Day 16 McAlester OK to Fort Smith AK – and the rains came

Today was a little strange. Everyone was upset about Darrell’s death, and we all seemed to be dealing with it in different ways. One way we all shared was the addition of a black ribbon to our bikes. They are small and a nice symbol to remind us of Darrell as we ride. I think that I will take mine off the bike at the wheel dipping in the Atlantic. Everyone had questions and no one had any real answers. Those who speculated as to why were most certainly wrong. Well at best one might be right, but I doubt anyone will ever know the entire story.

We had a late, 8 AM, start because it was a short day and because many of us did not get to bed until later than usual. Some also mentioned having trouble sleeping, even after 145 miles. Starting at 8 was a mixed blessing because by then it had started to rain. So we should have been prepared. For me rain gear includes addition items rain jacket, booties, a rear light and a plastic shower cap over my helmet. Sadly a few riders started riding with none of these things. A few had black or dark wind/rain jackets and no rear light. They were hardly visible, when the black clouds of the thunderstorm approached. I thought to check my tires more often due the increased likelihood of flats when riding on wet pavement. Unfortunately I got one about 2 miles into the ride when something cut my rear tire. Since I needed a new tire, I was stuck until a van could get to me. There were a few mix ups and one van had to go to the hospital to check on Greg so it took about 20 mins. before a van got to me. By this time I had walked 400 yards to be under an overpass. This got me out of the rain and reduced my chances of being hit by the lightning that was now all around me. When my tire was replaced, I decided that getting into the van for a bit was better than waiting out the thunderstorm under the overpass. This decision eventually led to my riding to the first sag stop at 30 miles. When the thunderstorm passed I continued the ride from there. In the end I did 86 miles.

(Greg Light had ridden a lot with Darrell and when Mike told us of Darrell’s death, Greg ran from the room. I thought that he might have had an anxiety attack, apparently it was worse. He spent the night in the hospital and after tested today it was concluded that he should not continue with the ride. So of the 30 riders who intended to do the entire ride only 25 are still riding. I will miss Greg, but his prognosis is far better than Darrell’s. While on this terrible topic we hear that Andrew is doing well at home in San Francisco. Jack who crashed on day 3 is still having short term memory problems due to his concussion. Karen still has her hip problems and far worse now has to deal with the loss of Darrell her husband of some 25 years.)

The rest of roads today, while wet but who was I to complain, were pleasant with good shoulders and not much traffic on the highways. I played tag for much of the day with Bill and Christine’s tandem. Yesterday, they were forced to sag in because of a strange noise that seemed to be coming from their disk brakes. When they opened up the brakes, the noise persisted, ruling out the brakes as the cause. Today’s theory is that it is a bottom bracket problem. As this is less likely to lead to a life threatening failure, they chose to ride today. Hopefully, when they take the bike to a shop in Fort Smith they can get the problem resolved.

Routing today seemed a bit odd, in one place in order to avoid a mile of OK but not great highway riding, we were routed through a circuitous route in a residential area. I eventually got lost, ended up on the road I was supposed to avoid and was unable to find anyone who knew where the street I was supposed to take was. I found the highway I needed to be on at a different exit and started to ride. Later we had to get off the highway and take two rural roads that added a mile to our route. People who missed that turn didn’t see anything wrong with the section of the highway we were routed around. When we got to Fort Smith, we again had some odd routing in order to avoid some roads that we should not have been on, but it seemed to everyone that there must have been a better way. Maybe it was just that everyone who rode yesterday came in late and tired and wet. Any additional distance seemed under those circumstances would seem to be an even greater bother.