He Would Have Loved Tent City

My first year of FreeWheel was 2000. Dad said, "You can do it. I'll pick you up when you get tired" And he did. We had a great trip! Dad got us a hotel everywhere we went. My Dad loved to plan trips...especially if he could get everyone in one car...with him driving of course. "So then I will pick you up in Glencoe and we will drive over to Tish and then we will get with your sister and then we will head out etc, etc etc" And he had this one planned out completely...ending with himself taking a Greyhound bus from Stillwater to Ardmore. I would have driven him home but no! Afterward, he said the bus driver must have been a retired drill instructor...he was scared the whole ride home! Dad took this photo of me when he came to pick me up in Glencoe. My Toyota was just a baby then..probably only had it a week or two.



That was my first and last FreeWheel with Dad. He passed away in March 2001 (lung cancer). He loved the trip so much. At his funeral all of his employees said, "Your dad loved that bike ride...you're still gonna go aren't you?" And it was like my Sister and I had to go. For Dad. And so we did. June 2001: I hitched a ride with the Red Dirt Pedalers to Hugo Oklahoma and brother-in-law to-be dropped off Sister. No truck back up for me this time. No hotels and hot showers. Tents and bikes. That was it. It was bittersweet. We laughed and cried the whole week. But we survived and rode again for the next four years although we added husbands and Mom for the last 3. And so fast forward to 2009. I've been riding a stationary bike for a year and a half and felt it was time to get back on the road. Mom said she would go with me. No one else is quite ready to get back out there. So here we go.

Why FreeWheel?

It's way late and I can't sleep. But we won't talk about that! Perhaps its time to ramble off a post to my new blog. I set this up in anticipation of a special trip I am planning to make. My mom has agreed to accompany me on a cross state bicycle ride....across Oklahoma of course. Its FreeWheel 2009! 6 days, nearly 400 miles from Duncan, Oklahoma to Kiowa, Kansas.

Why FreeWheel? My Dad saw an advertisement in the newspaper years ago..1996? (Sis can say for sure). Cross state bike ride: Texas to Kansas. My sister was our only bicycle rider back then. I had been thrown (several times) from her hand-me-down Specialized HardRock mountain bike a few years earlier on Holt Road Trail in Devils Den State Park, northwest Arkansas and that was the end of my mountain bike career. But anyway...Dad said, "Come to Oklahoma for a week and I will drive your car each day while you ride the route and I will meet you in the next host town, complete with hotel/hot showers." She said yes. And that started it all. Of course they had a blast. And then they wanted me to come along. Misery loves company right? But so does Joy! Check out the website if you like and I will tell you more soon. http://okfreewheel.com/