The last day and it feels like it. The relentless chasing has caught up with us, chronic ailments and general tiredness have us both afflicted.
Scheduled to be up at 8 we get the call for a 7:30 departure so a mad 20 minutes to get up and out. Today has a slight risk over a large area of the Plains with a 5% tornado risk over south west Oklahoma. So we’re heading south down Kansas 27; neither of us could face breakfast. We pass through Tribune then have a pit stop at Syracuse; we’ve both perked up a bit. Soon we’re through Richfield and east on Kansas 51 then P Boulevard, US56, Kansas 61 then the good ‘ol US83 south.
We’re not in Kansas anymore as we head through the Oklahoma Panhandle. We stop at Perryton for a Subway and get a glimpse of the damage caused by last year’s tornado that caused 3 fatalities just a week after Rory and I stayed there. We continue south and pass through Canadian.
We arrive at Shamrock, Tx for a team photo and to cogitate on the weather. Despite coming here many times over the years, the U Drop Inn is still a cool example of Art Deco. Time to take some snaps then onwards south.
We have a pit stop in Wellington and who should be there filling up? None other than Pecos Hank!
We cross the Praire Dog Fork of the Red River, more like the Red Stream it’s so dry. It’s now 16:50 and there some small blips on radar.
We sit at Childress where it is baking hot, 36c or 99f in old money. It’s now 17:50 and any vague attempts at initiation are suppressed by the cap. Our perfect record of 9 wins on the road is under threat. A small tower goes up to our north east with a solitary flash of lightning and a hail marker before it gives up the ghost. I call that a win by an own goal in the 98th minute…5000 j/kg CAPE left on the table.
We give up and head back north before taking the US62 east. The outlook from the Steak Prediction Centre is extremely positive…we cross the state line into Oklahoma for the last time on this trip. We pass through Altus with a B47 Stratojet gatekeeper sat outside the airbase, a cool sight.
We stop for the traditional end of tour steak at the Texas Roadhouse in Lawton, we both had the filet (pronounced “filleh” over here), I had the house salad and Alex the Chilleh…Excellent, washed down with a Shiner Bock of course…
We depart for our base hotel at 21:10 to find a severe thunderstorm watch has been issued for later tonight, so we may get back to a lightning display and potentially some giant hail.
As we settle down a severe warned storm is heading directly for our hotel…now that definitely counts!
Total miles: 609
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