Ok Freewheel 2006

Our 2006 Route

Route miles - 396

Hotter than a Burnt Biscuit

FreeWheel 2006

(Attack of the Biting Ants)

By Laurie Allshouse

     For our annual ride across Oklahoma, the weather was predicted to be hot and dry. We arrived in Hugo on Saturday and it was just as predicted. After setting up tents, we mounted our bikes to ride 11 miles to the Texas line. It was 2:00 in the afternoon and over 100 degrees. Saner people would have found some shade and chilled out but not Johnnie and Diana Lerma, Jim and me. No sir. We were starting our ride at the Texas line. Lots of pictures were taken on the Texas side, since it was in the shade. But with the Oklahoma sign in the sun, one quick photo was all we needed for posterity. On the way back into Hugo, we stopped at the Cedar Shack for sustenance. They were just as friendly as they’d been when FreeWheel started in Hugo in 2001. The air conditioning and ice cold drinks hit the spot as we waited for our meals to be prepared.
     Sue, one of the twins, we met on Pedal Across Wisconsin, had heard all about FreeWheel from me two years ago. She had an opportunity to ride down with the Shuttle Guy, a tent service based out of Illinois. It was great to see her again and she got to see the prettiest parts of Oklahoma on this tour (read: lots of hill climbing). Her last words as she headed back to Illinois were, “I want to ride FreeWheel again someday!”
     Jack (Hi Jack! Don’t say that in a crowded airport) was on his first FreeWheel. We almost ran over him as we were leaving town for the Texas border. He bought one of my map holders to put on his new Bianchi Volpe. Jim should be getting a commission from the sales of those bikes. He’s talked more people into getting one. They are just so comfortable to tour on. Jack rented a tent from the Shuttle Guy. It sounded like a neat deal. They put up a tent for you and carried your luggage to your tent. An air mattress was provided along with fresh towels each day (Mine gets pretty scanky by the end of the week.) A shade tent was erected for cyclists along with cold beverages and a relaxing lounge chair when you got in off the ride. A hot cup of coffee in a real cup greeted you every morning. AND they tore down the tent for you in the morning. What a deal! We are seriously thinking of using them for an out of state ride next year. Hope they aren’t worn out after this hot summer.
     The morning we left Hugo, a cyclist camping near us saw our trailer with our names on the back and asked me if I was Laurie. He told me he had read my blog. It took me a second to figure out it was our web site. I later learned Dave was a retired firefighter from Houston. His wife, Pat, sags and sets up camp for him every day while he rides. They camped by us several times. It was amazing how much he remembered from my stories. He commented about me having one beer per FreeWheel. But this year I had three. Since I brought two bottles of the Belgium Brewing Company’s 1554, I celebrated Tuesday because it was such a great day, Wednesday for making it to camp and Friday I had a Shiner to celebrate Jim and my 33^rd anniversary. Now I remember why I only have one. After the Shiner, I didn’t care for any more. You just can’t beat a dark beer and they are hard to find in Oklahoma.
     Our camp spot in Atoka was a beautiful park with lots of trees. The local people set up an outdoor food court and there were all kinds of choices for our dining pleasure from spaghetti, to BBQ to Chef salads. The dessert woman had some scrumptious choices.
     The Chamber of Commerce was set up with free ice water. As they started to tear down for the evening, Moni asked them if she could climb in their ice chest to cool off. Next thing we knew, she was squealing with delight and throwing ice cubes as she soaked in the icy water. What a nut!

     Monday morning, as we were tearing down the tents in the dark, (everyone wanted to leave as soon as possible to beat some of the heat, leaving by 6 a.m.) I felt something bite my foot. I shined my light down and little ants covered both my feet. I shook them off but not before they had an opportunity to eat me alive. Fourteen bites on my right foot and four on my left. My feet began to sting.    Later the bites started rising into red welts surrounding a white head. Boy, did they itch and still do a week and a half after the attack. I tried everything to get them to stop hurting and itching. Benadryl cream, Neosporin, Solarcaine and even Caladryl but nothing seemed to help. I slept with cream and socks on my feet every night for the remainder of the tour.
     Also Monday, Jim rolled the tent up with his glasses in the overhead pocket. He didn’t discover it until the trailer was all loaded and his glasses weren’t perched on his face. He unlatched the trailer cover, fished for the tent and unrolled it to discover that he had indeed left his glasses in the overhead pocket. He tried to bend them back into shape but for the rest of the week he was mighty cock-eyed.
     In Wilburton, we found a row of trees behind the ball field. We set our tents up between the trees and a high fence. A north breeze kept things cool and we moved our chairs around to follow the shade.

     Tuesday was a beautiful day to be on a bike. The weather was cool and cloudy for our ride into Warner. The last ten miles were flat and we had a bit of a headwind. Mountain Goat Johnnie led the pace line with Jim and I following close behind. We were going about 17 mph. We passed one of the bike shop guy’s wives and she jumped on the back of our train. All was going well until we passed 6 or 7 young teenage cyclists on their lightweight racing bikes. They passed us but couldn’t keep up the pace and gave it up to ride on the back of our train. Johnnie kicked it up to 20 mph but they were still hanging on. I started laughing. Here was a pace line being led by three “old” people on heavy touring bikes with a line of young whippersnappers on light weight racing bikes riding on our coat tails. The train fell apart when we went under a bridge that was covered with gravel. The touring bikes sailed through but the skinny tire bikes dispersed in all directions once we hit the road hazard. It was fun while it lasted.
     Connor State College in Warner has a beautiful campus with lots of trees. Diana had found a nice shady spot with a light breeze right across the street where we had camped before when we were in Warner. It was lunch time so we walked over to the food kiosk to get some grilled chicken, corn on the cob, baked beans, bread and a cookie before we hit the showers. Once we ambled to the shower house, the showers were ice cold. Brrrr. Someone had gone in at 10 a.m. and they were ice cold then. I don’t think the burners had been on. The sinks had nice warm water but those showers didn’t have a hint of warmth to them. Thankfully, those were our only cold showers for the week.
     Traditionally Tuesday is Crazy Day. Moni wore a statue of Liberty outfit complete with torch! Superman and Spiderman were spotted at the first rest stop of the day. Four young women had flesh colored tops with green leaves covering “delicate” areas. They were supposed to be naked. Scott Freeman, our resident comic, said, “Those girls aren’t naked! I KNOW naked and they are NOT naked!” Rick won the contest with a huge bird on his back and a hula skirt.

Wednesday morning was very cool. Jim even crawled into his fleece blanket bag. I never could wake up enough to crawl into mine, but I sure got chilled. It was 60 degrees when we left camp and such a shock to our systems after all of the heat. I can’t ever remember being chilled at 60 degrees. The ride to Tahlequah ended up being the toughest of the week by all accounts. One guy with a GPS said we climbed over 5,000 feet that day. Most days were 2,000+ climbs. The ride around Tenkiller was tough but beautiful. As the morning wore on, we had screaming downhills that weren’t fun and equally grunting up hills that Jim started walking. I knew from past experience that the route wasn’t going to flatten out any. A few miles before we reached the lunch stop at Cookson Hills, I suggested to Jim that we call Johnnie (our driver for the day) and see if he wanted to meet us for lunch and either ride in to Tahlequah while we drove or just pick us up. We called but Johnnie didn’t answer his phone. As we pulled into lunch we spotted the super sag van. Jim asked him if he had room for us. The top was already pretty much loaded with bikes. The driver said he did but to go ahead and get some lunch. He was going to drive up the road we had just come in on. He told us he’d be back to pick us up. Cookson Hills had a scrumptious lunch. The broccoli, carrot, raisin salad was to die for.
After eating a great lunch, the sag was indeed gone so we sat down to wait. Wilton decided he’d had enough fun for one day and sat with us in hopes there would be room for him, too. A sag car drove up with a carrier on the back for three bikes. We asked if we could hitch a ride. The driver said sure but he wanted to eat first. No problem. We were in the shade with a cool breeze. While he was in eating his lunch, Johnnie called back and said he’d come get us. The super sag arrived and now was full but we told him we had made other arrangements. He said if that fell through to call him and gave us his cell number. The guy from the car came out and asked if we were ready. We told him our friend was coming to pick us up. He said good because he had three people in the lunch stop who wanted to sag in.

While we were waiting for Johnnie, another friend of ours, Maurice, rode up looking beat to the ground. I asked if he wanted to ride in with us and he jumped at the opportunity. So Johnnie had four people to pick up now. We drove the “less” hilly main road and we were all glad we were in air conditioned comfort. The hills never ended. Once we got to Tahlequah we picked up the bike route. It went on the hilliest back streets of the town. A sadist put together that route!
Tahlequah at last! After showering, we rode the shuttle downtown and had a great meal at Vidalia’s followed by their delectable desserts. Don and his daughter, Courtney, joined our group for dinner. This was Courtney’s second year of riding with her dad. From conversations it sounded like she was a stronger rider than he was or did he not train enough this year? After dinner we ambled on the streets to watch Speed Wheel, the annual racing portion of FreeWheel. One race was just finishing and the little kids of about 3 – 7 were racing down the streets. It was hysterical. Everyone got a ribbon with a medal and one kid gave his helmet back to his dad so that Dad could ride in the next race.

The next morning helicopters from Tulsa TV stations followed riders into Pryor. It was like riding in the Tour de France. They hovered over the Community Center and I asked one of the volunteers if Robin Williams was riding with us. Pryor’s new Center opened in March and it is state of the art. Each exercise station has its own TV. There was a deli with a healthy menu and the indoor swimming pool was surrounded by garage doors that were opened for that outdoor feel.
Pryor went all out for FreeWheel. It was their first time to host an overnight stop and with resident Dam Jam originators, Don and Marie, they knew what cyclists want. We went downtown to a movie to escape the afternoon heat. That evening the local Ford dealer brought in a country rock singer, Thomas Martinez and band to entertain us in air-conditioned comfort with soft cushy seating. Some of the young FreeWheel girls (aka naked ladies) were dancing in the aisles. Thomas invited them on stage. It turned into a WONDERFUL show. He was a great singer and great sport. Strangely enough Pryor was the only town to have entertainment (okay, I didn’t count Speed Wheel in Tahlequah). That made it bad because most people were leaving early and getting in early and the days just drug on.

Friday, we celebrated our 33^rd anniversary with the beautiful ride into Grove. We enjoyed fantastic views as we rode around Grand Lake. We even rode through the town of Disney. Johnnie told Diana, “Last year I took you to Paris (TX) and this year I’ve taken you to Disney.” Once again we had screaming down hills and grunting up hills. We got in around noon so missed a lot of the heat. It would have been a nice ride to take your time and really enjoy the beautiful scenery but with temps inching towards 100, we went as fast as we could to Grove. It was rather bittersweet as we realized this was our last night of camping but soft beds and private hot showers were waiting for us at home.

FreeWheel just couldn’t go by without having rain. It was predicted for Friday night. We battened down the tie downs. One of our doors on our tent wasn’t working right so we duck taped it shut. Good thing. The wind started kicking up about 5 a.m. and the rain hit that side of the tent pretty hard. Diana went in the building and saw the weather report. Things didn’t look good. Jim had said if it was raining, he was driving. I didn’t want to get caught out there in those hefty winds and I’d ridden to Kansas before in the rain. I didn’t want to experience that again. Before all was said and done, Scott, Johnnie, Diana, Jim and I drove to Kansas in the van. Of course the rain stopped when we crossed the state line.

Another year was wrapped up with comments by Ellen Proctor and thank you’s to all the volunteers and riders. Door prizes were presented. John McGrath and Esther won shower bags but the rest of us left empty handed with nothing but our memories of FreeWheel 2006.

Our Pictures
Click thumbnail for larger view of photo. Captions below

A link to page 2 of our trip.

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