Flying Solo

Chickasha to McAlester OK. 5100' climbing. Temp at the start 40f. Winds light out of the SE. Mike said today was our signature day and by that I think he meant longest, 145 miles. About three miles after the start I just got into my aero bars and put the hammer down. So as I'm rolling along I start passing riders that have started out before me. There is good shoulder to ride on so it makes the ride more pleasant. It is really a beautiful day and it is starting to warm up. When I get to the first SAG there are a few riders there. I go through the routine of sanitizing my hands and signing in. While I'm there some of the riders I passed come in. I continue with striping off my arm and knee warmers. Everybody seems content to stand around and yak it up. I refill my bottles then grab a handful apple slices and a banana stuff them in my jersey pocket and off I go. Three riders took the SAG to the first stop and are some where up the road ahead of me. So now I have some thing to chase. I'm just motoring along having a good old time enjoying the small farms some with cattle others with horses. At one point I'm on a fairly long climb and there they are three of them waiting on the side of the road. Now they have some thing to chase. They let me pass and here they come yapping all the way. So in my best command voice I give them a firm no, one stops and the other two are after me still. Though one is tiring. The littlest one about a twenty pounder just full of itself keeps comming. So I finally reach down and get the water bottle out and give a squirt in it's direction and the chase is over. Next there is a couple sitting in beach chairs in the shade on the side of the road clapping. Now it feels like I'm more important, I've got spectators. I learn when I meet them later at the lunch SAG that he has done the ride before. So I roll along and I finally catch Perry who is moving right along, not bad for a 70 year old. Perry is like me and lives in a flat part of Florida and doesn't venture into the hills that much. A little while later I meet up with Eric. He and his daughter Kirsten are from Hawaii. She is the youngest rider at 20 and the only one I haven't seen today. About a half mile from the lunch break I see her ahead of me and she is making a right turn and going into the parking lot for a small casino where the lunch SAG is going to be. Barbara tells me I can't go into the casino unless I check my guns at the door. Well I guess they just won't be getting my business. Lunch and off again in almost a flash as Barbara tells me there is a route change. I get the changes and when and she says go 2.7 miles down and unpaved road and I think oh #@*$ that's all I need. It turns out to be an unmarked road not an unpaved one. Later James will turn too soon and will turn the day into a 155 miler, you go James. I know that I will out run the SAG so I stop about 6 miles short at a little store??? They don't have any gatorade ??store??? Are they kidding? A bottle of water, thanks. A guy in the "store" said he passed me a few minutes ago and he liked my light. Thirty miles later another store a real one this time. Got my gatorade and all is well with the world. When I get to the motel it is not where it is supposed to be and is on the other side of a major road. Mike claims 2 years ago it was on the side of the road we were routed onto, ok somebody moved it during the night. I sign in putting down the time by my name and circling it. Yes, I know that it's obnoxious. I don't care I'm chocolate milk and snickers deprived. Tomorrow will come soon enough.