Oklahoma FreeWheel, 2002
Day 6 - Pawnee to Ponca City
Day 6 - Time to leave Pawnee and head for Ponca city. If you haven't guessed by now, Tom did a little too much partying last night and opted to head to Ponca with Bruce at the end of the evening. There's a special welcome for the gang when they get to Ponca this afternoon and I want to be there to help make it happen. Dean gives his recumbent the day off, too, and mounts my '2120 to join Sylvia, David and Jackie (taking the picture) departing Pawnee.
En route, an oddity on any bike ride .... a CLOSED BAR! This would never happen on RAGBRAI.
The gang hooks up with Tom (of the Brown persuasion) along the way for a little break in the middle of the day's ride.
Oh, yea, Jackie - the guy that took most of the pictures I have posted for FreeWheel 2002, was there, too.
Bruce and Ralyene's pet, Katy guards the estate as we arrive from picking up the gang at the FreeWheel overnight site in the park just South of the Ponca City High School. She was a lot more aggressive when we first arrived until Bruce told her we were all "cool". Then she just sat down and watched us unload as you see here.
Here's Dean (back to the camera) engaging Raylene and Bruce in a conversation in front of their house. I include this picture so you can all see the house Bruce and Raylene built "themselves"! Yeah, they sub-contracted some of the "skill" tasks but this is their design and all of the "rough work" was done by these two skinny people in the foreground. I remember them showing me this patch of land, in Osage County, just a few miles East of the Arkansas River right after they purchased it (more years ago than I care to remember.) They laid out where and how they were going to build their house at that time. I was polite and condescending then (thinking to myself, "Yea - RIGHT!). I'm glad they proved me to be a "Doubting Thomas" in this case - a LOVELY couple in a LOVELY, well-deserved, house that they built with their own skills!
Here's a "Closer Look" at that "Skinny Couple" in the picture above; Bruce Leroy (right), my first ex wife's only brother, and his wife, Raylene (left). Even after meeting all of my FreeWheel-crazy buds and knowing they were going to have to feed and host us for the evening, they're still smiling. How can you NOT love a couple that puts up with this kind of abuse?
Bruce pulls one of his "toys" out of his toy box (a big-assed barn behind the house) and challenges us all to a race; our choice, mount his other 4-wheeler or mount our bike. Can you tell from his expression that he's not worried by either challenge?
Toys put away and dinner is in the works. Bruce and Raylene stop and pose just for a second in their living room before dinner is ready and we start the evening's, post-dinner festivities.
I'm sorry, the camera's didn't get pulled out tonight after the above picture. A great dinner was had by all, thanks to Raylene. After dinner, we all retired to the Leroy's back yard where they have a big fire pit. After sunset, we filled and lit the pit and sat around in lawn chairs, swapping lies and playing/singing songs as the spirit moved each of us. Tom and Sylvia Brown even shared the "FreeWheel Theme Song" they wrote with us! I remember a little of what the shared with us, but you have to contact them for the full "score". This was one of the best evenings of my life and the feedback from the other attendees tells me the night was up there in their memories, too. If any of you guys have any pictures or comments on the night you would like included here, please let me know and I'll add them here.