American Adventure

Oklahoma

I feel that I must apologize to the state of Oklahoma for not getting any pictures while I went through there.

The weather forced me to cover all of my things, including my camera, to avoid exposure to the elements. Particularly the water.

From Dallas I headed north up interstate 35 and into Oklahoma. The terrain looked very much the same as north Texas. Even the oil rigs could be seen pumping away along the sides of the road.

The ride up was pretty uneventful with a few slight drizzles under the gray overcast. The temperature began to drop the further north I went. My route to Nebraska was looking pretty grim and cold. Although it was cold and slightly wet, it was still bearable until I reached Oklahoma City when it began to rain. I was hungry so I pulled off of the freeway and stopped at a Cracker Barrel restaurant to enjoy a chicken fried steak dinner one more time before I left the south. I had hoped that the rain might let up a bit while I was there but it just increased more and more. I stalled for a while and had several refills of iced tea before I finally left.

The road was cold and wet and grew dark sooner than I had hoped. The time change was really affecting my ride, giving me less hours of daylight in the afternoon. I know I should have gotten an earlier start. I thought to myself that I will have to be more conscious of my time throughout the rest of the trip.

I maintained my course on Interstate 35 as the day began to fade and night time came. I had decided to ride on into the night as far as I could withstand the cold and rain and exhaustion. As it started to get darker I thought there was something wrong with my vision as it seemed like it was darker than it should have been. Something felt wrong. Things didn't appear the way they should have. I leaned over the front of the bike to look at the headlight and noticed that it wasn't even on. My headlight is suppose to be on any time the key is on. Something was wrong. I turned on the high beam and it came on. At least that was working. I would have to find a motorcycle shop the next day to get a replacement but at least I had the high beam.

I rode on and across the border into Kansas where I ran into more problems.