Day 53: Hit the road at sunrise, and made the 100 miles (plus three) we set out to pedal today. 30s, overcast, and rolling hills all day, but otherwise a great day for riding with a wide shoulder and very little Sunday traffic. Ron’s day was made more challenging by a bent rim and slowly degrading wheel on his bike trailer, but he toughed it out.
Checking into the motel in Coalgate, OK (named after coal mining activity and the site of a mining camp), started talking with a guy in line in front of me, who told me folks around here support oil pipelines, until I told him we were riding to block a tar sands pipeline. That shifted the conversation rather dramatically. It ended with him asking why we weren’t in the electric car age already and wishing us luck with our mission.
Walked across the street to grab some dinner at a local diner in Coalgate (pop: 2,000). As dessert was arriving, a woman with a camera and notepad approached our booth (word travels fast in small towns). Wanda Utterback with the Coalgate Record-Register proceeded to conduct the most thorough interview of the journey to date. She was also a real joy to meet. Hoping the piece she writes opens a lot of eyes to the Keystone XL nightmare. Looking forward to hopefully meeting some OK landowners along the proposed pipeline route before leaving the state tomorrow.
On the more bad news front, 2010 global carbon emissions show the biggest jump ever recorded: http://tinyurl.com/c2vbxss.