Elk City to Hinton, OK 05-02-2026 Day 22

We walked over to Braum’s Dairy store in the dark at 6 AM to get our breakfast. It was a good place to get a banana, hot breakfast sandwich, yogurt, and coffee. Ron took his choices back to the room and I ate at the restaurant only a few hundred yards away. By 7:10 we were completely packed and out the door with the sun and cool air in our face. We passed a couple of Elk City’s Route 66 landmarks on our ride out.

We followed a frontage road, with signage indicating it was the Route 66 Bicycle Route out of town until we came to the small town of Canute. It had an exit off of I-40, but there wasn’t much to the town. However, we were seeing a pattern developing.

Like Canute, Foss also had an exit off of I-40, but its population barely cracked 100 people. We ended up passing on our Route 66 just south of the “main town”. In spite of that, they had left their mark on our path.

As we travelled along, sometimes the frontage road north of I-40 was our official bike route and then we would cross over to the south frontage road. On one of those transitions, there was a swarm of swallows flying all around us as we went under the interstate. Apparently they had been making nests underneath I-40.

It was a good 14 miles to get to Clinton, but there were amusing sights along the way.

Following our route paralleling I-40, we came up from the south to the town of Clinton. Unfortunately, the road that led under I-40 was under construction. There was no one there manning the “Road Closed” sign. Ron was the brave one, and rode around the barriers to see if we could find a path over the dirt under the interstate to the other side. Like Rocky, he found it wasn’t closed to everybody, just the general public. I followed him under to the other side.

Not far up there road, to our delight, we found another Braum’s Dairy store. I was ready for a shake. Ron was happy to just watch me. It was still before 10 AM.

Clinton also had the OKLAHOMA Route 66 museum. Since we were at the NATIONAL Route 66 museum yesterday, we rode on by and continued our journey to Weatherford. Clinton had some size to it, but Weatherford was comparatively huge with a population of 12,000. It took us 3-4 miles to get through it. While we did not stop at the Stafford Air and Space Museum, we couldn’t resist another stop at Braum’s. Even Ron got a shake this time. I also got to get a picture of another of the metal giants. This one had a space theme.

Just a few miles down the road, just before the tiny town of Hydro we stopped at a landmark dedicated to Lucille Hamons. It is a 2 story gas station, built in 1929. Lucille ran the business for 60 years, starting in the 1940’s.

My son-in-law, Anthony talks about these annoying stretches he calls PUDs – pointless up and downs. Ron was especially annoyed at the roller coaster ride we had on our bicycle Route 66 today. We were within sight of I-40. While the interstate seemed to be running along a surface as flat as a pool table, we were constantly dipping below or rising above its height.

Today, our journey came to an end near Bridgeport. It was another town of under 120 people just north of I-40. We never saw the town, but it still left its mark on the highway.

Our actual finish was in Hinton, where 2 casinos compete for everyone’s attention. We had dinner at one and stayed at a hotel associated with the other. It was a good ride. No flats, 2 shakes, and a good dinner.

The ride stats are here. The 3D video is here.

The Not So Lone Rider