Day Fifteen: Amarillo, Texas, to Van Buren, Arkansas

When I wake up the wind is still there, but the skies have cleared. I have some breakfast, check out and pack the bike. Back on the freeway it is me and Blue against the wind. This will go on all day.

I cross Oklahoma from West to East in one giant step, a man on a mission, stopping only for gas and a quick bite to eat. The landscape begins to change slowly, and before I know it it reminds me of Mississippi, long stretches of freeway lined by trees and green that crops up whenever it is not

Oklahoma City (stock photo)

covered by asphalt. The air is also noticeable thicker and my cooling vest, which relies on evaporation, no longer works, leaving me with a clammy, stuffy feeling. I get rid of it at the next gas stop, next to a restaurant that advertises "all the catfish you can eat". When I get back on the road a very large bugs explodes on my face shield, its yellow guts running down slowly pushed by the wind, before freezing in place like glue.

I stop for lunch before hitting Oklahoma City, then head across the big city. I hate ridding through big cities, and this one is no exception.

For dinner I walk over to this Italian Grill. The combination of "Italian" and "grill" worries me a bit, but I am out for a quick meal, not a gastronomic experience. Inside the usual Saturday evening crowd, families, with kids, a few young couples, some older folks. The place seems to be staffed by too many waitresses for the size of the establishment, but it seems to work. I want a beer or a glass of wine, but the waitress reminds me, almost apologetic, that I am in a dry county, inside what is mostly a dry state. Yes, I see that, the 1920s temperance movement is alive and well in the south. Alcohol is bad for you, but the large plates with pizza and pasta the very large couple next to me is putting down, helped down by judiciously applied slabs of butter on the olive oil bread, is not. I get it. Water please, I ask.

The chicken Marsala I ordered also suffered from the constraints of being cooked in a dry county. I pay my bill and return to the hotel to realize I lost Blue's cover, probably left it at the hotel this morning.

I took no pictures today.

Tomorrow I head back to Ridgeland.