Oklahoma City,OK to El Reno,OK

As I said yesterday, just because it’s a short day doesn’t mean it’s an easy day!! Other than a puncture in my sleeping pad ( which has since been replaced) and my bike computer going on the fritz ( also now replaced) I haven’t had any major mechanical issues – knock on wood. One of our riders, however,   crashed a couple of days ago and bent his rim. He tried to get it fixed at a bike shop yesterday and they made it worse!!  He had three flats between the bike shop and the motel. His wheel was wobbling terribly. We have several knowledgeable ‘bike people’ on the ride and it was determined his wheel was irreparable!! So there we were at 7 pm on Saturday night in Oklahoma City and one guy needs a new wheel before he can continue. And not all bike shops in Oklahoma City are open on Sunday – this being the Bible Belt and all!  After several phone calls a bike shop owner in Stillwater,OK thought she had the right rim and was driving to Oklahoma City today.  So this morning, the majority of the group left while Dave ( tour leader from Maine), Ben ( bike shop owner in Chicago) and John ( nicknamed Sir John because he’s Britsh) stayed behind to await the wheel to fix John’s bike!!  The bottom line is that the wheel is fixed and they are all inbound!!

And that is why Dave ( 20 years experience leading tours) tells us, “Never say it’s an easy day until it’s over!”  All kinds of stuff can go haywire. The last couple of days, particularly yesterday, were exhausting, not because of the distance or the hills but because of the traffic.  They try to route us on less travelled roads but sometimes it’s just not possible. Yesterday was particularly bad as we got closer to Oklahoma City.

We were on busy roads with no shoulder and often if there are shoulders they are filled with debris ( and dead armadillos!). Most of the people were reasonable but there were a few that were just complete idiots – passing too close to us or in some cases even yelling at riders. Even today we had a semi go by us on a back road with no traffic coming the other way so he could have easily have moved over. Instead he waited until he was right behind us, laid on his horn and passed so close he almost blew us off the road!!  You just have to wonder.  But, the large majority of people we encounter are very nice. We even had one Highway Patrol officer pull a lady over after she passed too close to us!!  Tomorrow we head to Clinton, OK ( no political comment!) and then we have a rest day on Tuesday.  Then we have one more night in Oklahoma before we head in to Texas.  The midpoint of the journey is in Adrian,TX which we should get to on Saturday.   Sorry for the wordiness today – it wasn’t a great picture day. We’ll see what tomorrow brings!!