Day 5 begins with a ride from Lebanon heading to Springfield and my mind wandered to last Monday when I had a motorcycle accident.
WAIT - WHAT - BACK UP -
Last Monday I left New York City at 1pm on Badass, the Yamaha Bolt. Driving up the Taconic Parkway with the sun shining my intention was to ride to Albany and have dinner with my girlfriend. Unfortunately at 4:45pm Badass and I had an altercation where we skidded and then I was thrown landing facedown at the side of the road. The emergency services were on the scene very quickly and I didn't lose contentiousness. Badass was picked up and I could see that my cruiser was battered and bruised with scratches, a dent and the right hand of the handlebars not looking correct and a smashed indicator light. I was taken by Ambulance to Albany Med where I was checked out. Ct Scan, X-ray and Ultrasound all showed that I was very very lucky and badly bruised. I did have protective gear on and THIS SAVED ME. I was doing 25 m.p.h and my Red NeoTec helmet got dented and scratched, my Revit Concorde jacket also took the full force of the road surface however without the elbow and shoulder protectors I do think it could have been a hell of a lot worst.
My girlfriend and mum said " Get back on the horse" and there was no way I was not going to be doing this trip. Although at the time when laying there in ER I did think " What the fuck have I done? " .....
Four days after the accident, I got back on the horse.
Back to today..... and back to the ride along the old route 66 from Lebanon into Kansas and then into Oklahoma
We met a guy at breakfast who had flown to San Diego, bought a Jaguar convertible and was doing Route 66 West to East. It's been great meeting so many characters and hearing their tales. Places to visit, places not to miss. Recommendations.
Traffic was light and the weather was glorious, again highs of 65's as we left the Motel early this fine Monday morning. Heated grips set to Medium.
As we travelled we stopped at many historic US Route 66 like the Garage at Gay Palatia where we met George who has a shop for US Route 66 memorabilia, and a garage with vintage cars. From there we headed to Red Oak in Carthage where tourists again can stop and walk around the history of this mother road. A red Mustang was now following us and the couple kept laughing as they pulled up as we stopped and cut our engines.
We ducked into Kansas, as you do, and stopped and took photos of the Rainbow bridge before seeing the welcome sign of " Welcome to Oklahoma"
By lunchtime the temperature had risen to 80 degrees and layers needed to be removed. Heated Grips set to OFF. Long Sleeve t'shirt removed and air vents open on the suit.
The west is vast we farmland as far as the eye can see and along the way picket fences of horses or cattle. Black cattle, brown cattle, white cattle. Was it wrong for me to think of Horseradish, Yorkship Pudding and gravy..... My mum makes a wicked gravy.
After lunch at the Waffle House we had a North Circular type ride (for those of you at home ) will appreciate that we were riding on a two lane with other traffic doing a consistent 55 mph and stopping at traffic junctions frequently. The ride spiced up when we had a off road moment when the Sat Nav stated " unlabelled road" and I was hesitant to start with but then just went for it!
The last hour as we reached our destination it started to light rain and as we looked across the block from the motel was a steak house.
Oh yes we did with a rewarding beer.
All in all - A fantastic day with so many memories.
Mileage for today = 291
Total Trip Mileage = 1633
Good night from Sapulpa.... tomorrow we head to Clinton, Oklahoma and the Route 66 Museum.......