8:30am and we're off and running. We put in about 100 miles on pavement heading north to catch the closest marked point on the trail map. Storm clouds were hanging above is to the east, and we were fortunate that the storm didn't make it any further west.
Just south of Buffalo, where we would eventually start the trail, we came upon a windpower farm. We could see the windmills for 20 minutes before we reached them. The picture doesn't do them justice. The blades are a good 90 feet long each, and the towers are placed in a staggered line along a ridge, stretching for several miles.
Just north of Buffalo we reached a point where the Trans-Am Trail crossed the highway. Oklahoma roads, including the unpaved ones, are set on a 1-mile grid, so most of the riding was straight-line, with little confusion when we reached turns.
The rain storms from the previous day missed the panhandle, so the roads were quite dusty. I took the lead and handled navigation for the day, riding ahead of the others so they wouldn't be forced to eat dust the whole time.
The amount of wildlife today was the biggest surprise. First, before even reaching the trail, I nearly ran over a tarantula. Through the rest of the day I scared up several white-tail deer, a couple of geese, a rabbit, a couple of hawks, and at one point a duck flew level with the ground right in front of my front fender for a good 150 feet or so.
On our last trip I had the first wreck, about 15 miles in. This time Rick earned that honor, getting bit by a wash of soft sand about 25 miles in to the trail. He scuffed a handguard and bruised his ribs (and possibly his ego) in the fall. A couple Motrin later and he seems to feel better.
We reached a stretch of trail that crossed through open cattle land, and found ourselves crossing cattle guards every mile. At one guard a huge black bull stood blocking our path. Rick, the toughest of us, rode up and ran it off so we could pass.
After about 100 miles we had our first SNAFU. I was riding ahead and practicing the "20 minute rule.". This is where when you stop to wait for others to catch up, you wait 20 minutes before going back to find anyone that hasn't arrived. I had been sitting at an intersection for about 20 minutes, and it had been about 8 miles since I'd last seen Doran and Rick, so I decided to head back and see what had happened. Only my bike wouldn't start. I'd left the key on for the whole 20 minutes with the headlight sucking the life out of the battery. Fortunately the 640 comes equipped with a kickstart. Unfortunately, the footpeg mount is bent back (from my wreck last year) to where it blocks the kickstart lever. After trying evertying I could think of to get going, I finally came to two realizations: my bike wasn't going to start, and the others weren't going to show up anytime soon. Fortunatly, Oklahoma has good cel coverage. It turned out that Rick had a flat rear tire and they had just finished patching it. Doran came riding up the trail about 10 minutes later. At this point the 20 minute rule had stretched out to 60 minutes. Doran was able to kick my bike with enough force to get the starter lever past the footpeg with enough speed to get the engine to turn over.
We were all up and rolling again, but exhausted from all the heat, and about 2 hours behind schedule for the day. So we hopped on a nearby highway and made our way to the nearest town to find a cold beverage and fully inflate Rick's tire. Turns out that the nearest air compressor was almost an hour west in Hooker, OK. At this point it was getting late, so we decided to head for the nearest decent sized town, Guymon, OK, and find a room for the night.
The plan for tomorrow is to make for the New Mexico border and pick up the Trans-Am trail at the state line.
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