Start: Oklahoma City, OK
Finish: Oklahoma City, OK
Weather: 105 degrees, sunny
Bike Time: 1.5hours
Miles: 14
Distance to date: 914
Today was a superb day for visiting. After a leisurely morning Jeff, Jamie and I went to lunch at Chili’s and spent two hours discussing all matters great and small. I am pretty sure that we righted all the wrongs of the world several times, which is always gratifying. I left their place late afternoon to ride over to Kenyon and Kay Morgan’s home in Northeast OKC. I worked for Kenyon when I first got out of school, 30 years ago, and we have kept in touch since.
OKC is so large that crossing town can put you in a completely different microclimate. The west side of the city, where all of my family lives, is high, dry and flat. People have introduced many trees, but few are native. As soon as you cross Santa Fe (the East/West division street) the landscape begins to roll and there are more natural trees. By the time you get to Oakmont, five miles east of Santa Fe, the land is almost forested. It is usually about five degrees cooler on
the east side of town. Historically Northeast OKC has been the black side of town, so despite the beautiful landscape, cooler
breezes, and even better highway connections, it is much less developed than the west side.
Kenyon and Kay had an incredible dinner prepared for me when I arrived. We had a great evening catching up on our
work and our families, and I camped out overnight in one of their girl’s rooms – all three of whom are now grown and moved away.
