June 3, 2012: PAP Day 9, Enid to Stillwater, OK

We left Enid at 8AM, hoping that the local TV weather forecast would be more accurate than the one from Weather Underground. If so, the rain would hold off until late afternoon, as would the higher winds.

Before we turned the first pedal, I noticed that the GPS on my bike was pointing us north rather than south. A continuing issue with Garmin is that the routing algorithm used by the Garmin MapSource software is not the same as that used by their portable GPS units. The only way to assure that the same route will show up on the GPS is to plant a bunch of via or way points between the start and end points. I neglected to do that last night, hence the confusion.

For once, Fred and I remembered the beginning of the computer route the same way, so we headed south and made the first turn, onto a paved, but narrow, road that quickly took us out of the city and into the vast fields of wheat and corn that have become so familiar to us now. There was a light, variable wind and overcast skies that did not seem to hold any threat of rain. The first hour or so we made excellent progress without excessive effort. Our road finally ended at a "T" and Garmin wanted us to turn north, away from our destination. We stood in the road, hemming and hawing for a moment until a local resident appeared and we (meaning Fred) flagged him down. He eventually mentioned a choice of two paved roads to the south that would take us to Covington, a town we knew to be on our route. We happily turned south, cranked back up to a respectable pace, and after a few miles hit an intersection with a paved road heading east and a small sign showing it to be the way to Covington.

We took a little break at a convenience store when we reached Covington, then picked up the route to another small town called Perry. When we got there, we were about 20 miles from our destination for the day.

Somehow we missed this lovely inn at the Perry, OK truck stop while planning our trip. There is a sign that promises rooms for $29.95, and I am sure they are worth every penny!

 Although technically a highway, this next leg was another low traffic, narrow, paved road. A difference we quickly noticed, however, was that this one started out with a series of 5% hills. Actually, it was nothing BUT 5% hills! For the next 11 miles we were either going up or going down one of them -- into a headwind, of course. All the bicycle riders reading this know how discouraging it can be to finally crest a long hill, only to see another series of two or three ahead of you. Today our eyes beheld such a sight dozens of times. Looking at the total ascent of just 1,687 feet, it doesn't seem like much, but it felt like twice that.

Eventually we reached highway 51 -- at the top of a long hill! Fred took the placement of the intersection as a cruel joke, courtesy of the highway department. The same thought had occurred to me as well. This was the final turn and would take us the remaining 9 miles to our hotel. The pavement was smooth, the wind was at our sides rather than in our faces, and although it did start raining very lightly a mile or two short of our destination, we did not get that wet. There is even a well regarded Mexican restaurant right across the street and I was able to get a very good "Fajita del Mar" that hit the spot after the dietary wasteland of the past few days.

Viva la Fajita del Mar

 OK, one more thing - a Super Walmart is within walking distance, though they did not have my favored brand of sunblock (Ocean Potion), which is stocked by our stores at home. I managed to find a few things to make the walk worthwhile anyway.