American on a Runner's High IV: Day 9

Cedar Rapids runner Chris Wolfe is off on his fourth running vacation, blogging every day at http://runnershighheartland.wordpress.com/

Here is an excerpt from Day 9:

With taking a day off and spending a little more time in Lexington, I knew that I needed to make a change in my schedule. This meant cancelling one of my stops, so I chose to by-pass Little Rock, Ark., and go straight from Vicksburg to Oklahoma City. This would also mean changing two shorter drives into a long one.

I didn't make the distance all in one drive, unfortunately. I got off to a late start from Vicksburg because I was having too much fun. That late start saw me hitting Dallas a little before 10:00 PM – it seems that they have rush-hour traffic throughout the entire day there. Dallas also has a large number of crazy drivers whom kept the Texas State Troopers busy.

Feeling relieved about surviving Dallas without death, I stopped about a half hour from the Texas-Oklahoma border. I figured on finishing the drive the next morning, which I did and was able to check out some north Texas landscape – the state looks baked…literally.

I feared what I might find for traffic in Oklahoma City because I don't always have a lot of luck in big cities. This big city is a little different. I didn't find any craziness, horn-honking, finger-saluting, or word-yelling. It was a simple easy entrance into a cool and laid-back atmosphere.

My first stop was going to be for some direction from the good people with the Visitor Information Center. I had a great talk with Rose and Vernon and I was set for my Oklahoma City excursion. The temperature said 91 degrees.

I threw down a peanut butter Power Bar with a fair amount of water, and then laced up and started out…into the heat. My immediate direction was to an area called Bricktown.

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http://runnershighheartland.wordpress.com/