Day 12

Today was our first 3 state ride...Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.  We rode out Hwy 54 East this morning through the Oklahoma Panhandle into SW Kansas.  The Panhandle is known as "No Man's Land."  This area was owned by Spain in 1541, Mexico in 1821, Texas 1836, USA in 1850, Oklahoma Territory in 1890, Beaver County Oklahoma Territory in 1900, and Oklahoma 1907.  The area's economy is definitely based on agriculture and petroleum products.  In fairly recent years, pig farmers have moved into the Guyman OK area and have pretty much taken over.  While all we've seen all day have been large fields (mostly wheat or pasture land) and a few oil rigs, the ever present aroma of feed lots and the pig farms remind us of how people make a living out here.

Hwy 54 is supposedly the busiest 2 lane Hwy in the country as it connects Wichita KS to El Paso TX; however, since it has wide shoulders, traffic is really not a factor to the riders.  Most of the traffic consists of semis hauling cattle to the feed lots but almost all the traffic gave the riders a wide berth and almost without exception drivers were very courteous to us.  There's just not much out here except the town's grain elevator every 10 miles just like clock work and 22 telephone poles per mile to count to pass the time.

One highlight of the day was passing through Hooker OK.  Some may find the name a bit risqué, but this small, friendly town of 1500 residents uses its unusual name to draw tourists (and most of our cyclists) to its chamber of commerce to buy "horny toad" souvenirs and t-shirts with catchy sayings like "Hooker Street Walkers" or "Once a Hooker, Always a Hooker."  Another one I liked was, "Hooker...a location, not a vocation."  They even have a street walkers festival...I only saw 1 street though.  The town was named after a man's nickname..."Hooker."  According to the book, "Lost Trails of the Cimarron" by Harry E. Christman, the town was named after John (Hooker) Threlkeld who some say was named after the Civil War general Hooker, but other accounts report that he was nicknamed "Hooker" because he was the best cattle hooker around (a term to describe someone who roped cattle during branding time).  What ever the source of the nickname, the Horny Toads of Hooker OK are a neat bunch...nothing like the name of the town suggests.  Another interesting tidbit about Hooker is the name of their main street...Glaydas, an obvious misspelling of Gladys.  "Other than ignorance running rampant in earlier times,"  It is suggested that there was another explanation of how it came to be.  "On page 9 of 'A History of Hooker," Volume 1, it states John (Hooker) Threlkeld came to No Man's Land in 1873 where he spent the next 30 years in the saddle."  A researcher commented that he finally dismounted and said, "Man, my xxx is glad to be out of that saddle."  After that his friends began calling him "Gladass Hooker."  "When the good settlers needed a name for the main street of town, they selected 'Gladass.'  But many of their womenfolk, being of a more sensitive nature and not able to abide such harsh words as 'ass,' modified the spelling slightly but kept the intent."  Source: Hooker Chamber of Commerce.