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Awake at 4:00 AM.  What in the world are these idiots thinking?  There’s no point in even thinking about setting an alarm on Freewheel and sleeping til 6:00.  As it was, I was up by 5:30 and packed and ready to pull out by about 6:45.

It was well after my bags were on the truck that I discovered I had no sunglasses.  What’s up with that?  Did I lay them down someplace, or did I accidently pack them?  At any rate, I  decided to run up to the Wally World that I heard somebody talking about and pick up a pair.  If I found them later (I did), at least I would have a pair for the day.

I had several cool encounters on my way out of town this morning.  The first was a conversation with a cyclist from Fayetteville.  He saw my MSU jersey and wanted one because he was an alumni.  I told him where he could get it (at the Q), and that spawned a conversation about the new arena and how he was at the last men’s basketball game at Hammons Arena.

Not too long after that, I rode beside a gentleman and his grandson on their tandem.  Today would have been their fourth ride together on it.  They were powering along at a pace I didn’t care to try to match for long.  Oh.  Maybe I should tell you that grandson was 9 and grandpa was 72!  And they out ran me until we got to the big hills!

Then, within a few miles I passed a young lady pulling a trailer and as I passed, she called out, “Hey!  MSU".  Alicia’s husband teaches physiology there and she lives in Willard.  She was hauling her three year old in the trailer, and planned to do so all week.  Talk about a gutsy young lady!

Today had to be the most interesting day I’ve ever had in terms of road-kill.  Within a one-mile stretch, there was dead bob-cat and a dead beaver along the road.  My first sighting of either of those in a road-kill status.

The road today was characterized by long-gentle grades.  Just the kind that I like!  Gentle enough that you can easily climb with the tail-wind we had and long enough to give you a nice rest at the bottom.  In a lot of ways, the hills reminded me a little of home.

 

I got into Clayton by about 11:15 or so and had lunch at the local C-Store, followed by homemade peach shortcake and homemade ice cream back in camp.  While I ate lunch, I enjoyed talking to Ray.  He’s a character…and it was kind of hard to tell when he was telling the truth or a whopper.  He got quite a kick out of me anointing him as “the biggest liar I know”!

 

By the way…meet Mark.  He’s from Springfield as well.

After lunch and dessert, I jumped on a bus and headed out to the Choctaw Nation Capital complex just a few miles out of town.

 

They have a nice museum in the capital building.   I didn’t realized how advanced the Choctaw Nation was.  Outside, there was a guy demonstrating the weapons and implements he made.  He made the knapping of a knife look easy.  He also showed us how the Choctaw used musk thistle to feather their blow-gun arrows.  It was pretty fascinating to hear him explain how he made each thing.

There was supposed to be some traditional dancing, but they were a little disorganized and late getting started.  Instead of waiting around for it, I opted to get my picture taken with one of the dancers and grab the next bus for camp!

 

I stopped for an iced tea back in town and found that the C-Store was over-run with Boy Scouts.  It seems there is a big  Boy Scout just outside of town and camp starts this evening for them!

 

God bless…

TW

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This entry was posted on June 13, 2010 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Cycling. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.