Oklahoma Freewheel Day 3 – An Oreo Kind of Day!
The good stuff was in the middle!
After a pleasant evening in the Cordell city park, and fueled by a Kiwanis pancake breakfast, I set out on a northwesterly course for Cheyenne Oklahoma. The weather typical Western Oklahoma….warm and windy, and today the wind was a mixed bag. We were riding north and west zig-zags, and while we were heading north it was great. West wasn’t so at all. We had a really bad stretch of road between 20ish and 30ish miles, then another 10 mile stretch at the end where we combined rough chip and seal roads with a strong southerly wind and the result wasn’t much fun, even for me.
But that’s enough of the bad stuff. There is a recap of the good stuff!
We had about 25 miles today of what Drew termed “the real Freewheel”. Lots of decent road, even if it was a little hilly. Wide open spaces with views that you sure don’t see in the Ozarks. Winds that either cooperated or didn’t hurt too bad. Red rocks and soil and lots of gas wells.
Typical landscape
Windfarm in the distance.
Probably the most priceless moment of the day came this morning when I passed a girl riding with her dog. She was pulling a trailer, but at the time, her dog was running beside her. I think he was some sort of herding dog because she was giving him some sort of commands to keep him close to her. I asked how far he would run, and she replied, “Oh, four or five miles, but I’m the one who limits him to that. Otherwise, he would run himself to death.” I could tell the dog was thoroughly enjoying his outing!
He's having a blast!
I’ve been spending quite a bit of time with Drew. He’s a long time biker, and knows more about bikes than I’ll ever know. He knows Mel from Tandems East, and says he and Mel learned a lot of what they know from the same guy. At one time, Drew was even the president of the Tandem Club of America. Impressive!
We ate lunch today in a little diner, and were talking to a couple at the next table. They have a goal of cycling at least 50 miles in 50 states, and say they’re knocking off 7 in this one trip! Pretty cool, and a fun idea. They’ve just come from the St. Louis area where they knocked off both Illinois and Missouri in one weekend.
Another wildflower I've never seen.
There is another character on this ride that’s a repeat from last year. He is an older gentleman who rides a squeaky mountain bike every day in overalls and a long-sleeved flannel shirt! Talk about tough! He got quite a bit of notoriety last year when the Tulsa newspaper did an article about him. If I remember correctly, he started running, then got bad knees and started riding a bike when his daughter got after him for running too much.
Cheyenne is a pretty small town, but they’ve got a lot of historical displays in their park. In addition, there is a historical site two miles west of town where Custer fought a battle. I was really tempted to ride out to it, but it’s been a hot day and this would have entailed another four miles of wind, so I passed on that opportunity.
I was just coming into the library here this afternoon and bumped into Jason. He must have been updating his blog as well!
In all, it’s been a good day of cycling! I think I’ll do it again tomorrow.
Here’s the GPS track for today.
God bless…
TW
Tags: bicycle, Cycling, Fitness, Oklahoma Freewheel
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July 14, 2009 at 5:08 am
The dog name is “Furry Murry” according to his rider ID tag. You are right about the herding bit, he’s an Aussie breed based on our working sheep and cattle dogs. If you ever get a chance to watch some competition sheep dog trials the skill and intelligence of these dogs will amaze you.