Travelogue -- Dr Bob's Northwest Territory Motorcycle Ride
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5 June 2015, 9:45 PM CT, Broken Arrow OK

This morning was different from mornings the past few days. I did not have to worry about the weather. It was warm to hot, a change from days past. I rode 248.7 miles today, I quit early, the heat made me tired.

I have been showing you pictures of the dismal situation at the motel each morning, so today I want to show you how different it was.

Notice not a drop of water on the pavement. Notice the blue sky with white clouds, not dark forbidding clouds. And the day stayed just that way.

I told you last night about the hail storm in Topeka. Well, the bad weather continued throughout the night. I was awakened by a very loud noise about 3 or so in the morning, it was my iPhone flashing a flood alert with a blaring sound. I said, "so what, what's different?" I looked out the window and it was raining, there was some thunder and lightning, so I shrugged and went back to sleep.

By the way, there are tornado warnings out for western Kansas again tonight.

I had parked the bike out of the weather, as I told you last night. This morning I wanted to show you how I parked it overnight, among the flowers.

Hanna said to me in an email that Kansas must have a boring landscape, so I took this next picture for her. See how the land goes up and down? It is not boring, just in some places.

As I was scooting down the road, I saw a low-flying airplane. I thought that I must be near an airport, but not so. When I saw what it was, I stopped and took a bunch of pictures, three of which I will show you.

It was a crop duster. I stayed there while he made a few circuits, then I got back on the bike and took off again. Did you see that he had company in the picture above?

As he gets low over the crop, he falls behind this tree.

And somewhat further down the road, my bike convinced me to take a break so he could chat with some of his friends. If you don't understand, go back to the last part of 28 May.

Today I crossed paths I have ridden before. I crossed US50 this morning, and I crossed Route 66 this afternoon. I am staying in Broken Arrow, which is adjacent to Tulsa, and Route 66 goes through Tulsa. I wanted to ride Route 66 for a mile or two, for old times, and it included the bridge that crosses the Arkansas River. In the picture below the bike is just at the end of the bridge heading toward Chicago.

When I first arrived in the northern part of Tulsa, I took a break to look at the map. I knew I would be crossing Route 66, and I wanted to make sure I knew it when it happened. So I reviewed where Route 66 is as it goes through Tulsa. I decided to go to the bridge.

While looking at the map, I saw how close I was to Broken Arrow. I had not been there before, but I remembered it from my Route 66 Ride. Here's a picture from that ride, and here's what I said, "Fourth graders from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma visiting the Will Rogers Museum. They are about the age I was when I was here in 1952." That means they will be Seniors this fall.

When I took that picture, the adults with the children agreed for me to put the picture on my web site, and then the children would be able to see the picture on the Internet at school the next day. I exchanged a couple or so emails with one of the ladies (she is the lady who told me what the bird was that I had put on my web site a couple of weeks later -- it was the state bird of Oklahoma).

So, when I saw how close I was to Broken Arrow, I decided that I had to spend a night there.

I got a picture of the Arkansas River today.

I have photographed the Arkansas River in the past at two different places. This was in Kansas on my US50 Ride, about 2/3 of the way from Hutchinson to Dodge City. A bit smaller there, isn't it.

And this was at Royal Gorge, in Colorado, more than 1,000 feet above the river.