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”.