Freewheel Day 7

Saturday June 17, Grove to Baxter Springs, 45 miles

Slept very well last night and woke up to the sound of a good rain pattering on the tents. It sounded good to lie there and simply listen to it. At about dawn the rain stopped and we all got up, shook out as much water as we could and packed up our soggy tents.

Breakfast in the high school gym was the typical eggs and pancakes … didn’t eat much, not too hungry. It was still drizzling when we climbed on our bikes for the ride across the border and the rain began again in earnest soon into the ride. We rode in the rain probably the first third of the way and it felt good. There were only a couple of hills on this leg, and with a brisk south wind we made good time through pretty country.


At the state line we stopped for the obligatory pictures, and then we flew into Baxter Springs on the tailwind with the best average speed of the trip. Stopping at the High School on the north side of town, we changed into civies and grabbed another cheeseburger.

My son Ted showed up at about 1 pm, not long after we had finished out last Freewheel meeting of the trip. The ride back to OKC was a really crowed trip with all 5 of us in that little pickup. We dropped off Paul and Jim in the city, headed on to Ardmore to drop off Ted, then Glenn and I sped back to Altus, getting there around 11:30 that night. Freewheel 2006 was history!

Freewheel Day 6

Friday, June 16, Pryor to Grove, 58 miles

Woke up early this morning as usual, about 5am. Had a breakfast burrito at the fitness complex snack bar. By the time we all had something to eat, we ended up leaving camp late. But, we’d heard that today was going to be somewhat easier, so it didn’t really matter.

Our route today took us around the south and east side of Grand Lakee. The countryside was beautiful country, and we also passed over the dam. Instead of eating lunch today, I simply munched on Cliff bars and drank water and sports drinks. I think my body is getting tired of wolfing down large amounts of food.

More excitement today from our canine friends. On a two-lane road with no shoulder, we were met by large dog running down a bank from our right. He charged Glenn who was leading, but Glenn managed to divert him by squirting him from his water bottle. I was riding third in line, and when I attempted the same defensive maneuver, my front wheel dropped off the pavement and I crashed immediately, removing some skin from one knee and the opposite elbow. After straightening my handlebars and brake lever and having a high-volume, one-sided conversation with the dog (who ran away) we carried on.

That evening we camped on the 50 yard line at Grove High School. Dinner there was BBQ sandwiches with potato salad & cobbler. The food was OK but expensive ($8). Seems as though each little town has discovered that eight or nine hundred hungry riders rolling into their town is a fiscal opportunity, and also that serving sandwiches and chips is more profitable than feeding real meals. Not complaining, just observing.

We have a chance of rain tonight so the tent flys are going up. Tomorrow will be the last leg of the trip and everyone will be sorry to see it end so soon.

Freewheel Day 5

Thursday, June 15, Tahlequah to Pryor, 52 miles

It’s the fifth day into the ride and we’re all beginning to adjust to sleeping on the ground. I’m very happy with the Thermarest backpacking pad I selected for this trip. It’s small enough to carry on the bike if I ever decide to do some fully self-contained touring, but it’s also just thick enough when inflated to lift me above the ground and to provide some insulation. There was quite a bit of dew this morning, so I was glad I had used the tent fly. The temperature dropped during the night and I ended up crawling into my bag. We got up early after sleeping pretty well, packed up, and went across the street to the High School where the local Rotary Club was offering a pancake breakfast.

Today’s ride was nice and easy compared to the last couple of days. One downhill was at least 2 miles long and was great fun. We stopped at an old school house that had been converted to stables and took our photos with some mules. We crossed several scenic rivers that looked so cool and inviting that I really wished we had the time and means to stop and kayak them. In the afternoon the terrain turned more to rolling hills and we rode past many beautiful ranches and farms. We were glad for this ‘rest’ day of only 52 miles.

That evening in in Pryor we stayed at their new multi-million dollar athletic complex. The facilities were brand new and state-of-the-art, with two pools and all the typical athletic equipment, and the people there really made us feel welcome. They even had hot water in the showers!

Freewheel Day 4

Wednesday, June 14, Warner to Tahlequah, 58 miles


Today was a VERY hard day into Tahlequah, probably the toughest day so far. The mountains were smaller but seemed much steeper. We were already beginning to get tired, and the hills seemed to go on forever. But we did see lots of beautiful forested country.

We got a wonderful breakfast at a little café 10 miles into the ride. We were the first riders to arrive there, and we were treated very quickly and cordially.

We stopped for lunch at a Methodist facility, kind of a camp-meeting looking affair in the Cookson hills. The Freewheel organizers told us that this was one of the poorest counties in the country, and that the Methodist facility there performed a valuable ministry to the local people. Somewhere along there a woman rider was bitten by a dog. The same dog chased us a little, but didn’t attack. The authorities captured the dog and the woman was treated and released.

We got into Tahlequah at about 5:45 pm. and pitched camp under some pine trees on a hill. After cleaning up we took the shuttle into town to have a steak and to watch the criterium races on the streets. It was a good ending to a hard day, and we all went to bed early.

Freewheel Day 3

Tuesday, June 13, Wilburton to Warner, 56 miles

I slept pretty well last night. Glenn must have had a bad night because when he woke us all up early he said it was because he couldn’t sleep. I was already up though, because I had to get up 3 times during the night. Shouldn’t have had so many glasses of tea! So we packed up and threw our bags into the truck and coasted out of town. We missed the meeting the previous evening and didn’t know about any arrangements for breakfast, so we didn’t know where to go for breakfast, so we stopped at McDonald’s for a poor, but adequate breakfast.

There were quite a few hills today, bur not as bad as yesterday’s trip through the mountains. We saw another armadillo clutching a beer bottle. In a nice little café in one small town along the way, they offered free drinks for all Freewheelers. Really nice folks. Paul had an omelet as a second breakfast. I left a tip since the drinks were free.

There were lots of rest stops today, but they were in weird places and at weird distances. We rode several miles off the route so we could stop at the camping area at Eufaula Lake. Later we crossed the dam. The lake was beautiful.


A redneck gave us the finger because we caused him to slow down on a hill. What a moron. Later we rode a LONG downhill … I can report that reaching 40+ mph is quite thrilling. I heard that one guy crashed on the downhill, bending his wheel and cracking his helmet. He went to the hospital via ambulance, but apparently is ok.

Tomorrow should be another hilly ride into Tahlequah.

Freewheel Day 2

Monday, June 12 Atoka to Wilburton, 81 miles

Today we rode 83 miles thru the Kiamichi mountains, the longest daily ride of the week. Because we were anticipating a long day, we rose and packed up early. My morning meal consisted of a breakfast burrito in camp. We rode out of Atoka this morning at about 6:20. There were many rest stops today, but I quickly noticed that all had water or Gatoraid but none had ice to share. I discovered throughout the week that ice would be in short supply. The rest stops were manned by Girl Scouts or volunteer firemen or local clubs taking donations. The local volunteer fire station in the small community of Lane put on an exceptionally good lunch for us. I had pasta salad, egg salad and slaw. Others ate BBQ and cold cuts. One of the fireman wore what I surmised to be a British desert uniform with a tan kilt, sported a full beard and chewed tobacco. Quite a character.

The first half of the ride was bordered by beautiful rolling hills with prosperous farms. The last 15 miles were hard with long, steep hills. One hill in particular was several miles long. We also saw our first example of an apparent Freewheel tradition. On the side of the road, halfway up one hill lay a dead armadillo on its back, with a beer bottle held on its chest and between it’s paws.

Arrived at the Eastern Oklahoma State College campus in Wilburton at 4:45 pm. We camped on the football field and were welcomed with a Spaghetti dinner put on by the student union. We chowed down like troopers and guzzled iced tea by the glassfull.
Tonight was the only night of the trip that I was unable to get a cell phone signal. What a bummer. I fired off a couple of text messages, but had no way to tell if they had been delivered. Like everyone else I went to bed early. Expecting only a 50+ miler tomorrow.

Freewheel Day 1

Sunday, June 11 Hugo to Atoka, 53 miles

I didn’t sleep much last night at the depot park in Hugo. The full moon was shining through my tent and directly in my face, dogs were barking all around town, trains were pulling slowly through town. At about 2 am, Cooter and Bubba raced by, hollering and blowing their horn, their glass-packed mufflers cackling. I heard Glenn tossing around in his tent all night. At 1:30 I made the obligatory trip to the outhouse. Since I wasn’t very sleepy I even turned on my headlamp and read a chapter from my book, “Sailing Alone Around the World”. By the time 5:30 rolled around, I had fallen back to sleep and woke up feeling good.

We packed up camp, loaded our gear on the truck, and rode across the street to the old train depot/museum. There was a sort of restaurant in the depot, and the Chamber of Commerce had prepared biscuits that tasted like they were made from cornbread and some sorry looking pancakes and sausage. Despite appearances, it was surprisingly good, washed down with large cups of milk and a coffee. When we finished, we made our way back out to the highway in the center of town and started the ride at 7:30.

The morning was cool and we began the day with the wind gusting from the southwest as we headed north thru beautiful farms and lovely stands of timber. I was impressed with the beauty and lushness of the landscape. I had imagined that southeast Oklahoma might look impoverished, but that was not the case, at least not on this first day.

At our second rest stop we veered off to the northwest for the remaining 30 miles, the wind now being mostly a side wind from our left. The road was good for the most part, with wide shoulders and generally smooth surfaces. The sag wagons and bike shop vans patrolled back and forth along the route, and on several sections we were accompanied by highway patrolmen with their lights flashing. We stopped several times at fruit stops, under trees, and at water stops, but the best was at a little volunteer fire station out in the country. They had set up fans and chairs in the open bay building and had a separate air-conditioned room where they offered sandwiches, ice cream, and clean restrooms.

The day’s ride was mostly uneventful, except for meeting interesting folks along the way. There was Jake, an elderly gentleman from OKC with a brand new Bianchi (Gang Green in color) who was amazed that I was riding such an old bike. I guess that despite his age, he was relatively new (or new again) to cycling and had not much experience with older bikes. Then there was the strange guy on the recumbent who made it a point to stop and pick up articles of clothing he found along the way. And then there was the weirdo we passed who was plucking tail feathers from a road kill buzzard and putting them on his bike as decoration.

We rode through the small town of Antlers, where a sign touted to be the deer capital of the world, and where there was a deer park with captive deer behind chain link fences. Farther on we met an old lady at a convenience store a few miles from Atoka who expressed amazement that we were actually riding on the road. She asked us incredulously, “Y’all ridin’ all the way to Atoka?” I can only imagine what she would have thought if she knew we were riding all the way to Kansas!

The highlight for me was when I fell over at a stop light and removed some skin from a knee and the opposite ankle. Not my best moment. I know it happens to everyone, but it was pretty embarrassing.

We camped that evening at the 45th Infantry Memorial Park across the street from the Atoka High School. Jim had ridden ahead of us because he said he wanted to see how many people he could pass, and since he got to camp ahead of us he picked out a spot really close to the baggage truck, so we wouldn’t have to carry the bags very far. Unfortunately, after we had pitched camp we learned we were directly in front of the dj stand, who promised (and proceeded) to blast us with country music till dark. After a shower and a concession hamburger, I took the shuttle van into town to Walmart to buy a folding chair as a replacement for the one I had brought. Apparently, it had gotten broken in transit. For dinner, there were several local vendors from local restaurants – BBQ, Subs, Mexican, Oriental and hamburgers. I had an excellent quesadilla fixed fresh with beef and a diet Dr Pepper. After prepping my bike for tomorrow I called my son and my wife. About 8:30 pm the sun dipped below the trees and the oppressive heat waned with the cool breeze. The dj finally shut up and we went to sleep, only to be awakened at 4:30 with him going “Test, Test, 1-2-3, Test”.

Freewheel Day 0

Saturday June 10. Traveling to the starting point: Hugo, Oklahoma

Today is finally the day! I’ve been planning on this trip for months, and have gone through my packing list so many times I nearly have it memorized. So this morning I got up at 6 am, showered, loaded my bike and my two bags with all my gear and grabbed a quick breakfast. After a last kiss from my sweetheart, I was out the door. With me I took 2 loaves of banana bread that my beautiful wife had made for us boys to eat on the way. We ate one loaf on the road and I gave the other one to my son Ted who was doing most of the driving. On the way out of town I stopped to pick up my work buddy Glenn Gagnon. We got him all loaded up and left town at about 7:10.

First we drove the 150 miles to Oklahoma City to pick up a couple more riders. As pre-arranged, Jim Lake was waiting for us at an intersection on the east side of the city. Jim is a full-time commuter cyclist who puts in over 4000 miles a year on his bike. We had met him on the Freewheel internet forum, and so were anxious to meet him in person. After loading up Jim, we ran down the road a ways to pick up Glenn's brother Paul at his house. Paul works the night shift, and he had fallen back to sleep before we got there, so our arrival woke him up again. His dachshund bravely sounded the warning from the porch, but when we came to the door he yelped in fear and streaked around to the back yard. We never saw him again. Paul insisted on getting his morning coffee. (We were to learn over the course of the next week that his coffee was very high on his priority list.)

Our next stop was Ardmore to pick up my son Ted. He had agreed to drive us to Hugo, keep my truck for a week, and then pick us up in Kansas the next Saturday. We got to his apartment at about 12 PM. We loaded up all 5 of us, all our gear and 4 bikes into my compact pickup, and headed out. Didn’t take us long to realize that my compact pickup was really crowded. The cramped quarters and high anticipation let to lots of jokes and good natured kidding. I couldn’t help noticing that the road all the way to Hugo looked like a good cycling road: smooth and with wide shoulders.

We arrived at Hugo at about 3:30, found our camp at the old train depot in the center of town, changed into biking clothes and piled back into the truck for the run across the border. (We needed to start our ride in Texas so that we could ride completely across Oklahoma). Ted drove us across the river to Arthur City (it was no city) and put us out at a little gas station. Heading north on our bikes we rode across the Red River bridge & stopped at the “Welcome to Oklahoma” sign for pictures. Immediately Paul’s front tire went flat and he changed it there in front of the Oklahoma sign. Back on the road, we spun off the 12 miles to Hugo. It was very hot, the hottest part of the day, but we had a good tailwind and we drank lots of water.

Back at camp in Hugo we said goodbye to Ted, changed clothes again and tanked up on water. Paul had his second flat just as we rode into camp (on the rear this time) and he found some shade in which to repair his tire. In camp we hung out a while, enjoying a cool breeze as the heat began to dissipate. We took off on our bikes through town to find dinner at a bout 5:30 or so. Paul’s rear tire flatted again. After fixing that, we rode around town until Paul’s nose led us to Dawna’s Diner, a nice little place on a side street. Our waitress was named Cynder, and the nite’s special was ribeye. Paul and Jim both had the catfish. Jim must have been hungry, because he finished all of his own, and whatever Paul didn’t eat. Glenn and I settled on the cheeseburger. I added a salad and 3 glasses of diet Pepsi and he had fries and we ate till it hurt. The neatest thing about the restaurant was the black and white porcelain pig in the restroom. Don’t ask me.
Bye the time we rode back into camp the evening had cooled off and a really pleasant breeze was blowing. There among the hundreds of tents we had our first meeting of Freewheel 2006. Later I bought a Freewheel tee-shirt at the concession stand, and Paul and Jim rode to Walmart for tent pegs and a big package of little ice cream cups which made Paul a very popular guy that evening in camp.

Getting ready for Freewheel

My buddy Glenn, his brother, and I are joining about 800 other folks this year to do our first Freewheel. The Oklahoma Freewheel is an annual supported across-the-state bike tour, and this will be our first one. We’ve been getting our bikes and camping gear ready for months, and frankly I’m more than ready to get started. So, early Saturday morning we’ll load up the truck and head for the Texas border near Hugo Oklahoma. We'll camp overnight and Sunday morning we'll head out on our seven day trek north to Kansas. Hopefully I’ll be back in a week with pictures and some good stories to tell.

Check out their website: www.okfreewheel.com


Early morning ride


I didn’t commute by bike to work this week as usual because I wanted to be fresh for the Freewheel, but I did want to get a couple of rides in. So Monday I did an easy 30 miles out and back on the highway. The wind was up as usual, and a crosswind at that. Then, Wednesday I made an early morning 18 mile loop north and east, up the highway and back on some nice, smooth blacktop county roads. I really enjoyed the ride through the fields and past quiet farmhouses. I watched hawks perched on the power lines watching for breakfast. I was amused by the tiny but brave dachshund that charged from his yard and then trotted back to the house with his head held high after he “chased me away”. I even stopped and took a couple pictures of a nice 80 acre pasture that was posted for sale. All in all, it was a good morning.


Tour de Meers

A couple of week-ends ago a few of us rode the annual Tour de Meers. It’s held every year about this time in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. The community of Meers sits just outside the refuge and consists of a few houses and dilapidated old store and restaurant where you can get a buffalo burger as big as a dinner plate.

We did the 30 mile loop which went out into the country through the wheat fields, then down the backside of Lake Latonka, and then circling around the mountains through the refuge and back to Meers. Lots of fun, some hills and lots of wind.