Day 48 - Great Lake Swimmers

Todays mileage: 58
Total mileage: 2,344
End point: Sequoyah State Park, OK

As I posted yesterdays entry I was finishing up my 5th beer, and I had no intention drinking that much beer at the begining of the evening - it was meant to be an early start. The only thing which made it slightly better was that the last few beers was a Michelob Ultra which is only 3.2%. This seems to be a magic number in a few states; where beer this week can be sold in supermarkets as opposed to liquor stores. I also heard that any beer imported into OK must be imported warm if its over 3.2%, surely that is a big fat porky pie? I headed to be thinking that a 6 am start was unlikely but surely I could be out by 7am or 8am.

At 3am a loud noise appeared from the closet. I tried to ignore it for a few minutes, but this was really loud. A screaming siren, I immediately thought tornado (I must be getting paranoid) but it was in fact the fire alarm. Coming out of my door there were a lot of other guests not looking happy. Fingers were immediately pointed at the wedding party guests who must have had a bit too much fun. Down 11 flights of stairs and onto the sidewalk to sit and wait. An old granny who must of been 90 made it down the stairs and was given her own sofa on the sidewalk, and there were some really drunk wedding guests stumbling around. I sat on the sidewalk chatting to a couple visiting their daughter in college and resigned myself to the fact that my early start just was not going to happen. We had to wait well over an hour before we were let back in. It turned out to be a real alarm and not a prank, one of the AC units had short circuited and created smoke - but not fire. Home at the Hyatt should have been renamed Hell at the Hyatt.

I didn't manage to leave the hotel till midday, I was just so tired! Finally I threw myself into the baking heat and headed onwards. I ended up doing a lot of zig-zags across the city, as route 51 was an interstate in the city, but became a normal highway about 15 miles out. Unfortunately zig-zagging on back roads probably added at least another 3 or 4 miles. Oh and ofcourse a string southerly wind with 98f degrees. Before leaving Tulsa I dropped in on Qdoba in honour of Pam. This is her favourite restaurant in the whole world, and I hadn't seen one till now (who thought I would find civilization in Tulsa). I have also picked up another 24oz insulated water bottle, I was so impressed with the first one. They are keeping my drinks cold for nearly two hours. The first one I bought, the Camelback has an amazing valve system - no pop, you just suck and it comes out. I realized the downside of this is that you can't spray dogs in the face, so my second insulated bottle has a traditional style popper. If you haven't tried on of these bottles I would strongly recommend it.

I headed out on 51 through Coweta, nothing too exciting to report. Frequent water and ice stops (no one has charged me yet apart from mcdonalds). I almost lost it in mcdonalds when the soman strongly advised me not to put pop in my drink as it would dehydrate me - she was lucky all she got was 'i'll burn the calories'; the most exercise she had done in the last 5 years was change the tv channel. There are dangers with pop, I think an overdose of mountain dew turned my poop green, but with the amount of ice I put in dehydration was not a risk. My original intention had been to continue south to Muskogee but the southerly wind was so strong I decided to head west to Wagoner. A cute little town where I did a little walmart stop and got some dinner, pop tarts, fruit and a few other essentials.

I left Wagoner and headed onto the state park. Sequoyah State Park is fantastic, set on Fort Gibson Lake, my tent pitch is right next to a sandy beach and so the first thing I did upon arrival was have a swim. The water was warm and loads of families were in the water for the sunset. By the way the great lake swimmers are a kids rock band who are kind of fun. The only problem is I haven't worked out how to pay, the office is closed and I haven't spotted any of the envelopes and drop boxes I have seen at other state parks. I'm now planning to sleep with no fly sheet on my tent and no sleeping bag - this is the way to do it! Up early tomorrow, no fire alarm tonight :)