Ardmore to Oklahoma City/Edmond 6/12-13/09:

After an amazing stay at the church in Ardmore, we left early morning to start heading to Oklahoma City. Sadly, the day started out for me with a blow-out in my front tire about 19 or 20 miles out. I hit a crack/small pothole and BOOM!!! My tire exploded! I almost lost it, but managed to get the bike slowed down enough to hop off and check out the damage. My tube had popped, taken half of the tire off the rim, and wrapped the tube around the fork once or twice.

Funny this is, these were my BRAND NEW Ultra Gatorskin tires! My old red tired had cuts and holes in them, so I figured I should change them out before the 116 mile journey we had that day. But after putting 20 miles on them, they EXPLODED!

I changed the tube and pumped it up and headed off back on the road.

As we made our way to the first rest stop...I saw a TURANTULA CROSSING THE ROAD!!!! After a hard climb, we reached some pretty level/slightly downhill roads. So I started coasting and I saw this little brown figure in the middle of the road. I passed by it too quickly and was at the back of the pack because of my flat, so I didn't have time to turn back and take a closer look. But I knew for a fact that it was a fist-sized turantula skittering across the road. COOLEST THING I EVER SAW!!!

Since we climbed so much, I knew some downhills were coming sooner or later. Or so I hoped...

I got to the first rest stop which was at the top of the Arbuckle Mountains, which were absolutely AMAZING. As Allison said, it looked like a view from New Zealand. I don't know if I would consider them mountains or hills though. They weren't crazy steep, but rather looked like a bunch of really tall mounds. Big thanks to the SAG drivers that day for choosing such an amazing rest stop!!!

I got ready to head out from the rest stop and grabbed for my cycling cap in the back pocket of my jersey....but....it wasn't there. I started to freak out and searched everywhere for my cap, but I didn't see it lying around the rest stop anywhere and it wasn't in any of my pockets either. So I just realized then and there....that I had lost my Texas 4000 cycling cap. :(

If you know me, you know that i <3 LOVEEE my cycling caps!! And my Texas 4000 cap is my absolute FAVORITE one! So I am sad to this day, that I lost the cap. But fortunately, I ordered two of them during the equipment order! I have one at home hanging on my wall above my bed. But that one is to be kept in prestine condition, so I won't have anyone ship it to me. I don't want to risk losing or damaging it...not yet at least. I'll just pick up a new one from a shop somewhere in Colorado or something. :)

After the rest stop, came the bombing of the Arbuckle Mountains. It was absolutely gorgeous! The roads carved downhill and around the curves of the mountain side. It was such an amazing view and at the bottom were the Turner Falls. We passed over a bridge and saw people standing beneath by the water. Who knew Oklahoma was so pretty??? i sure didn't! But I know now!

The rest of the journey was incredible but started to get really tough towards the end. It was a 116 mile day. We started to get more and more tired from all the biking. The sun was beating down on us and it just drained the energy out of us.

After a few rest stops, I started to feel better and better! But then as the trailer drove by us, I heard a loud noise coming from the rear wheel and I knew something HAD to be wrong. Turns out that one of the studs on the hub had broken off, a lug nut was missing, and one of the studs was stripped. BIG PROBLEM.

So Jeff Boes, Brian, Greg, and I stayed there to deal with the trailer as everyone else continued their trek to Edmond.

We unhitched the trailer and took the van to the nearest autoparts store. I brought with me, one of the lug nuts, so we could buy a couple of them for temporary use. A tire iron and two lug nuts later, we went back to the trailer to throw the lugnuts on whichever studs were available.

So then we began driving to Oklahoma Christian University, our hosts. We caught up to the riders as they climbed a few long, intense hills before approaching the university.

The riders all arrives at 7:30pm at Oklahoma Christian University. We had been on the saddle for 12-13 hours!! Emotion and tension was high as everyone was tired and stressed out from the long day's journey. 116 MILES!!!

Luckily, we were staying with absolutely amazing hosts! Neil, the Dean of Students at OCU was every so gracious! We had dorm rooms for three for all of us to stay in. It was incredible to have a nice bed to sleep in for the night!

We got cleaned up and went out for dinner at Coach's with Neil and two student representatives. I had an AMAZING burger and fries and soon enough....the food coma began to settle in. All of us riders were getting SO SLEEPY and tired!

So we went back to the university and hopped into our beds to get ready to run errands and for the cancer clinic visit early in the morning.