June 7, 2018 Catoosa (W. Tulsa) OK to North Miami, OK

87.07 miles. I woke up pretty early and went into the Hard Rock to fill my water bottles with ice, went to McDonald's and had egg McMuffin s until Ben got ready and met me to roll for the day. There was a cloud cover, which lasted all day, and a tailwind was a surprise that also lasted all day. We were barely out of town on old 66, when we picked up a local biker named Pete. He rode with us for about 8 miles, chatting up a storm about his love of bicycling, as we rode down a really nice shoulder, until he peeled of to head home. The nice shoulder stayed with us for just about the entire trip. We were making great time, ( I was gabbing to Ben the entire way...don't know what got into me), and rolled into the town of Vinita, at about the fifty mile marker, in about four hours. We stopped at a store to have lunch, and several cowboy/farmer types were checking us out like we were Martians. They wouldn't make eye contact, let alone speak, but you could tell that they felt we were very unusual types. We probably are in this area, Oklahoma is just a little different when it comes to bicyclists. Earlier we had one pick up truck slow down for us, even though we were on the shoulder, he put on his flashers, passed us slowly, turned his flashers off when he got past us, then resumed his regular speed. And we were on an eight foot wide shoulder! Pretty funny. They just don't have much of a clue as to what to do with us!
We had a storm trailing us for most of the day that dumped four inches of rain in OKC, and had cars floating down the streets, but it went south of us, and we got nothing but the welcomed cloud cover. We passed through many little towns that brought back memories of my last ride through the area. We ended up at the Quapaw ( pronounced  O gah Pa) Casino, which was just north of Miami, where we have stayed a couple of times (in town). Pam found it in her casino camping book. FREE pull through sites with 50 amp power and water, for as long as three days. Ben was allowed to set up his tent in the grass right next to us. There are several small casinos in the area, each belonging to a different tribe. At the Buffalo Run casino, three miles back towards town, I noticed the sign advertised that Grand Funk Railroad was playing.... Tonight! I jumped on that right away. Plans changed. Pam had been cooking supper, but we cancelled that until after the show. I don't how how much Ben knew about GFR, but he went with us. It was worth every penny, as thoroughly enjoyed seeing a band that still sounded great, but are probably near the end of the road. Yesterday, at the Hard Rock, we missed the Charlie Daniels band and Marshall Tucker by a day. We considered hanging around, but the show was sold out. After the show, it was still light outside! We came home, had our supper, and called it a night. Life is not worth living if you can't be spontaneous!