Highways

I just took my first highway ride down a major highway.
It was windy.
It was awesome.
It was scary!
Wow.
I mentioned a few months ago that I took my first trip down Highway 33.
If you would like to see my thoughts on that, please click here: Jen's First Highway Ride. A road that has a 70 mile per hour speed limit. It was a very windy day with winds out of the south and that road runs east to west. It scared me. This was way before we went to Sturgis and had the scary rides through the Black Hills with the 10 mile per hour corners. So my first time down Highway 33 was wicked scary and Darling Husband was a little bent out of shape by it all.
Friday, I tried again. I made it! It was cool! I even did the speed limit and was able to maintain my lane. It was great!
I want to ride down to my Mom and Dad's house in Texas. I thought I would practice and ride down to Cycle Gear in the City. Only way to get there is by big highways. Like Interstates-35 and 44, and Lake Hefner Parkway which merges with I-44 and OK State Highway 74.
I tried the south-bound lane of Interstate-35 Sunday. That was pretty wicked. I stopped a mile later and got off at the next exit because my heart was pounding so hard. It was great! But I thought with my adrenaline going, I would ride across town to Lake Hefner Parkway and take it south. I turned south onto Lake Hefner Parkway where it is still a two lane state highway. It gave me a few miles to work up my nerve before having to ride at 65-75 miles an hour depending on traffic.
Don't poke fun. You try going 70 miles an hour with only a helmet between you and the asphalt in the Oklahoma wind. It takes big calf fries when you have only been riding since June of this year.
So I turn south, and merge with the high speed (to me) traffic on the Parkway. Oh my goodness, I was scared to death. The wind probably was not gusting that high, but to feel the air resistance hit me in the chest was something else.
Did I ever mention that I am terrified of roller coasters?
Well, I am.
The way the wind felt was reminiscent of my first ride on the Texas Giant at Six Flags over Texas.
Thank goodness the road was not curvy like that, but Oklahoma roads are bumpy so between the bumps and the wind, I was very proud of myself when I made it all the way down to Cycle Gear.
My legs were shaking, I had so much adrenaline through my system when I got there.
Obviously I made it there and home safe.
Now, I am totally looking forward to riding to Texas here pretty soon.
Thanks for Stoppin' By!
It was great!
Jen

Bikes Blues and Barbecue, 2010

Saturday we went to Fayetteville, Arkansas to check out the Bikes, Blues and Barbecue Rally.

We got up at 5:30 that morning, met at the Valero on Edmond Road at 6:30, and were on the road by 6:45. Oh, man was it early and cold! The temperature guage on Darling Husband's bike did not get over 48 degrees Farenheit until around 9:15 or so. With the speed that we were riding and using the wind chill calculator from weatherimages.org , we were riding at about 25 degrees Farenheit until then. Brr!

We rode down Kelly Avenue to Broadway extension to I-40 to Arkansas Highway 23.

Highway 23 is also known as the Pigtrail Highway.

It is curvier than a Coca-Cola Bottle. I really liked the 20 MPH sign. It was not a suggestion.

For this one below, though, it was a suggestion.

I did not take any pictures of us in left hand turns because I did not want to throw us off balance.

Ok, so I was scared. Don't judge. 20 is not a suggestion here. 10 is the suggestion.

We doubled back on our selves on that curve.

Here is Broccoli, next bike is Flip and Flip's girl, then the Redeemed Wolf, his buddy, then Darling Husband's buddy, J.

Always wear your helmets, kids.
We got to Fayetteville around 12:00. Yes, we were going WAY Slow. Stopped quite often. It is really only a 4 hour drive. Unless you go out of the way to take the Pigtrail Highway.

So here is Darling Husband and the Redeemed Wolf contemplating the Kegmobile.
All said and done, we had a good time and we look forward to going next year.
Thanks for Stoppin' By!
Jen

Past couple of days

I am so thankful for the little things in life. We had a lovely weekend here in town. The weather was wonderful. Friday, Darling Husband rode out to Shawnee to the casino with a friend of his. I had plans to ride out on Saturday with a friend to Pops. While they were gone, I took the opportunity to ride out to Pops in Arcadia to make sure I could make the ride. I have never rode on Old Highway 66 so I figured I might need to practice so I would not hold up the group.
So, that was easy.

Saturday, Paula, Doc, and Rick and I made the ride out to Pops for lunch as planned. It was a great time. We took the long way from Quail Springs up and over and around. It was great!The weather was perfect. The sun was shining, it was warm, it was perfect. Then we rode back to the meeting point, and I headed home from there.

Darling Husband and I had a birthday party to go to for one of our friends. The friend turned 30. We had 17 of us in a limo. It was a decent time. We went to Vito's on May Avenue for dinner, then headed to some bar in Bricktown to watch the UFC fights, then made our way to America's Pub to spend the rest of the evening.

Going to America's Pub for people watching was so much better than going to the State Fair. My goodness, some of the people, their clothes, and their behavior! It was just, wow. That is all I have for that, wow. That's it.

On the way home from the Pub, the limo took us back in the order of which we were picked up. The birthday boy of course being dropped off last. Unfortunately, we were the second to last drop off. Yup. Fun and Hyjinks ensued.
Darling Husband tells me I am a fun-hater, since I don't really care for large-groups-of-people-in-a-limo parties anymore.

One of the guests who was getting dropped off at the last drop off, (we will call him Fred) decided that it would be a great idea to crawl out to the back window and try to climb up on top of the limo and surf down Boulevard in Edmond. While the limo is moving. Did I mention that Fred is totally out of his mind at this point? Apparently he was sober enough to just zip out the window with the speed of light when one of the other female guests begins screaming at the driver to stop. The driver slams on the brakes, and Fred, while coherent enough to climb out the window, was not coherent enough to get back in the limo. The limo driver wanted to leave Fred on the side of the road. Can't say I blame him. Of course, drama ensued and we sat on the side of the road for ten minutes. Finally, Birthday Boy's wife swears Fred is not going to climb back out of the window and we get on the road.

At last, we get to our neighborhood.

Darling Husband and I got back home and called it a night.

Definitely thankful that we all got home safe Saturday night.

Thanks for Stoppin' By!
Jen

Ridin'

I love riding my bike to work.

It is kind of therapeutic. Leaving for lunch is not so therapeutic. May Avenue can be kind of busy. Darling Husband laughed at me quite a bit because for the longest time, I would not turn left out of my office parking lot. I can go all the way home and only make 2 left turns. I would go south to NW 150th, turn west, then turn north on Highway 74 and head up to Sorghum Mill and turn back east for a few miles. Left into the neighborhood and left onto my street. Real slow left turns. So the first day I made my very first left turn on to May Avenue was AWESOME! I was totally pumped, it was great.

Now, it is sort of old hat. I still have to work on not stalling out on my hill of doom. But what I want to talk about is going to lunch this afternoon. I went to the home of the golden Arches. I make my left turn on to May Avenue, then I get in the right lane. The restaurant's drive way is kind of rough for a new rider to navigate. I have to go up a hill, cut through the doctor's office parking lot and then make a hard left.

Doesn't sound too bad, does it?

Well, it is not too bad, unless you have someone driving a pick up truck with a fully loaded landscape trailer pulling out at the same time. It gets even better: the driver is a crusty looking old man with a completely confused expression. So he keeps rolling into your lane and swings wide to get the trailer around the corner. So you have to stop, half way up the hill, and you aren't that good at riding anyways, so you are praying that you don't kill the engine, 'cause it is going to be a pain trying to get restarted on a 35 degree uphill approach. Then he stops. He stops in the middle of the road. Then, since you are stopped, because he is blocking the driveway, and trying to keep your bike upright and from rolling backwards, he decides to roll the window down.
Did I mention that you are wearing a full-face helmet? And a pink t-shirt with brown slacks and white and green running shoes? Just checking. 'Cause you are wearing that outfit. Oh, and black gloves.

He rolls the window down and yells out with this totally flabbergasted expression on his face: "Are you a GIRL????"

You nod, irritated, and gun your engine and squeeze around the guy.

Thank goodness going back to work was much easier!

Thanks for Stoppin' By!
Jen