The Tour de Meers

Awakening at 3:30 am in order to drive 125 miles and arrive at Meers, Oklahoma by 6:30 am wasn't exactly my idea of an ideal start to a great riding day. "Damn.... I'm going to be tired before I even get there" I thought. A couple cups of coffee, load the last minute stuff in the car, double check the bike (wouldn't do to have it fall off halfway there), grab an oatmeal to go bar.....and I was off! This is a long drive at 4:30 in the morning .... stopped at McD's for a cuppa on the turnpike....maybe that'll help. They changed the route getting to the place, gotta be alert, or I'll miss the turn-off. Fat chance of that happening, they were much more prepared than I. They just had barricades out across the road and directed all the traffic a mile north, and three miles west and into the pasture they were using as a parking lot whether you wanted to go there or not! I guess they figured that no one in their right mind (read bicyclists here) would be up at six in the morning and on their way to Meers unless they were there for the ride.
So..... I arrived here about 6:20am, and promptly crawled through the barbed wire fence to the road and hiked a quarter mile or so to the fire station in the pre-dawn to pick up my packet....

The tiny little building ......wayyyyyy in the distance is the fire station .... where our packets, and maps were. A little pre-ride hike and exercise was in order....

Packet picked up, tee shirt got, maps in my pocket and was greeted outside by the rising sun on the top of the Wichita Mountains...

The ride started at 7:30 to beat the heat, (it was supposed to get up to 92 today), but that wasn't early enough for me, so I hiked back to the car, got the bike and myself ready to go, and rode back to the fire station ...... "why didn't I do this the first time", I thought ...ah well, no matter, I was ready to go.... then I spotted THIS.......

A VERY cool racing trike. Probably not so much in the 90 degree heat with the canopy closed, (I wondered briefly if it had air conditioning). Still....I LOVE IT!!!! Later on, this trike came blasting by me downhill like I was backing up, only to have me catch him on the next uphill. Apparently, the extra weight imposed by the body and supporting structure wasn't too much of an advantage uphill. Saw it one more time after it got hot out, and he was riding with the canopy open.... definitely NOT an aerodynamic advantage that way.

In case you might be wondering what Meers might look like ....... here it is in all it's glory! The whole shebang, downtown, business district, and residential area combined..... the Meers store. Home of the world famous (literally) Meers burger. Several sizes including a whopper of a five pounder, for those with larger than life appetites. And for those of you who are curious, no, I didn't get one! The line after the ride is a quarter of a mile long, I went to Subway back by the turnpike and was served in five minutes, and probably ate healthier to boot. Someday maybe.

This tiny town has virtually NO tax base to support a very much needed volunteer fire department, and it is very much needed here as was evident during the horrible fires of 2011.

Road signs .... and roads like this aren't seen too often in Oklahoma, so enjoy them here....

The entrance to the preserve....

Getting going a half hour early allowed me to stop and take a few pictures of the wildlife (yes here, longhorns and bison are wildlife) before the onrush of cyclists chased them away from the road.

Both the Longhorn Bull and the big bison bull in the following picture were just a few feet off the road, there are no fences on the preserve, the animals are like they were hundreds of years ago.

 
The big ol' bison decided he didn't like his picture taken and galloped across the road twenty feet in front of me to join the larger herd across the road. The rumbling beast gave me a wake up that maybe I need to use a bit of discretion here. If that thing had run over me, instead of in front of me....I wouldn't be here writing this. I could actually feel the ground shake when he ran! Huge animals. With our recent spring rains, the wildflowers were stupendous, even in the burned out areas. In fact, the new growth in the burned areas surprised me by how fast the area can recover. It'll be years before the trees come back, but it was still beautiful .... Just another reminder of why we are riding, and helping to support this tiny little, but so necessary fire department.

About this time, after all my time killing taking photos, the rest of the group had started and were catching me, and passing me, and riding away from me up the long winding hills.

From here, we passed out of the wonderfully scenic roads of the preserve, and out into the hustle and bustle of the city.....

The metropolis of Cooperton sensed a shindig, and came out in all it's glory to give us a helping hand and a rest stop. They still hold old time traditions high in Cooperton....

Gee, this WAS Saturday after all.....I could just wait for it..... nah, it's only 9:30am, be a long wait. So, leaving Cooperton behind, it was on to Saddle Mountain, where there wasn't quite so much going on, but here it is anyway.....

And on up the road, Mr. Gelding was soooo curious as to what he was missing that he had to come up to the fence for a chat...... you didn't really think I was going to publish a blog post without a horse in it did you?

"Oh.....don't take the 57 mile route, the roads are terrible".....

They weren't of course, they all looked just like this. Zigzagging left and right back through the mountains to return to Meers, the traffic all looked like what you see in the picture above. I should take the time to mention here that even though the roads were nice, and the traffic light ..... the famous western Oklahoma winds were NOT! On the entire northbound leg of the ride, my bike speedometer never saw anything below 30 mph, sometimes maxed out at 36, but then I turned the corner to go east, and the ferocious side winds hit me and slowed me to 13, then back south on this leg, and I was down to 8-9 most of the way. Still, scenery like this parting shot kept me interested to the end of the ride, almost exactly the advertised mileage, at 57.9 miles. One of my favorite rides, and one of my favorite charitable causes keep me coming back year after year.