Edmond - Hinton

Thursday, Oct. 11, Edmond - Hinton, 62 mi.

towns along the way: Oklahoma City, Yukon, El Reno, Bridgeport, Hydro, Weatherford, Clinton, Foss.

I did not sleep well at all. Headache, knee-ache, eyes wide awake. I know I must have slept some, but it sure didn’t feel like it. I kept thinking about how stressful it was going to be to ride through Oklahoma City during rush hour.

I told Becky to go ahead, that I would ride by myself. Then I saw Judy and asked her if she could give me a lift across town. She said of course. We left around 9:15, we did grocery shopping, she drove me past the Memorial Site of the Oklahoma City Bombing, then dropped me off along the Route 66 route a few miles east of Yukon.

Saw the Yukon Motel, now the Western Motel, and took a picture of it.

Western Motel

Stopped at Braum’s Dairy and had a scoop of peppermint ice cream - yum. As I was eating my ice cream I looked down the street and saw the grain elevators.

A few miles down the busy highway the road veered to the right and ran through El Reno.

Snapped a picture of Sid’s Diner, and a couple of murals. On the way out of town I saw the first mileage sign for Amarillo!

Sid’s Diner

A few miles from Hinton I crossed the Pony Truss Bridge. No fewer than 38 spans. The bridge’s span over the South Canadian River is almost 4,000 feet, and the deck was opened to traffic in 1933. It is also one of the landmarks in John Ford’s 1940 film “The Grapes of Wrath.” Why so many spans? Each of these spans is as large as the highway department’s early equipment could lift into place.

Pony Truss Bridge

Our home for the night, the Travel Inn in Hinton, provides supper for all guests, and it was very good. Fried chicken or pork chops, broccoli & cheese, mashed potatoes & gravy, salad, biscuits, peach cobbler.

Today was a VERY WINDY day, and even though I only did 46 miles, I was REALLY tired and hungry when I came dragging in at 4:30. Hopefully I will sleep well tonight, as we have a 64-mile day tomorrow to Elk City.