I ended up finding a host for the stormy weekend on warmshowers.org. The host was in Stillwater Oklahoma and I figured I had plenty of time before the storm started, Friday was beautiful and sunny. I stopped in a little town called Guthrie filled with old fashioned brick buildings and stopped at a cool little cycle shop that looked like it had been there for a while. There I finally found some front racks for panniers so I could take some of the weight off the back of my bike and make a little room. It took a good 2 hours to get these things fitted on. The owner, a real nice older guy named Kent offered his help in between customers as we tried a million different things to get the racks on around the quick release for the front wheel. We finally got it on allright and I shook hands with Kent and went on my way. He gave me a new route to get to Stillwater that took me by some beautiful cliffs and a huge river.
I got into Stillwater Oklahoma as it was starting to rain and cycled with accumulating frustration trying to find my host's house. I eventually got to it(on the very edge of town) and met Susan Walker and her husband Jeff. I changed into dry clothes and sat down to a delicious lentil dinner prepared by Jeff. I learned all about Susan's many cycling tours and chatted with her and jeff before showering and falling asleep. I awoke to see the woods that the house overlooks covered in snow, with snow still coming down. Susan offered for me to stay they entire weekend and wait out the weather, sounded like a good idea. So I hung around, slept a lot, and talked with Jeff about the possible benefits and follies of taking time off of school. Susan toured me around town when the roads got better, showing me the college and buying me a sweet eskimo Joe's shirt, like the black dog eskimo joe's is a restaurant thats more famous for its clothes than its food, but it has a much more creative logo than the black dog (a black dog).
I left monday with most of the snow melted and headed to Tulsa to stay with someone that Susan knew from a past cycle tour. The route took me through some nice woods and I caught the bike trail when I got into Tulsa. The bike trail is the best I've ever been on, it runs along the arkansas river, goes for like 50 miles, and has separate walking and cycling lanes in parts of it. I met up with Sylvia and Tom at their beautiful old house in one of the historic districts. I showered up and ate dinner outside with Sylvia and her adorable dogs (both found by them as strays), had some beers, and talked all about cycle touring before walking down to her husbands bicycle shop to catch some music. Every monday night Tom and some friends get together in the shop and jam together, it was a real treat, it was a circle of about 7 guys playing guitars and an elderly lady playing a mean tenor banjo. I feebly attempted to play along but needless to say these guys were a little ahead of me skillwise so I found myself shyly picking at my banjo and taking in their music. I walked back with Tom and heard about his trip from Tulsa up to Washington then down to venice beach L.A. when he was 18. I lounged in their hot tub for a bit before laying down and enjoying my 4th night in a row sleeping on a bed.
Tuesday morning I had Tom take a look at my bike because the back wheel was loose, right away he noticed several things wrong with the bike and sent me down to his shop. There I met Mark who tuned up my bike and gave me a new back tire. I forgot how smooth that bike can ride, I got back on the bike trail and took it all the way to the next town. Sylvia had printed out some directions with the new bicycle feature on google maps to get to her friend Joel's in Muscogee. Google should keep its ass out of cycling directions, it had me turning every mile and going on some winding route so I eventually ditched them and asked at a liquor store how to get there on secondary highways.
I made it into Muscogee and called Joel, he picked me up at a gas station and brought me to his place. I showered up and we went out to a nice buffet where we stuffed our faces til past closing time and talked about all sorts of stuff. Joel turned out to be a really cool guy, he worked for city organizing big events (concerts, bike rides etc.) and had a passion for writing. We went back to his house and watched the end of this middle eastern movie about this woman getting wrongfully stoned to death, I only saw about 20 minutes of it but it was a well made 20 minutes.
I left for Fayetteville the next day, Joel left me with a copy of On the Road by Jack Kerouac and some advice to avoid making a life out of something you don't enjoy. I got on 62 which would take me right to Fayetteville. I stopped at a gas station a little ways down the road for a cup of coffee and hung around long enough to get myself disoriented. I left going the wrong way (back to Muscogee) and didnt realize it until 10 miles later when I saw the same general store accross from the same antique store I noticed leaving town. After much cursing I turned around and headed back towards Arkansas. The scenery became more and more rural as I approached Ozark country. I knew it was supposed to rain that night and found a great abandoned mobile home to stay the night.
I ended up hanging out til the afternoon the next day as the rain lasted longer than I expected, I killed time reading my new book (I dig), as well as a local newspaper from 1999. Just as I was finishing a 10 year old Dear Annie letter about a deadbeat dad who divorced his wife and started a new family, refusing to pay child support and not telling his new family about his daughter, the rain began to let up. I quickly got my stuff together and left, hoping Quagmire in Colorado found justice. The ride into Arkansas was beautiful, 62 turned into a windy mountainous road taking me through woods, over clear creeks, and down valleys with hillbilly shacks scattered around. I made it into Fayetteville as it was getting dark and got picked up by my uncle Tim and cousin Hunter.
I had a great weekend with them and my aunt Rebecca, I rarely get to see them and really enjoy them all. It turned out to be spring break for the high school and college so both Tim and Hunter were off. Friday Hunter and I went cycling on the bike trail in town, he showed me a few cool little shops in town including a record/head shop that used to be some kind of theater or something, I picked up a Stephen Malkmus cd and headed back on the trail. We eventually got to the mountain biking portion which severly kicked my ass. I tried to keep up with Hunter and fell off my bike like 5 times, it was a strange transition going from avoiding every little bump on my bike to tearing down hills over giant roonts and jutting rocks on a mountain bike. Saturday Hunter and I went to a baseball game with his uncle, I've never been a big baseball fan but ended up really enjoying the game, we had great seats and witnessed numerous injuries including an elderly fan getting nailed by a foul ball. We went to a Joe Bonamassa concert in town which was good, full of bluesy songs, sometimes overly long solos, and a different guitar for every song. I lounged around sunday, made a batch of french bread and played around with Tim's super nice banjo.
I got up early the monday to say goodbye to Hunter and Tim and get my stuff ready and my route figured out. I said my goodbyes to Rebecca and headed out a few hours later. The weather got beautiful and even hot as the day went on as I took in more of the beautiful scenery. I made it into Harrison and stopped at an old mill turned Bakery/Cafe to relax after a long day, I stayed til it got dark and headed out under a giant orange full moon. The beautiful night welcomed me back to camping with open arms and I found a nice creek to sleep next to under the bright glow of the moon.
Today was mostly uneventful, I stopped at a buffet for lunch and they gave it to me for free after hearing about my trip, which topped the free restaurant meals I've gotten so far.
I write this from beautiful mountain home Arkansas, I'm off to find a cup of coffee and a place to sleep.
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