2 On a Tandem: Day 10. Hugo to Atoka, OK

54.2 miles
3:28 ST
15.6 avg

It was a good day. Different than what we had planned, but good.

Let's start by saying that we were ready to leave the room we stayed in last night. There was no ice, but the room was clean. The pillows were flat, but the room was clean. The toilet wouldn't flush without the plunger, but the room was clean. It was cheap, but it was clean. And compared to the "fish hotel" we stayed at during our ride six years ago, this was realms above. (We always use the fish hotel as the standard when it comes to budget hotels. If you want to read about that, go to the Central Square day entry from our 2008 trip. It was ghastly.)

We left at 7:30 and headed north toward Antlers, about 20 miles. Decent roads with narrow shoulders but we had no problems with traffic as they all moved over for us. We could see that there were some dark clouds on their way; we prayed that God would hold them off until we got to Antlers.

The clouds were moving in ominously as we pulled into town.

We parked under the porch of a building for a break and to check it out.

Gerry pulled up a weather site and radar map on his phone and we saw quickly that we were going to be there for a while. There was a big, fast moving system coming at us.

No problem, we were safe and dry. Wow, when it hit, it hit hard. Thunder and lightening and a downpour.

We waited for two and a half hours until it looked like the worst of it was over. Then we took off for Atoka, 35+ miles to the west.

A few miles out it appeared that we would be heading into rain. There was no lightning in it so it didn't bother us too much. We did get rained on some, but it was mostly showers. Besides, it was cool!!! High 60s...was so invigorating! It almost felt like riding at home.

The downside with that is that everything gets wet and muddy and gritty, and I have to clean the bike again. Oh well.

This is what the back of my legs looked like when we got off the bike. See the mud in the creases?

That is not a tan line, it's a grit line.

Oh yeah, about four miles out the rear tire went "squishy". Slow leak. Gerry pumped it up and it held til we got to town.

Another tube down. This is one of several differences between this trip and our last one. On the first trip we had only 4 flats on the bike for the whole trip. (1183 miles was the longest stretch between flats.) Today's flat is #4 for this trip and we're only at 558 miles.

Tonight's dinner.... something different...rice and beans(and corn)! It was actually quite tasty and a nice break from pasta and tuna.