March 11, 2008 Durant, OK
| Hump day! The ride is now half over! I say that with enthusiasm and a bit of melancholy. I'm definitely looking forward to the mornings when I won't have to get up and spend hours pedaling up and down hills. I'm also going to miss the adventure of seeing new places as the road slowly rolls by. There will be more long distance tours. America is a big country and there's lots of back-roads. Today's ride was nothing but back-roads. Once I left Ada, it was 20 miles of two-lane highway before I got to the next town. |
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That town, Tupelo, was about six blocks long with the distinction of being the home of "World Champion Cowboys Jet and Cord McCoy". Like I said, this is back-road America. I rolled on for another 20 miles before coming to the next town. |
This time it was Wapanucka, an even smaller place with two gas stations. One was the town's general store and pizzeria. The other had the post office. The folks were nice to me and my weird looking bike and I found out they're used to seeing through bicyclists. Apparently this is a popular route to ride. Who knew? The road continued for another 8 miles to the next town (Coleman) and then a final 20 before entering Durant. A long day of country roads and not much else.
Moving along these roads is not without charm, though. I saw more wildlife out here than I'd seen in the past few days. Unfortunately, most of it was roadkill - deer, coyote, fox, raccoon, skunk, turtles and a dog as big as a wolf. This is Amish country, but I don't think the slow horse-drawn carriages are responsible for the carnage. Must be all those other bicyclists! |
| This view of America is probably boring to most people, but if you have an appreciation of the natural world, the slow meander by bicycle reveals details that are fascinating. Mistletoe can be seen in most wooded areas. This parasitic organism is the same one people hang over their doorways at Christmas time. |
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In addition to the requisite cattle and horses, there were several ranches that had herds of llamas. Not what most city folks would expect to see here in the heartland. I'm used to seeing them because Ozarks farmers are raising lots of them nowadays. The architecture of the area ran from run down old farms to modern adobe type ranches. All in all, it was a pleasant ride. |
Durant is known as the "City of Magnolias" and is the county seat of Bryan County, OK. It's a fair sized little burg with Southeast Oklahoma State U on the North side of town. It's not really a college town. More of a commercial center for the rural part of SE Oklahoma. The town is a bit run down, but the downtown area is getting somewhat of a facelift. I walked downtown from the B&B where I'm staying and came across a monument to "the World's Largest Peanut" and a memorial to the Confederate Soldier. I'm not in Yankeeland any more! The downtown area had another surprising feature - a genuine Italian restaurant! Real homemade pasta in homemade sauce, prepared by Italian and Albanian cooks.
The more I travel these roads, the more I fall in love with America. It's such a wonderfully diverse and friendly place. All politics aside, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
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