October, 1998
Chapter 5

I found a way to help keep my feet warm at night. I bought a wool sweater at Goodwill and cut it right up the middle. Then, I turned each sleeve inside-out and sewed the chest pieces back together. I put these on like giant socks and put my feet in my sleeping bag and cover that with two wool blankets and it almost works!

My pager (from Pagenet, mind you) gives me weather forecasts, so I can at least plan my shivering ahead of time. I'm heading for California, but Route 66 doesn't dip south at all - brrrr! (They say nights in the desert are freezing!) Whenever I can, I try to catch a copy of usa Today. On the back page, they have a color weather map. I'm in the green area now and I can't wait to drop into the area colored in gold - that's my "True America" right now, as far as I'm concerned, yessir. But I'm going to stick to my Route 66 plan - "Getting my shivers on Route 66"

I am pretty sure I caused an accident today. I'm just speculating, but chances are I was, well, not to blame, but part of the cause, if you will.

I was on 66, heading into Kansas, when I pulled over to the shoulder to read some directions. Two cars stopped in the road beside me, because a large truck was stopped to make a left hand turn. I heard screeching tires and I looked up and saw a third car run into the rearend of the middle car, which bounced into the front car.

No one was hurt. Three or four ladies got out of the front car and started shouting about the truck turning. The young girl in the middle car was really shaken up and said "I ain't never been in a wreck before!" and the old man in the rear car kept saying "They were stopped in the road! There was nothing I could do!"

I told the man that he sure could have stopped sooner, if he had been paying attention, and he told me the get the hell out of there. Well, seeing how I didn't even see the truck, I knew I couldn't help the lady's case and I was fixing to get clobbered by the old farmer, so I took off.

After I left, I realized that the guy was probably looking at my bike and trailer, which is an unusual sight around here, and didn't stop in time. Anyway, from now on, I'm going to pull waaaay over to read my maps.

Date: October 24, 1998
Location: Sallisaw, Oklahoma
Notes: Just had to detour to visit this town, nearly on the Arkansas border. About a month before this trip began, I read John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and I happened to note all of the towns on the Joad's journey from Oklahoma to California, hoping to explore the same route someday.

Well, it all started in Sallisaw, so I went to see what tragic circumstances could inspire a man to write such a compelling story. Well, of course, few people in Sallisaw even knew of their town's literary notoriety. Even though the book had become a best seller, second only to Gone With the Wind, it isn't mentioned at all in the town's historical museum and the folks at the library are checking out the book, as my searching for clues seemed to have stirred their interest.

I did find the reason for the apathy, and it isn't because - duh - the book is fiction, but because, even though the result of the book was to awaken the country about the tragic weather conditions in the state during the depression, many Oklahomans took it as insulting their state and it was banned in many places. The novel generated much wrath of its own, a possible source of pride for Steinbeck, who, reportedly, never even visited the town.

Sallisaw seems to be doing very well now, and I can only conclude that Steinbeck chose this town as the home of the Joads because it is about as far east as you can get and still be in Oklahoma. Any input on this matter sure would be appreciated.

Date: October 24, 1998
Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma
Recent Stops: Sallisaw, Oklahoma
Next Stop: Oklahoma City
Mileage so far: 12,305
Notes: I met Allyson Johnson, from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, as she was waiting to race in the Junior Dragster class of the American Drag News Bracket Finals, at Tulsa International Raceway, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She is a sweet girl, and she told me about how she has raced over fifty times and was in the junior dragster national competition in Indianapolis last August. She has won four races so far and was ready for another.

I followed Allyson to the start line and watched her take off in Pink Lightning, the car her father, Ron Johnson (also a racer) bought for her. One eighth of a mile and 14.64 seconds later, she had run in 51 races and I went over to the pit to see how it went.