Temp at departure: 74 degrees

Wow, what a day! We hope everything is good with everybody at home.

We left Bartlesville, Oklahoma at 7:00 A.M. this morning heading west-northwest. Within one mile of the motel the rain began to fall. Light at first, it became heavier within a few more miles. After about 30 minutes it was an all out turd floater. Several times the wind was blowing the rain horizontally. We kept moving, slowly, and luckily, the roads remained gravelly, therefore, keeping the road from being slippery.

As we moved west, the land opened up before us and became rolling prairie, with very green grass. It reminded me of

scenes from Dances with Wolves. All that was needed was a few buffalo and some Indians.

The rain tapered off towards mid-morning and the riding became pleasant, with rolling prairie and green grass.

For the past several days we've seen many quail. It's good to see that they haven't been wiped completely off the face of the earth. As the day progressed, and rolling prairie became wheat fields, we saw many more animals: pheasants, praire dogs, and prairie chickens.

Around 10 A.M. the skies grew threatening again. We could see the rain coming and were in a race against time to reach the town of Newkirk.

As the first raindrops fell, we pulled into a gas station and were under the awning. While it rained, we had an early lunch and decided to give it a wait.

An hour later the rain was still falling and it looked to set in. So, with at least a hundred miles left in the day, we decided that time was wasting, rain or no. So, we left Newkirk with the rain still falling.

The land flattened and became wheat fields. As we moved west, the gravel roads became dirt roads, or, should I

say, mud roads. It's amazing how just a few rocks make a road very easily passable, but in their absence, they are very difficult to traverse. Thirty to forty miles out of Newkirk, the roads became very slippery. Many times our bikes would be sideways to the direction we were traveling.

We struggled for an hour or so and finally came to U.S. 81. We decided to drive the last 60 miles on pavement to our destination of Alva, Oklahoma.

Alva is, what I refer to as a "western" town. Oil and gas are the main industry, and the reason the town is here.

We arrived in town at 2:30 and the first motel had no rooms. This had me worried. There is a small college in town and I was worried that some event(probably something like a dairy judging competition) might have

filled the town.

The second motel had rooms, thank the Lord! We spent a few more hours cleaning mud off everything we owned, and are now enjoying the AC. We hope to make Liberal, Kansas tomorrow. See you down the trail.

Daily Mileage: 213.21

Total Mileage: 1689

Money spent: 129.36

June 13