Our stay in Texas was short, like 24 hours and Oklahoma will be almost identical. Both states, have us just clipping the panhandle regions. In fact we are right now in what is officially known as the No Mans Land region, honest. It’s origin goes back into the Louisiana Purchase between Texas, Oklahoma  and Indian territories. 

Both of these panhandle regions are rich in Railroad origins. Railroad stops, the Bever River,  and cattle ranching have brought commerce to the town of tonight’s stay, Guymon OK. Corn, wheat, and Milo contribute to the cattle feedlots but the biggest business here is the pork processing plant. They process 16,000 hogs a DAY ! Now that’s some serious bacon. 

After riding each day we’ve been told to carefully wash and sanitize the outside of our water bottles. The cattle and hog trucks are everywhere as you can imagine. So the road bacteria issue is present. The last thing I want to pick up is Mad Cows Disease from my water bottle. I will say the drivers here especially the truckers go out of their way to be courteous. Every one of them will yield a full lane over to give us generous room. I can’t compliment Oklahoma enough. It’s super clean, friendly, great roads, and enjoyable. Even the railroad engineers lean out their windows, wave and blow their horns. It’s funny everywhere we go we constantly have people coming over asking where we are going and where did we start. And boy do they take their rodeos serious around these parts. One lady told us yesterday that during the summer there’s a rodeo every night Thursday – Sunday. And when the Professional rodeos come to town it’s huge !  

So an update on yesterdays bike shop mention. The owner came out of the tittle company he owns next door , opened  up his ” bike shop” for about 13 of us. His shop was funky but a very nice guy. It seems between his law business and his tittle company the shop is a hobby. Just before we left he told us, he sold more today than ALL of last year !  People in our group were buying his shop jerseys that have been there for sale for over 2 years ! Fun story and he was stoked we called ahead yesterday. 

I’ve picked up that this ranch, farm, truckers region doesn’t really emphasis personal cleanliness or hygiene. Yet anything with hunting, fishing or Duck Dynasty is worn like a badge of honor. Boy I’ll  tell you some of the caps I see probably have never had an encountered with a washing machine. Not to mention the hairstyle of choice is desperately shampoo starved. But the people are really nice and friendly for sure. 

I still haven’t mastered labeling my photos so here’s a guide in no particular order. 

The statue of Tex. The locals seemed to have shot him in a sensitive area. 

Oklanhome state line photos. Which include some of The Lads from the Uk and Scotland in left to right order, Chris, Kevin T, Sir Richard, and Ian. 

 And our gang which is pretty much the group I ride with daily give or take. I also tend to spend some occasional solo riding time as well at times. It’s been great doing some occasional few hours of solo rides so I can try and process everything going on. It all moves fast when every mile and every town, farm, mountain etc are new. It’s a whirlwind trying to ride, and remember everything you are experiencing, but it’s truly amazing. 

Also a pub stop for our after ride lunch today in Guymon Ok. This is the second or third town we’ve ridden in where they have true red brick streets. It’s really cool and as we slowly ride into these towns it’s like a Paris to Roubaix cobble. Very cool old streets. 

Today we rode 73 miles, in ideal to perfect tailwind conditions. We’ve been truly blessed with awesome weather. It was hot again at 98 degrees but could have been worse. 

Tomorrow is like a short rolling rest day, just 39 miles and we’ll be in Liberal Kansas our next circus stop.