Day 13 - Gallup, NM to Elk City, OK 

575 Miles

Yesterday's ride was a very long "short" day.  Today's ride, on the other hand, was a very long "long" day.  575 miles and the absolute best thing I can say is that it's over.  Now mind you I am not complaining.  Today and tomorrow's rides are simply meant to make tracks and not see anything in particular.  And I think we accomplished that.

We left Gallup with temps at or near 52 degrees.  About the time we reached Tecumcari it was in the mid 80's and not long after we sat the rest of the day in the mid 90's.  The nice thing for most of the day was that the wind was pushing us along which gave us great gas mileage.  However, about the time I got the last fill-up in Vega, TX the wind shifted, hitting us more directly in the side and reducing our gas mileage substantially.  We dropped ~40 miles off the tank's range and luckily only had in the upper 170 mile range to the hotel.

Oh, one highlight.  We were filling up and Denise mentioned a nearby truck with Zombie Response Team markings.  I asked to take a picture and come to find out it was a young active duty Marine who had just returned from a tour on Okinawa and was headed for duty at the Marine Corps base at Twenty Nine Palms, CA.  We were stationed there from 89-92 and I gave him some info on the area.  This was one of his stickers:

Well, we're going to have a libation, take our showers and get rested for tomorrow.  We're pretty wore out tonight and there's not much more to talk about.  Maybe there will be more to talk about tomorrow night.  We'll be riding over to Forrest City, AR.  Again, wish us luck!

Sorry - I must have shifted the bike on her.

We've been following along the old Route 66 and Elk City even has a Rt 66 Museum.

Volcanic rock

Cool markings on the new Mexico underpasses.

It was cool seeing over fifty miles of windmills once we got into Texas, as well as seeing the water tower that appeared to be hanging on by a thread.