Yesterdaay, I had planned on taking it easy and only doing 20 or so miles.  It seems like so long ago now.  There was rain, hills, blackberries, a booze cruise, Northeastern State University, and a pizza motel.  Oh, and a total of 60 miles!

Started off with a waffle with peanut butter and a shower and clean clothes and cool temperatures and then rain.  I don’t ride in the rain.  Well, I don’t ride in THAT rain!  Light mist to drizzle is fine.  Heavy wind and needles is not.  I could see the storm brewing in the West, but the cars coming towards me were dry.  I passed up many good places to take cover.  When the bottom finally fell out I pulled into the first yard with a big tree. Behind the big tree was a barn.  It was very tempting to hang the hammock from the posts, but I did not want to give the farmer any more reasons to shoot at me.

I stayed there for about an hour which gave me time to rest and start a new book.  The rain had not completely stopped, but it was in my comfort zone.  Another 10 miles down the road and I was looking for another place to hide.  This place looks like an old store of some sort.  It looks small, but had probably three levels in the back.  I stopped there for another hour and had a snack of some almonds and some blackberries I found around back.  

 I made it to Tahlequah by probably 1 and was thinking that a bowl of soup would be nice after the cold and rain. (Soup still sounds good as I am writing this.)  But, I got distracted by this giant waterslide.  Once closer I noticed they were renting kayaks and tubes for floating.  The girls there about had me talked into going but I was too hungry to sit on a tube for 3 hours.

In hindsight I should have gotten on the tube.  The soup options in town were limited and nothing else was worth what the stores were asking.  Bagel and peanut butter again.  Walking around town looking for food was a welcomed rest from being on the bike.  Afterwards, I did the historic trail around town, which led me to Northeastern State University.  Strung the hammock up there for an hour deciding to move on or make camp for the night.

I made it to the Sequoiah State Park by 7 and started searching for a place to clean up, eat, and camp for the night.  I get asked all the time where do I shower.  I live in a state park so this is an everyday occurence.

Camping was more of a challenge.  I rode an extra 10 miles around the park looking for a place to hammock.  Everyone kept telling me the park rangers are diligent and will charge me $14.  That’s a lot of food!  So I left out with just enough light to get to to the next town.  I stopped in at the first place with two trees close enough for hammocking and it happened to be Pizza Port.  Plan was to take the morning off and eat a couple of pizzas for lunch.