Wednesday, May 15th – Day 43 – Chelsea to Miami

Best part of the day:     Tailwinds for the whole day!

Worst part of the day:  A painful inner thigh for Fay

Distance: 50 miles        Riding Time: 4hrs 3min

Bed count: 26                Sleeping Bag count: 17

Yesterday at dinner, we had a good laugh with Frank from the Chelsea Motor Inn. When we first called about the availability of a room a few days ago, Fay asked him as to whether breakfast was provided or not. His response was, “whenever you bring it!!” Well, we had a good laugh again about it!!

It was a beautiful morning when we got up. Had our non-motel-provided (LOL!!) breakfast in the room!! Yesterday at the market, we had picked up a 4-pack box of egg & sausage biscuit sandwiches. So this morning, we heated up those 4, having 2 for breakfast and saving 2 for later. Packing up, we were ready to roll at 8.

Just before leaving, Trudy came out from their house (which is adjacent to their motel) to say “goodbye” and wish us a safe trip. That was so nice of her to do that and is indicative of what kind of caring owners Trudy and Frank are!

Today’s ride was nothing out the ordinary with light rolling hills, nice road shoulders, miles and miles of cattle lands and grass fields, and best of all, TAILWINDS!!(One of the grassland farms which will eventually become hay for cattle.)

About 18 miles into the ride, we stopped at the McDonald’s in Vinita for a 2nd breakfast and coffee. Fay also wanted to stretch out a sharp pain on her inner thigh that cropped up this morning. She took two Aleve to lessen the pain.

One of the things that we’ve seen along the roadsides ever since we entered Texas was a different species of roadkill than what we have back home. On the rural Sacramento county roads, we’ll come across mashed skunks in various states of decay along with their “wonderful” aroma. What we’ve seen here are not the skunks, but, armadillos from small to football-sized in many different mangled conditions!! We even come across turtle roadkill here!! Not very big, more like the size of your hand. But, we’ve also passed, surprisingly, live turtles on the road shoulder (no live armadillos, though)!!

Yesterday, we happened to pass another touring cyclist just outside of Catoosa. When we caught up to her, we asked for where was her ending destination? Her answer was that she didn’t have one and that she was riding for the Gospel. Well today, we passed her again just plodding along (maybe at only 3mph-4mph)! Fay asked her where she stayed last night. Her reply was that wherever she could find! Fay tried to stay with her, but the pace was so slow on the flat road, she thought she would fall over!!

Even though we had the tailwinds, we opted to stick to our original schedule of staying in Miami (the locals pronounce it “my-am’-muh” and not “my-am’-mee” like in Miami, FL.) and not push all the way to Joplin, MO, and 80+ mile ride.

There were no campgrounds there, so a motel was our only option. We decided to treat ourselves today as we really didn’t celebrate our 37th anniversary, Rob’s 66th birthday and Mother’s Day in a proper way. We found the Buffalo Run Casino and Hotel here in Miami and even though it was about 3.5 miles off route, that’s where we chose. We got a nice stay-n-play package that lowered our room price down to $49. We’ll enjoy a nice dinner tonight to take care of these three in one fell swoop. We’ve got a really nice room, one of the best ones we had on this trip.(Our nice-sized room at the Buffalo Run Hotel. Lots of room for our bikes and a nice work space. Out of our room’s window in the distance is the Will Rogers Turnpike/I-44, a toll road.)

Tomorrow, we’ll not only say goodbye to Oklahoma, but, hello/goodbye to Kansas (there’s only about 12 miles of Route 66 in KS) and hello to Missouri! That’ll put us into our 6th and 7th states.

Until our next post….