McBRAAM Stage 14: Elk City, OK to Anadarko, OK..."We are officially half-way across the USA!"

1,481.1 miles ridden.
57,898 feet climbed.

We crossed the halfway point of the ride today at mile 58. We have been following a route used annually by a touring company America By Bicycle (https://americabybicycle.com/). We are not on one of their tours, but felt it more comforting knowing we would be riding roads used by cyclists in the past. Lance and I were riding side by side on a very remote country road, chatting away when we rolled right over a painted message. It reads, "California to Savannah, GA, Southern Fast Route, ABB Half Way Point."

We also just completed ride 14 of a planned 28, so today was the "Hump Day" of our ride on the calendar too. It's all downhill from here, right?

It was a beautiful day all day long. We started with temps in the mid 60s and ended in the mid 80s. Not a cloud in the sky. In fact, we have had clear blue skies every day for 2 weeks except for Day 10 in New Mexico, Las Vegas to Tucumcari, where we were chased by a storm and actually were hit by a few drops.

I promise this will be my final reference to cotton on this blog, but some of the fields were quite pretty as they were ripe, if that's what cotton gets. We stopped and I plucked this huge cotton blossom. It is so soft. We passed thousands of acres of cotton fields today, thankfully on the downwind side, so no sweater making today.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1228753040
https://www.relive.cc/view/1228753040

1/2 of our mission completed.
1 dam crossed on our bicycles.
1 large order of deep fried pickles and green beans eaten.
2 cotton blossoms picked.

Hotel: America's Best Value, 2 of 5 stars (name is misleading).
Restaurant: Jo's Burgers, 5 of 5 stars (for a burger joint, this one is tops, deep fried pickles and beans were excellent).

Proof we are half way.

Proof of our interaction with wild cotton the past few days.