Oooooohk-lahoma

Where the winds come sweeping down the plains ...

Great. I've traded Little Feat for showtunes.

Today's ride was a lesson in the importance of wind direction. Yesterday we rode 96 miles and finished at 12:45. Today we rode 72 miles and finished at 2:45. With basically no climbing.

What we did have was the straightest road you've ever seen. We rode 71 miles in an absolutely straight line, with a constant head wind coming from about 10 or 11 o'clock. We were lucky to average 13 MPH. For hours on end. My average ride speed was slower than at the Mt. Tam double century, which had 15.000 feet of climbing. We also had 50 continuous miles of chip-seal asphalt. If you've ridden on it you know why I mention it.

Here is an example of an Echelon pace line. We rode 3-4 wide in a staggered position to help beat the sidewinds. Our little group actually did pretty well, all things considered, although the shoulder cramps got a little old. I could gripe about this for pages, but let's move on.


At the Oklahoma border we passed through the town of Texhoma.

It seems to me that the city Fathers were a little lazy. They just took part of Texas, part of Oklahoma, and combined them to create a city name. They should have gone the other way. OakAss is a MUCH cooler name.

We had a special treat today. Don and Helen did this cross-country ride a few years ago on a tandem bike. They liked the event so much that every year they set up a special SAG stop, and host a get-together at the hotel in Guymon. They drove 500 miles to meet us all for dinner last night, set up the SAG stop at the Oklahoma border with home-made brownies and cookies, and then hosted a reception by the pool before dinner.


I have to relay one story before calling it a night. Virtually everyone here has an amazing story or 6 to share. Here is one of them. I rode with Don and Peggy today. Peggy is a colon cancer survivor. A few years back she was skiing in Vail. She was going up one of the 2x2 chair lifts and starts talking to the guy next to her.

He tells her that he normally goes for 2 months, but he's only here for two weeks. His doctor didn't want him to come at all because of his treatment, but he came anyway. Peggy asks him if he's taking (insert complicated drug name here). The guy does a double take. He didn't specifically mention cancer, but was being treated for colon cancer with the same drug she had taken. At the top of the lift they share a moment. She wishes him well and off they go.

She thinks about this guy from time to time, wondering how he's doing. A year goes by. Don and Peggy go back to Vail for their annual ski trip. They get on the 2x2 lift again. She looks over and finds out that the man next to them is the SAME guy from last year. His cancer had gone into remission and he was doing his annual 2 month trip this time. To this day they are close friends.

Just one of the fascinating stories I've heard so far.
Today's Google Earth file: http://tomerceg.googlepages.com/GuymontOK.kmz