I learned a lot of lessons during Petoji. Some apply specifically to credit card tours, others apply to cycling in general, and a few apply to life as a whole. Here's a lesson for you if you plan on doing a credit card tour. When you plan on stopping for water in a certain town, stop at the first gas station you see. That gas station may not be the best. It might even give you the creeps a little. But you never know if there's another gas station in town.
I made a dumb mistake on Day 15 around mile 90 and skipped the first gas station I saw because I didn't like the looks of it. Well, there wasn't another gas station in town and I didn't do the smart thing, swallow my pride, and turn back around. I figured I could make it to the next town. Bad idea. The day just continued to get hotter and hotter and all I could think about was a nice, cold drink. Maybe it was more mental than physical, but after a strong start to the day I slowed down a lot and wasn't able to finish on a strong note.
The day's route was a good one. It was a nice mixture of highways and smaller roads. I started off on highway 1/270 for about 60 miles to McAlester, but that stretch had a nice, big shoulder. After that I hit some smaller roads until about mile 115 where I took 271 back to 270 to the finish in Heavener. There were rolling hills all day and towards the end you could start to see the mountains off in the distance.
I'd like to know the story behind these little piles of stone.
