Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Oklahoma, Oh How I Loathe The

The past few days in Oklahoma have been absolutely brutal. I am partly to blame, but I think that I will mostly just blame Oklahoma. On our 102 mile day into Henryetta, I got really dehydrated about 30 miles in. I continued to our lunch stop at mile 40ish and was going to try and recover some and make the rest of the ride but as sweep was about to leave I wasn't feeling much better, so I decided to do the smart thing for once and van myself for the rest of the day. I drank about a gallon of Gatorade and got to feeling much better.

Our host in Henryetta was great. They had set-up posters from the two previous trips that had come through and had one for us to sign, as well as a poster about what had happened to Christina. I have to admit that it was a really nice gesture but it was a bit of a painful reminder for me. Anyhow, they had sacks for us when we got in, and served us a nice pot luck.

On our ride day into OKC, we had a nice 20-25 mph crosswind to start the day, as well as roads that were straight from the bowels of hell. I relaxed the first half of the day and rode towards the rear with Sierra. It was her birthday and I didn't think she should ride alone and I wanted to relax to make sure that I had energy for the rest of the day.

The last 3 miles or the crosswind we had been fighting turned into a vicious headwind. At one point I was going downhill pedaling and was still only going 8mph. It was at that point I decided that it was going to be a really long day.

When we got into lunch, everyone sang Happy Birthday to Sierra, which was really cool. It was also at lunch that I heard that they had issued severe weather warnings/watches around OKC for 3:00PM. And that we were more than likely going to cut the ride short. I took a quick lunch and decided to push hard and try to make it in before the weather got bad. The wind got worse and I actually got blown off the road twice after lunch, once I actually think the wind literally picked me up because my bike moved about a foot to the right but it did it, while I was leaning into the wind and the front wheel was straight. About 1:30 the riding started getting pretty intense as the crosswind moved to a headwind again. We rolled into a town with a casino about 2:00 and I decided that the casino would be an excellent place to wait for the van pick up. So I stopped and played on the slot machines for a while. It was a good decision because I won $25.

Maybe the next couple of days in Oklahoma will be better, but if not I am just going to write off Oklahoma as a God-forsaken place and vow to never return.

I have been bad lately about uploading my pictures lately, but I have added a couple of pictures from Petit Jean Mountain Lookout in Arkansas. It was so beautiful and anyone who is taking the time to read my blog deserves to take a look at the photos.

Build day today and tomorrow, riding again on Thursday.

-Jeremy


1 comment:

  1. Hope you had a fun build day. You are on the minds of many back home. You were the prime topic at our Rotary Meeting. Good luck with the rest of Oklahoma. Drink Water
    Jim Waldron (Evans)

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