our Motors together to the side of the building.  C.E. parked and I parked next to him.  He said, “I’m done!”  We stayed for a short time and at 3:17 PM we left.

We were all on our Motors waiting to go and Chuck took the lead.  We headed eastbound on I-40 and it was like we were on a mission.  We were going at speeds of 80 to 85 mph on a 75 mph zone.  We were in a hurry to get to Weatherford, OK as soon as we could.  It was still hot and windy.  We rode for 102 miles and stopped at 4:26 PM in Shamrock, TX at a Dairy Queen.  Who can resist?  While we were there, we checked for hotel availability in Weatherford, OK.  Chuck found a Holiday Inn Express and, “set the deal.”  We were in for a while, ate our dessert, made our pit stop and we saddled back up and ready to go.  At 5:16 PM, I nodded to Chuck that we were all ready to go and everyone left.  C.E., Jan and I were left in the parking lot.  I didn’t notice that Jan was still putting on his head set for his music.  The rest of the guys were already on I-40.  Jan got his head set on, started his Motor and we were ready to go.  We had to go about 90 mph…safely…to catch up with the group. 

Chuck was still riding like he was a “Man on a Mission.”  Luckily, the guys behind him rode in “tight formation.”  At one point there was a large “dust devil” headed northbound towards us.  We all thought that it was going to hit us but our timing was perfect!  The large “dust devil” crossed our path behind Ken and in front of me.  We were lucky that we only got some wind and not any dust.  Both, Ken and I, can say that we rode through a mini tornado!  We continued for another 83 miles and got off I-40 in Clinton, OK.  Chuck was looking for a gas station.  Riding continuously at 80+ mph in windy conditions really burns gas quickly!  We went northbound, stopped at a red light, made a u-turn, and went southbound, turned right, into a parking lot of a McDonalds, made a circle, stopped and Chuck chatted with Jan, then exited the McDonalds parking lot, northbound past the traffic light for one block and stopped at a gas station at 6:25 PM…whew!  We all gassed up and left at 6:34 PM with Greg leading.

Greg got us back on I-40 and eastbound.  We rode for 22 miles and at 6:55 PM, stopped at a Holiday Inn Express in Weatherford, OK.

With the “deal” already set, we checked in and rode our Motors closer to our rooms.  Chuck, Jan, Ken and I wiped down our Motors soon after we unpacked them.  We covered them and “tucked” them in for the night.

We walked to Lucille’s Steakhouse for dinner and had a good time.  It was cold in there and most of the guys had on short sleeved shirts.

We rode for 494 miles today.  We don’t have much more distance to travel to get to Joplin, MO where we will meet up with J.B. I don’t know which route we are taking to Joplin, but we are going off of I-40…that is the plan today.  We shall see tomorrow…