Day 23: Enid to Stillwater
Today we got to sleep in, rolling out of the hotel at 10 am. The ride to Stillwater was only 71 miles, and with a cross-tailwind, the ride went by fairly quickly. Most of us rode easy today as our legs have been feeling the collective effort of the trip.
To start the day, we rode by a military airstrip where fighters were doing touch and go loops. This is not a great photo, but it gives the general idea.
The rest of the ride was mostly on back roads. We occasionally had scenery that reminded me a bit more of the east coast.
However, most of the time, the scenery was strikingly similar to the scenery the past several days.
We have been riding in Oklahoma for 4 days now, and still have two more riding days (plus a rest day in Tulsa) in Oklahoma before finally crossing to Missouri four days from now. I confess to feeling that spending 1 week out of our 6 week trip in Oklahoma seems a bit much. If our route drifted up into Kansas for a couple of those days, at least we could have the psychological benefit of entering a new state even if the scenery remained essentially the same.
At over 3 weeks into the trip, the novelty of the trip is long gone, and the wear and tear on the body keeps accumulating. After tomorrow, we will have ridden ~710 miles in 7 days, and a bit under 2000 miles in total. I am definitely feeling the growing fatigue. I hope the rest day in Tulsa will be restorative.