A Wildflower Ride

4/30/12

Today was a wonderful ride...... made five old new friends today, stopped and talked to people along the way. For some reason, people are more eager to talk when I'm on the touring bike.  I also took over 60 pictures of wildflowers on a 38 mile bike ride today. Some of them were past their prime, but most were just simply beautiful. Isn't this what riding bikes is all about anyway? I took the touring bike for a couple of reasons..... it had a trunk bag with a rain cover (yes it looked like rain, never did), and it has a kickstand, so I can park it anywhere I please. The touring bike also makes friends much, much easier than the racing bike. I'm not going to begin to fool anyone into thinking I know names of all these flowers, they're just pretty flowers. I'll identify the ones I do know, which aren't many.

Wild roses in the ditch.....

Magnolia Tree.... they usually don't do well this far north, but no one ever told this tree that....and so it blooms all summer, every summer. You see a lot of these down south along the Red River, Durant has a Magnolia Festival every year, Sulphur has a lot of them, but we have this one up here.

Magnolia blossoms....

Peek-a-boo...... Tortoises cross the roads all over during this season of the year...migration time....This one was bashful......I helped him across the road afterwards.

Hello there.....

Feathery plant of some kind..........

Honeysuckle .... the stuff is all over this year

More Honeysuckle.......it'll grow anywhere.....

Entire fields of color

And, turning around..... color across the road too.....  A beginning and ending with a bike.... it's supposed to be a bike blog after all......

A Tale Of Two Rides

Two days ago, I was a defeated bike rider, ready to give up! I left the house, and headed for a McLoud loop, a 49 mile ride I do a lot. I thought Wow, I'm really pickin' 'em up and puttin' 'em down, my speed average is really going to be great today. How I got to this point started a couple of weeks ago when I knocked out a thirty-two mile ride and averaged 16 mph, then a week later, I did a Metric Century ride and averaged 15.5 mph.....holy-moly, I gettin' to be a pro!!!. Then I did a couple near 15 flat, but you get the idea..... it was becoming an obsession. So now, as I left the house heading west on the way to McLoud, on mostly flat roads, I kept looking down at the speedometer and seeing lots of 22-25 mph speeds, I was all over myself. All this euphoria ended however when I got to McLoud and turned back east on Hazel Del road. I had been fortunate enough to be pushed along with a 14-16mph tailwind all the way over, on the flat road. Now, however it's all different, big rolling hills, some at 14 to 16 percent grades literally ALL the way back. Now, I had that 14-16mph HEADWIND directly from the east, trying to keep me from getting to the top of each and every one of those hills. I struggled mightely up each hill, pedalled down all the way to the bottom, exerting myself to the max, but still seeing an awfully lot of 5-6 mph speeds on the speedometer. By the time I had reached 30 miles, I could turn and go back home, or continue on for the whole 49 miles. I almost turned and went home. I was soooo tired, and so angry at the wind, and myself, that I had almost defeated myself. I decided to go ahead and finish the ride, and whatever the speed was..... it was. And so I did, still had a lot of anger and disappointment, but I struggled on to the end. Average speed.... 14.8 ...... I couldn't believe there was so little difference. And to think I beat myself up over a couple tenths of a mile per hour.

Today, however, I did the same route. I vowed not to even look at the speedometer until I finished the ride. It didn't matter. Still had the same 10-14mph wind, this time it had come around a little to the Southeast, but still a tough headwind on the hilly part of the ride. I had a WONDERFUL ride, was happy, and singing, talking to the cattle and the birds, talked to strangers I met on the road, and had a ride just like the ones I enjoy so much. Still had the tough headwind coming back, but it just didn't bother me at all. When I got to the 4 mile upgrade on the home stretch, with a tailwind, I had the strength to power on up at a reasonable speed, and zipped down the steep downhill at 42mph with a tailwind..... (I cheated on the downhill, and peeked at the speedo) ..... I felt on top of the World! Rode the rest of the way home ( another mile) put the bike up and then called up my average speed............. are you ready for this....... 14.8 mph! All that anger and frustration the other day, and such a wonderful ride today ........ and it was the same. Just goes to show ya....... you can defeat yourself. I was ready to throw in the towel the other day, but today had a wonderful ride. The route was the same, the wind was the same, the average speed was the same........ only my attitude was different! I'm gonna have more days like the second one.

Norman Medieval Faire Ride

Saturday, March 31st 2012

Our club has a annual ride to Norman, OK to take in the Medievel Faire every Spring. It's a good as any excuse to challenge oneself on 43 miles of non-stop hills between Shawnee and Norman, via back roads. The other reason is culinary......Norman is a college town, (home of Oklahoma University), and culinary delights are everywhere. We had three vegetarians in our group, so it was decided (by them I'm sure) that we would eat at "The Earth Cafe", a 100% vegetarian cafe just a stones throw from the University. We gathered at the Bike Shoppe in Shawnee for our start at 8am. The group that was there was split between the regular Saturday breakfast group and our Norman riders.

As you can see, the morning was a bit foggy....even in town. After we left and got out in the country, the stuff thickened.......

There were eleven of us altogether, and we would stretch out and separate from time to time depending on the terrain, but then find a place to stop and regroup. The Stella Store was one of those places......

As were places that were just a crossroads in the wilderness. Sometimes we needed to ask directions from a friendly "local" ..... even a fur coat wearing helpful, friendly four legged one.....

Actually, this one was far more interested in just going for a fast romp rather than helping us out. He was getting a bit impatient here. All the way over and back were non-stop hills like this one.......

You can just barely make out the tiny rider just starting up, AND, you can see the top of the next hill beyond. This is soooo typical of this part of Oklahoma. Anyway, we did make it on into downtown Oklahoma, past the University.....

and....on down the street a bit where we found our cafe......

We set up two big tables together outside so we could all not only enjoy the beautiful Spring weather, but also keep our eyes on our bikes as well. Now, I'll have to admit, I'm not a vegetarian, but this food was GOOD. Everything fresh, and the selction was quite different than I expected. Prices were very reasonable. I suppose this has to do with it being a college town, and students not having a whole lot of money. A fact evident in that the young men all looked like they picked their clothes out of the dumpster behind the Goodwill Store, and the girls, ever thrifty, bought new, mismatched clothes, but only had enough money to buy enough to cover half of themselves at a time. The scenery did make it difficult to concentrate on eating.
After lunch, it was a zip through traffic..... literally, and about a mile or so later, we were at the park where the Medievel Faire was located. Our bikes making much better time through the bumper-to-bumper traffic than the cars.

The traffic and how easily we wove our way through and around it reminded me of Santa Fe, where we encountered the same situation. At the Faire....we locked our bikes up to a convenient bike stand, and went our separate ways to enjoy what there was to see. And there was certainly more to see than we had time. There were certainly "characters", like these three entertainers.....

As well as several minstrel groups like these,

And these....all were excellent, and performed a variety of music, but mostly of the "folk" style.

There were working blacksmiths........

And young dragons with pet "humans" under their talons...... Actually, this little fellow was really cute, as his eyes would follow you, his head would turn, and his movements made him look very real....... I'm talking about the dragon...... the big dummy just stood there.

This fellow had one of the most enviable jobs....seems as literally ALL the girls wanted hugs...

And....there was one for the guys too, as Mother Earth was there in all her splendour.......

AND....she accepted hugs too.......

There were the King and his court......

Certainly, an interesting day, and leaving there full of fair maidens dancing in my grog filled head, made for a slow and agonizing trip back. I was so very tired when I got back to Shawnee after another 43 miles of tough hills. They hadn't seemed to get any easier whiles't I partied at the Faire. But, I did finish up....tired, dehydrated, a bit sunburned, and glad to be back. It was a fun ride, and I'd probably do it again...... but not tomorrow.