Return to Oklahoma City

Nostalgia, anticipation, and a sense of danger have won over a peaceful life at home in Pasadena.  Off again this Friday to complete a trek begun last April 5. 

On the first attempt, with intent on reaching Chicago by June 15, I and the bicycle got as far as Oklahoma City before being driven back by tornadoes.  It was weather that drove farmers from the Dust Bowl via Route 66 to California in the 1930’s, and weather of a different kind that drove me home.   

The difference this time is that tornadoes are very unlikely during October.  I should make it to Chicago and arrive home by Halloween.  

Please join me in some way, commenting here on the blog or by email.  I welcome your thoughts and poems.  But, of course, you can ask to be removed from this list, if it’s all too much. (Click on any picture to make it larger.)

Route 66, the “Mother Road” in John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath” brought Dust Bowl refugees to California in the thirties. I retraced those refugees upstream to Oklahoma City, but I won’t follow them any further, because they joined Route 66 in Oklahoma City or points west.  Instead, I’ll climb little hills of the Ozark Mountains in Missouri and ride through some of the Rust Belt approaching Chicago.  From there, Amtrak will again whisk me home.