June 26th - Watonga to Arnett

By Ben Nitkin on July 4, 2015 at 1:15

Watonga at dawn with stunning clouds.

Watonga's water tower with dawn weather westward (actually east, but westward is alliterative)

Past of downtown Watonga. Downtown is relative around here.

On the way out, some of our riders saw a stationary boxcar and decided to climb it with their bikes for a photo.

This is Watonga's silo. I'm not sure if it holds wheat or something else. Regardless, these things are uniformly concrete, about 100' tall, and uniformly charmless.

I'm afraid my bad luck with tires continued today. I had a pair of puncture flats on my replacement back tire.

A pretty shot against the plains. There's not much out here.

Except for random gas stations. As per southern tradition, there was another shuttered station across the street. This one was open, but hasn't seen a remodel since 1965.

Another photo of the middle of nowhere. It's pretty, aside from the endlessness.

This is Selling, where we stopped for lunch. You can tell it's a big city since there is a combine on a trailer.

A couple of wind turbines. These guys were everywhere, but spread out to far too get a good photo of.

We stopped in Vici for some snacks and a bathroom break.

The mud looked cool. So here is a photo of dessicated mud. Aren't you glad you're reading this?

As we biked past, Helen suggested that this is where they got the background for Oregon Trail games.

This was an oddity. The church in Arnett had an industrial kitchen intentionally styled to look residential. I thought it was really cozy.

They also had cute photo collages from prior years trips. This church has hosted B&B since 2009, when the route started.

One of my images from yesterday noted that these South-central towns have three features: churches, silos, and water towers. Today, I'd like to submit a similar description for the plains between the cities (towns, communities, whatever they are): oil wells and wind turbines. It's an odd mix.