Oklahoma

Today is Thursday, we finally escaped the heat. An all day rain tends to cool things down. Things didn't look so bad as we left our hotel in North Little Rock this morning, but before we got out of Arkansas we stopped to put on leather to shield us from the rains. We didn't get much farther before stopping to wait out a harder rain. Ran across another rider from Florida and  2 more guys doing a 3 week trip also passing through Seattle.

Stopped for peanut butter at the Oklahoma visitor center where we waited out more rain sitting under one of the many "tee pee's" that are scattered along this rest area.

Somewhere along the way we stopped at McDonalds, watched the weather channel, added a layer of rain gear and cancelled our reservations in Oklahoma City as it looked as we would never make it that far. This stop was followed by a 7 mile stretch of lane closures (complete with signs urging motorcycles to use caution) forcing us to ride on what was intended to be the shoulder of west bound Interstate 40. As we were down to one lane there was no place to pull over, so thankfully for us, as well as the vehicles that were closely following us, the rain, although steady, was not preventing us from seeing or being seen at that point.    

Found shelter at a shut down gas station where we used the GPS to find a new hotel in Shawnee 30 miles short of our original plan. The last 15 miles went quickly knowing that we had a place to take a hot shower and rest for the night. We will find a way to dry out some things, order a pizza and wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Watching the news, we see serious local flooding in OK City with cars being abandoned in the middle of the street so it seems we may be lucky to have not made it that far today.