FreeWheel Day 1: Marietta to Sulphur
If you could pick a day where the wind direction was ideal for a bike ride, you would pick a day like today.
We took off from Marietta at about 7:15 this morning, and immediately caught a stiff tailwind that pushed us most of the way to Sulphur, a town of about 4,800 nestled in between the Arbuckle Mountains and one of the oldest national parks in America.
It is really hot today (92 degrees) and the good people of Sulphur do not seem very interested in opening up their schools and public facilities to riders (a practice followed by most of our host towns). As a result, you see hundreds of people packed into what shady spots they can find near the school, hoping for a little breeze.
The Tulsa World is out here this year, and did a really nice write up. Check it out.
Today was my first experience with the shower truck. This is something new for 2008. Usually the schools open their locker rooms for the cyclists, and most of them still will. But to reduce congestion at the showers, FreeWheel has contracted with a provider that sets up a mobile shower. It was really pretty nice. The water was warm, plentiful, and when you're done, you dry off in a very breezy, very open air place. One young guy walked in and asked, "is this the shower truck?" We all just looked at each other, convinced that we had just heard the dumbest question of the week. I answered him. "No," I said. "This is the weekly meeting of the Sulphur Nudists Society."
Today we did just over 66 miles, in a little more than four hours. I burned more than 4,800 calories. Here is the link to my Garmin website.
Here are some pictures from today.
My buddy David Sullivan, and his daughter Meghan. I met David on this ride in 2001.
And for all my abstentionist SBC buddies, especially CB Scott: This Bud's for you!
Tomorrow we ride about 64 miles into Seminole. The weather forecast calls for the wind to shift out of the northeast. I'm not sure how I feel about a 64 mile ride into a headwind, but we will see.
We took off from Marietta at about 7:15 this morning, and immediately caught a stiff tailwind that pushed us most of the way to Sulphur, a town of about 4,800 nestled in between the Arbuckle Mountains and one of the oldest national parks in America.
It is really hot today (92 degrees) and the good people of Sulphur do not seem very interested in opening up their schools and public facilities to riders (a practice followed by most of our host towns). As a result, you see hundreds of people packed into what shady spots they can find near the school, hoping for a little breeze.
The Tulsa World is out here this year, and did a really nice write up. Check it out.
Today was my first experience with the shower truck. This is something new for 2008. Usually the schools open their locker rooms for the cyclists, and most of them still will. But to reduce congestion at the showers, FreeWheel has contracted with a provider that sets up a mobile shower. It was really pretty nice. The water was warm, plentiful, and when you're done, you dry off in a very breezy, very open air place. One young guy walked in and asked, "is this the shower truck?" We all just looked at each other, convinced that we had just heard the dumbest question of the week. I answered him. "No," I said. "This is the weekly meeting of the Sulphur Nudists Society."
Today we did just over 66 miles, in a little more than four hours. I burned more than 4,800 calories. Here is the link to my Garmin website.
Here are some pictures from today.
My buddy David Sullivan, and his daughter Meghan. I met David on this ride in 2001.
And for all my abstentionist SBC buddies, especially CB Scott: This Bud's for you!
Tomorrow we ride about 64 miles into Seminole. The weather forecast calls for the wind to shift out of the northeast. I'm not sure how I feel about a 64 mile ride into a headwind, but we will see.
wish I were there
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We wish you were here too, Steve.
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