Day Fifteen

Memphis, Tennessee to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Mileage: 470

Today was a long day but a good ride. When we left the hotel at 9:30am, it was overcast and 66 degrees with light winds. We rode over to Graceland Harley-Davidson. This is only a store, but Sludge an I wanted a tee shirt with some sort of Elvis picture or logo. I found one that had Elvis on his motorcycles printed on the back. Just a souvenir to add to my collection of HD tee shirts.

From the store, we pulled onto Interstate 55 that lead us to Interstate 40 for the direct line to Oklahoma City. Last month, I drove down I-40 west and found that the last few miles of this route in Tennessee was under construction. I made a mental note to change the route so we don't get stuck in this traffic on the ride. That's why we were on Interstate 55. On the way up I-55, what do we see? Construction traffic! Now what idiot decided to perform construction on two major routes on the same side of the city? I couldn't believe it. We sat in bumper to bumper traffic for 30 minutes before we reached our exit onto I-40. The interstate was very clear from there until we reached Little Rock, Arkansas, where we sat in traffic for nearly an hour. Some guy in a pickup truck jack-knifed with his trailer and hit another car. The left two lanes were closed. Wonderful.

After passing through Little Rock, it was smooth sailing all the way to Oklahoma City. We rolled into the hotel parking lot about 10pm.

Tomorrow, Batman and Sludge will have their bikes serviced. Our appointment is for 9am. We were assured that all service will be done by noon. Mainly, it will be oil changes. I was also scheduled, but with the truck ride from Daytona Beach to Washington, D.C., my bike has 800 miles less that originally calculated. I can skip this service and have it done when I reach home. It's about 1150 miles from here to Litchfield Park. I'm at 3900 for the ride so far, so the 5000 mile service is almost right on the number.

It was a long riding day and we're all crashing hard tonight. Tomorrow will be a busy day too.