Day 15 – Chickasha to McAlester – The death ride

This was going to be the hard day of the ride. It was a long day, 145 miles, and there were lots of hills, 6200 ft of climbing. We all started out early, I was on the road at 6:30. After a brief stop to add leg warmers and a wind vest, I began the ride in earnest. I learned my lesion from a few days ago, even if it seems warm at the start take a little extra clothing. As I told many of my fellows in the lab, this gives me class 2 intelligence. (Class 1 intelligence is learning from the mistakes of others. Class 2 intelligence is learning from your own mistakes. Class 3 intelligence is recognizing that you have made this mistake before.)

The route today was mostly through lesser traveled state highways and county roads. These roads had smaller shoulders and in general but less traffic. However, traffic on the state highways often seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere and greater vigilance was needed to ride safely today than on most other days. Today’s roads also traveled in straight lines, east-west or north-south. This is likely in part due to the fact that Oklahoma was surveyed before settlers were officially allowed in for the land rush of 1889. However like yesterday’s ride, the roads tend to go straight up and over any hill they encounter. And since the landscape is of Oklahoma is rumpled, resembling a rather large bed that was very poorly made, there are a lot of hills. The fist 65 miles today could be called rollers, but they were either to big or poorly spaced to get any sort of rhythm going. In the end I just had to be content to speed down the backside and grind it out going up the front side. Once we got onto county roads the coarseness of the road surface increased, the traffic decreased and the grades of the hills increased.

We went through several Indian reservations today each with a casino. Unlike Indian casinos in much of the country these were no mega operations. In general they were no bigger than a large service station and probably had less external lighting. From all I could see the natives in Oklahoma are not making a killing from gaming.

At our last sag stop there was a pizza/hamburger/chicken joint that also sold ice cream. Another rider’s milk shake looked so good, that I ordered one too. The woman who made it for me was working overtime with several tables to wait on, most with customers she knew by name. She appeared to be no more than 18, but she also had three kids in a booth, the oldest of which was at least 6. They were eating a pizza for dinner (it was 3 PM) and making a real fuss. I found a place to payback some of my Karma debt of a few days ago .I gave her a 100% tip for my $2.50 coffee milkshake, and much to her amazement, I proceeded to drink in one long sip.

Fortified with my milkshake, I was able to make good time over the next 30 miles of the ride. However, the last 5 miles through McAlester were another story. First I was beat, second it was rush hour and the traffic was heavy with drivers who wanted to get home, and lastly the route through McAlester was on some of the worst roads of the tip. The last mile was on an access road along a major highway. The road surface was terrible. The traffic coming and going to the Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and similar big box stores was horrendous. Lastly, the motel was not where the route sheet said it should be. In desperation I called the van to get help. They said that yes the route sheet was wrong and that I should go back along the frontage road, under the highway and along the frontage road on the other side to get to the motel. Apparently, the Holiday Inn express had crossed the road in the two years since America by Bicycle last did this ride. I don’t know why the chicken crossed the road, but I am sure the Holiday Inn crossed the road to exasperate Bill Reenstra at the end of a very long day.

As much as I wish that I could say that my day then ended with a shower, dinner and a nights rest, I can’t. We had a rap meeting to discuss tomorrows route, these are either in the evening or at breakfast before we start so even though the rap session had originally been for the next morning having it in the evening was not unusual. What happened after the session was. Mike told all the riders that one of the riders Darrell Keefer had died in his sleep the night before. To say that we were shocked was an understatement. I knew that I hadn’t seen Darrell during the day but, that often happens because people ride at different speeds and tend to get spread out over the day. In fact before Mike made the announcement none of the riders knew. It was shocking to say the least as Darrell was one of the strongest riders in the group, he was relatively young at 51, and he was a large presence in the group. He started the ride with his wife, who fractured her hip on day 3 and when she left the ride he would have left with her, except for her urging him to continue. The day before he died he rushed to get to Chickasha early so that he could spend time with his son, daughter-in-law and two year old grandson. He must have introduced his family to every other rider that evening; he was so proud of them. It is really hard to put this into perspective. While all riders know that bad things, even death, can happen when we ride, no one thinks that they will die in their sleep. We are all too fit and no matter what our age, far healthier than most of the people we see along the ride. Why would we be at risk? It is a wake up call, and as Darrell’s wife posted on Mike’s ride site her favorite quote is "Live for today, tomorrow could be too late."