There are those who say "fill up with gas before quitting for the day, so you can just take off in the morning." I'm not necessarily in that camp: if I'm beat, and it's miserably hot at the end of the day, I'll put off refueling until the morning; that was the case today.

So I left Chickasha with a full tank of gas, and headed almost directly north with a tailwind. Still, that first 100 miles took forever. It didn't help that I was constantly slowing for built-up areas around OK City; eventually, though, I made it to the Kansas border. Crossing a state line helps psychologically.

Just after, there was a "Historical" pull-off, so I did. It was a Chisholm Trail exhibit, just a string of rusty silhouette figures, on the actual trail.

I was noticing with apprehension some nasty dark clouds ahead, and was somewhat relieved whenever the road turned east. But then that tailwind was coming from my right, and gusting, pushing me all over the road. Plus every so often the road would head north some, toward the clouds, and I'd be happy when it turned east again.

Eventually, though, the low fuel light came on, and shortly thereafter a convenience store/gas station straight ahead on a frontage road, when 166 bent north. I pulled in, and turned around so I was headed out again, and just as I got the tank bag off the first drops of rain started. The pump wouldn't authorize my credit card; the attendant said "just fill it..." so I did.

By now the storm was blowing full force; I moved the bike into the wind shadow of the store, and joined some other refugees huddled inside. Eventually, the initial fury moderated some, and over the course of the next hour, people came and went as I waited for some lessening in the rainfall. Finally, it lightened a bit, and I figured I'd better get moving, or I'd never get to Iowa.

It continued to rain pretty steadily for the next hour or so as the road headed east; I was seriously considering calling it a day when the rain finally quit and the road bent north-ish. It never did clear up completely, and the road stayed wet as I headed for Kansas City.

I didn't make it that far; I needed gas sooner than I expected (those side winds?) and pulled off in Paola, sighting the Paola Inn & Suites after I refueled. It's a bit more than I wanted to pay (more than double last night's Budget Inn), but comes with breakfast and a wired internet connection.

I'm intending on making it to Dubuque today, although it's raining as I type this and there's a huge cell swirling around Kansas City. I hate starting out in the rain.

next
home