Bike Ride to Memphus

Altus to Memphus: 76.2

Total Mileage: 1883.6

 

Today was my day again to sweep and is morning I headed out with Susan. I was pretty excited because I have not really ridden with her yet this summer and our time in the back would give me time to put her on the hot seat (an interrogation of get to know you we now fondly play on some of the quieter roads). The drama of the situation was that we would be crossing back into Texas which meant that Jay and I would also need to ride together. Not wanting to break with tradition (tradition is VERY important to me people) Jay very nicely offered to ride sweep with the two of us.

 

All of the orders gradually headed out and in order to give people some time and space in front of us we stopped to take a picture at their city hall. At the corner of Main Street they had an AMZING bronze statue of a cowboy so Jay quickly hopped up the to take a picture. I know I have said it before, but the South has some great bronze statues.

 

About twenty miles down the road we ran into Marcus, Ben and Nate who had pulled into a shell of a town, Duke. Founded in 1909, they had recently celebrated their centennial and had some great street artwork to show for it. The painted brick walls made the perfect backdrop for a dance video and a picture or two.

 

We were out on the road again and just a few miles down the road we saw the some group stopped again, this time for a picture with the Gould town sign. Now this probably makes no sense to you all, but Ben's last name is Gould so the six of us decided to head off together and check out the town. It was nice to ride in such a chill group with three in front and three in back; the scenery also did not disappoint as we crushed another 12 miles. As we got nearer to the town not only did we see a legit town sign, but more importantly a water tower with Gould painted out. Someone, we are still unsure of who, shouted out that he should climb to the top and get his picture taken with said sign.

 

As we approached the water tower we noticed that the ladder to the top was unlocked and there were no No Trespassing signs to be seen. After a few minutes of debating whether or not we should climb to the top, I took off my shoes and proceeded over to the ladder. With a game plan in mind, basically not to stop until I hit th stop, I headed off. The climb was uneventful, long, but uneventful and the view from the top definitely did not disappoint. I soon realized that no one would be joining me so I took some photos, made some mental images, took a quick dance video and then headed back down the ladder. The climb down was a bit harder as my forearms were screaming and my bare feet did not get on well with the diamond shaped steps, but I made it down in one piece and received my BA (bad ass) status of the day.

 

Here are a couple of shots from the top looking down on the town

 

Of course, after I had my feet on the ground a couple of others, including Ben, decided that they needed to hop up there. I may or may not have played up the FOMO (fear of missing out) and the great views of Okahoma. Ben was first up and once he had made it up to the top Marcus set off. He had gotten about a third of the way up, complete with bike helmet and American flag, and shouted that that he thought he was high enough. He considered his fear and made it up to the top; it might have helped that Susan was quickly lapping him and if he didn't hurry up she would have to hang out on the ladder. We did try to get Jay up, but once he was about twenty feet off the air he decided that he was high enough and we staged a photo to make it look like he was much higher than he actually was.

 

By this time in morning we were so for behind, like an hour and a half behind, everyone had already blown through first lunch. At that point we told the van to head out to second lunch and we would fend for ourselves for lunch. Now people i would like to note that we are really getting out into no man's land, at least for this city girl. Towns are pretty spread out and if you miss an opportunity for lunch you might be without lunch of a very long time. As a result we decided to pull into Subway and while we could not DM free sandwiches, we were able to get a great 50% off discount. The other winning part about lunch was that one of the employees was selling homemade cupcakes for a local pool fundraiser. They were mind blowing and if we were in DC they would have gone for some serious dough (see what I did there). We got ours for a steal at 50 cents. Marcus decided it would be a good idea to get five and a slice of banana bread; it was a decision he regretted as soon as we were back on the bikes.

 

The net stop was the Oklahoma/Texas boarder. Because we missed the Oklahoma sign on our way in, we took one as we were leaving. By this time it was HOT HOT HOT, the sun was high over head and we were about three hours behind the rest of the crew. We took our time, mainly due to the heat and mainly due to chatting to get to second lunch. About seven miles out from second lunch we had to pull over and ended up taking a nap on the side of the road. Just as our alarm was about to go off a car pulled up; it was not the car, but the dogs inside the car which woke us up. The guy wanted to make sure that we were okay and even offered to fill up our water bottles which was a much welcomed and appreciated surprise.

 

Back on the road to pick up some water and a couple of snacks for the last twenty miles of our ride. By this point the hills had started to pick up and thankfully the group decided to take them relatively slowly. About halfway between second lunch and our host we saw two stranded bikers changing yet another flat. Apparently they had been having issues all day and were waiting on the side of the road of sweep to come and pick them up. Unfortunately we were so far behind at this point, there would have been no way to cover enough ground fast enough to be of any use. They had tried to call the van, but unfortunately they were in a pocket with no cell service (welcome to the middle of nowhere).

 

The hills picked up for the last fifteen miles of the trip and while it was slow going, the views were incredible. I feel like I say that a lot, but it is true, the scenery out here is amazing. As we were closing in our mileage, we passed up a pretty steep hill through a rock pass and as we hit the top we could see all of Memphus in the valley below. From there we started to crank it down the hill thinking that it would be downhill until the rest of the host. Sadly there were two more sizable hills, but because there were less than two miles to go until the host we crushed them.

Sweep (me, Susan and Jay) had arrived in one piece and while we were hot and sweaty, we definitely had a great ride. The whole day was so Bike and Build that we did not know what to do with ourselves. As we were waiting for our shuttle ride to a church member's house for showers we stumbled into a small theater and the walls and ceilings were covered in glow in the dark stars. Hanging out in the dark, looking at the stars and chatting was the perfect way to end our day, well that a shower and an amazing home cooked dinner.