Dispatch 04: Quitaque, Texas, to Foss, Oklahoma

This is a 15 day trip. We are on the motorcycles from dawn to well past dusk, and every night is spent in a tent. You must create little moments of solace. I call them micro vacations. I slept five hours last night. This morning I showered for the first time in three days. Micro vacation. 

A herd of bison meandered around the Caprock Canyons State Park headquarters. Two bulls playfully tussled on the sidewalk under mesquite trees. Jerod and I left them to it, exited the park, and rolled gravel immediately. Jerod surged ahead roosting through the ruts and rock ledges like an expert. We rode parallel to the park’s boundary as the sun shimmered off the red cliff faces on the horizon. It was  back to asphalt as we rode over the rust-colored mud of Prairie Dog Fork Red River.

The meat of today’s adventure sandwich was the county road through the historic JA Ranch. A 30-mile public path through private land. The red dirt path dissects the 190,000-acre ranch through cuts, breaks, and dry creek crossings. We met ranch hands in pickups and long stretches of sand—both unimpressed by our presence. Jerod takes another spill in the sand. Our journey across the JA Ranch took three hours. We exited the property and climbed the Caprock Escarpment along a road called Koogle’s Jump Off.

Breakfast this morning was sparse and coffee nonexistent. I hit Clarendon famished and Jerod had a pounding headache. It was 3 p.m., and I couldn’t stomach another convenience store lunch. Our only other option with the time we had was a Sonic Drive-In where we woofed down a couple of burgers next to our motos in a stall meant for a car.

We rode through Wheeler, Texas, to the sound the Mustang’s gearing up for football under the Friday night lights and punched through the Oklahoma border under the dark of the night. Goodbye, Texas.

We stopped in Elk City where kids still cruise a drag in pickups with loud pipes and motorcycles with even louder exhaust tips.

Camp was made in the green grass next to the waters of Foss Reservoir. I crawled into my tent and immediately fell asleep.