Jul 17
Stage 16: Touring the Roadkill Capital of the U.S.
Hello, this is Jared, guest blogger for tonight. Well today, was a very slow moving day. We started out in McAlaster, OK, and I rode up about the first ten miles. However, for the second day in a row, I wasn’t feeling well at all, so I got into the support vehicle to recover.
Cycling through eastern Oklahoma
Rich and Jared start out the day
Meanwhile, dad rode for about 50 more miles by himself in the heat, wind, and hilly Oklahoma terrain. I sat in the car trying to think of a way to get outside. Finally, after lunch, I just said to myself, “heck with this”. So I got out and helped give dad a boost for the remaining miles of the day. He was really sore, and I was just pushing it in front, trying to finish as soon as I could. After what seemed like forever, we finally had to stop because of the traffic, and the interstate. We left Oklahoma today and are now in Arkansas.
Jared glad he got back out on the bike today
We named eastern Oklahoma the roadkill capital of the U.S. We’ve seen countless numbers of armadillo, raccoon, deer, fox, and even hawks along side of the road. We are talking countless numbers since we left the Oklahoma City area.
Jared, reflecting on the roadkill he saw today
No flat tires today, but dad is getting the flat tire award so far—of the six we’ve had, he’s had for of them.
Tomorrow, we are going to hit the best mountains that Arkansas has to offer. While I am not expecting it to be Colorado, I am excited about getting in some good hills.
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I can relate to the roadkill - a number of years ago, we were driving I-40 across Oklahoma going east and apparently that was turtle migration time in eastern Oklahoma and that part of I-40 had a concrete barrier down the center of the highway to divide the east and west lanes of traffic - those tiny little turtles could get half way across the road (if they were lucky), but couldn’t go anywhere then - and hundreds were getting killed - I thought “where are those animal activists when you need them???” - they could have been out there saving a lot of turtles’ lives if they would have been there - and the armadillo’s - I am not sure I ever saw a live one, but you see dead ones all the way from Texas thru Georgia.
Hope the weather doesn’t get too hot and humid the rest of the time for you, but it is that time of year. Happy cycling.
Aunt Amy