I've seen tires and I've seen rain...

Well, another day has passed, and now I'm 75 miles down the road in
Bartlesville, Oklahoma, where we have a day off tomorrow. I never
thought that I would want a day off after only four days of riding,
but I am more than ready. The day started off kind of slow, since we were
trapped at our host site in Grove by a radar full of yellow, red, and
little blinking lightning bolts. Once the weather cleared up a bit, we
headed out into the crosswind for our ride west.

Nothing much happened in the first few miles until my friend Samuel's
rear derailleur hanger broke, rendering his bike useless for the day.
Fortunately, trip leader Ben, who was driving the van today, was kind
enough to lend Samuel his bike, and we headed on our way. We crossed a
severely swollen lake full of large waves from the wind and realized
just how much rain this area had received lately. A local told us
that they had already been hit with over 150 inches this year. I don't
know how much they normally get, but that is a ton of water.

The rest of the day was spent just pedaling our way into the Church of
Christ here in Bartlesville, where we were welcomed with snacks,
lemonade, and a list of local attractions, nearly all of them
involving Frank Phillips and the Phillips 66 oil company, which
apparently has a rich history in the town. There is the Price Tower,
built by Phillips and now a hotel, the Frank Phillips museum, the
Frank Phillips wildlife reserve, the official Phillips 66 musuem, and
so on and so forth. It reminds of Philmont, except devoted to Frank
instead of Waite Phillips. Tomorrow we'll hopefully get a chance to
see the sites after catching up on some rest.