Today we will cross the halfway mark of this adventure at least distance wise, I’m going to take a different route around Oklahoma City witch will involve a little more toll road but hopefully will avoid a never ending construction zone in the city. The storm warning overnight was right on the money, and at 2 am it started and rumbled through till 3:30 with thunder, lighting and heavy rain, hell it rained so hard it washed most of the bugs off of the windshield.
It was 6:20 when I rolled out of bed this morning, maybe more of a nature call than anything else, dawn was breaking but some dark clouds to the east so no sunshine yet. I slept well until the storm hit and was able to fall back to sleep later, and the last time we were in Oklahoma waiting for our new windshields we had similar storms. As I’m typing this morning there seems to be a lot of train whistles this morning that I never noticed till now, the noise from the interstate is building as well, but it didn’t seem bad last night. Mister Sam greeted me this morning for his snacks but then headed for the big bed, he doesn’t like thunder so would have had a bad night along with not liking travel days he has been having a bad week period.
Well our route today will finally get us off of I-40 which we have been on since Tuesday morning, just a few miles of I-40 then the 344 Turnpike around Oklahoma City to I-44 which will take us right to the Mississippi River. Route 66 which ran from Chicago to Santa Monica and has been our route although most of the old highway was replaced by the interstate highway system but shows up along our route with roadside attractions right through to St. Louis.
Breakfast this morning was bacon on toasted sour dough bread along with a cup of fresh perked coffee that may have had a wee bit of Irish blessing. If all goes well this should be another four hour day, and should get us into Missouri. Our elevation at Oklahoma City is 1500 feet (457 meters) and today will be a series of rolling hills some only being 50 feet (15 meters) of roll and some having over 300 feet (91 meters) of roll, our elevation will descend as we get to Tulsa and the Arkansas River where the elevation will be 500 feet (152 meters) then climb back to 1000 feet (304 meters) at the Missouri State line.
So we managed to get on the road by 9:00 am and had good driving conditions pretty much all day, the new turnpike route reduced traffic and while a few mile longer was faster, and other than a couple of construction zones where the speed limit dropped below 55 mph (88 km/h) the cruise was set at 65 mph (104 km/h) and we made good time pulling into the Missouri Welcome Center by 12.45 pm
Today’s numbers from Thunder’s on board computer: running time 3:53, distance travelled 238.6 miles (383.9 kilometers), average speed 61 mph (98 km/h), consumed 28.5 gallons (107.8 liters) for a fuel mileage of 8.3 mpg (28.3 liters / 100 km). I have to admit I was very surprised by todays fuel mileage, I had set the cruise control at 65 instead of 64 and with the hills, it makes very little sense, but after eight years of travelling I just thought it was time to analyze the numbers a bit closer and if I can figure out how to improve the fuel mileage I will do it.
Good morning; it’s 5:45 CDST and I’m wide awake and we had a quiet night for a rest stop location, but we have always enjoyed this location and have had good luck at finding a spot near the back of the site. I have to admit this is our worst planned trip as I’m just making it up as we roll along and I’m scouring “ALLSTAYS” for an overnight spot approximately 200 miles ahead of us and I also have to check the weather reports because we are entering the area prone to high winds and heavy storms with hail and the like, plus we start passing through older poorly laid our cities, that are notorious for having terrible roads and huge rush hours.
After some research I have picked another Walmart at El Reno OK approximately 220 miles east on I-40 which means that we should be able to get todays driving day under four hours which is easier on the driver as well as Mister Sam who is not a good traveler. The spot in El Reno should have us just outside of Oklahoma City which is a rough road city with lots of idiot drivers and too far to try to get past today. The coach is facing east and at nearly 7 am it is light outside but no sign of the sun yet, and for the first time in five months there are no mountains in site, just the rolling hills of grazing land, and while it is great to see green grass after months in the desert it won’t be till later today or tomorrow before we get back to real trees with height and hopefully leaves.
Our overnight temperature was 47ºF (8ºC) and the forecast high for Amarillo is 73ºF (23ºC) we are travelling between storms as we move east with similar temperatures expected in the Oklahoma City area, there could be some rain on Friday but we can hope to avoid it. Todays drive with be rolling farmland with no great elevation changes, Texas has a large quantity of wind turbines that dot the horizon which a nice to view it also means it is a wind prone area, we will pass through Weatherford OK today the area of the windshield incident last fall. As the sun peaks above the horizon the solar controllers are coming to life but we are likely an hour away from adding any power to the batteries.
A week from today we will be back in Ontario as I look at Google Maps and break this trek out into 200 mile chunks with good roads and no issues we will cross the Mississippi River this weekend and then we are just a hop, skip and a jump away. We are planning some visits with friends as we continue along our trek home. This morning we watched some Canadian Television as the Starlink is working well even in a higher population area the speed in is excess of 200 Mbps. Breakfast this morning is a fried cheese omelet, salsa, and sour dough toast, along with a wee blessing of the Irish in our fresh perked coffee. Mister Sam seems to be controlling our departure time with a bit of a nap on Miss Laurie’s lap, but we manage to get him corralled and were on the road by 9:30.
With the cruise set at 64 mph (101 kmph) we are rolling along well, Texas seems to take very good care of I-40 through the state and while we have experienced a number of road work areas they are well marked and are a mile or two at best. Mister Sam has voiced his wishes just as we were preparing to cross the state line into Oklahoma and we have pulled into a rest area where he seems to be catching a “CAT NAP” while I update the blog.
As we cross into Oklahoma we are only a couple of hours from our end destination, trees are becoming more plentiful, I mean big majestic trees that block your view of the horizon and provide real shade. It is amazing how great the green grass, the majestic trees and the smell of a fresh cut lawn after being in Arizona. Traffic on I-40 has been light although most of the traffic is semis, the 75 mph (120 km/h) has us in the right lane and with the gentle rolling hills with the cruise on has us shifting between 5th & 6th gear, although the speed only varies between 61 and 66 mph and on some grades will have the transmission hunting (switching back and forth between gears) so on those grades I shift into 5th gear where it will maintain the 64 mph the engine speed is so slight 1390 rpm in sixth and 1570 rpm in fifth that the fuel efficiency is minimal at the state line we have descended another 800 feet (243 meters).
2:15 and we are off of the highway and tucked along the outside row of our Walmart destination parking lot. we are right beside I-40 so there is lots of traffic noise but just for an overnight stop it will be perfect. We managed to keep the drive time under four hours today sneaking in at 3:46, the 200 miles (321 kilometers) per day seems to be the right number of miles to cover, enough to see progress but not enough to be too hard on any of the participants.
Dinner this evening was barbequed pork chop with a salad, because pulling the barbeque out and firing it up in a Walmart parking lot is kind of frowned on a few days before a long road trip we barbeque a number of items that can be warmed up in the microwave on any travel day. Our secret is any thing that we barbeque for reheating I keep a little on the rare side so the re-heat doesn’t dry out the meat.
So now I need to pick a destination for Friday night, and on the weekends we need to be a little more aware of more vehicle traffic, maybe a few less heavy trucks and more family outings. And while some of you might think that is better in reality it is not, the truck drivers are professionals while the vehicle with a family may not have a driver that is giving their full attention, and it also makes Walmart’s and restaurants busier. tomorrow has a number of concerns travelling through Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Joplin, it looks like a few miles more as well, much of it will be on a toll road that is usually in good condition but has a higher speed limit which can make drivers more aggressive but if we hit the road by nine o’clock it should work out just fine.
The other issue is we did not fuel today and to be honest I’m trying to make it to the next Buc-ee’s in Springfield MO to refuel, our fuel tank hold 100 gallons (378 liters) and at 8 mpg we should be able to transverse 800 miles. the distance between the Buc-ee’s is 550 miles so it should not be an issue, but tomorrows fuel mileage may not be as good as there are more rolling hills than today, also three cities, and twenty miles more than today, if we make our tomorrows destination we will be below the half tank mark which while not a problem for driving but someplace between 1/2 and 1/4 tank is the fuel draw for our generator which shouldn’t be required any way, but if it was it might not start and run.
So lets check out today’s numbers: 225 miles (362 kilometers) in three hours and forty-six minuets, we averaged 59 mph (95 km/h) we consumed 28 gallons (106 liters) of diesel fuel at a rate of 8 mpg (29 liters/100 km). Another solar harvest in excess of 5.1 kilowatts, so far the array has been handling our power consumption easily on a daily basis. The fuel mileage today is usually what we average on a cross country trip, and a number that I think is good for our size and weight as we roll down the road, I suspect the better fuel mileage is because of a more powerful engine so it is not working as hard.
Just got a weather alert from my weather app, warning of a thunder storm overnight, the forecast has it all around us.
The Buchanan's Rolling Down The Road 