June 12, 1982

By ROB KERBY
Of the World Staff

MUSKOGEE - Some of the bicyclists showed bruises where they were pelted with hail Friday

Some took cover in a rural tornado shelter at the insistence of a farmer.

Hundreds had experiences that will be retold and exaggerated for years to come.

"In all my years of bicycling, I've never before had to be mindful of twisters," said Will Louw, who flew to Oklahoma from Johannesburg, South Africa, to participate in FreeWheel '82, the Tulsa World's fourth family bicycle ramble across Oklahoma.

"We were bicycling a long when this morning's (Friday) storm hit," said Kevin Merrill, 17, of Eureka Springs, Ark. "We must have been about 10 miles out of Stilwell and this older couple saw us out there in the road - with the sky all black."

In this FreeWheel '82 T-shirt, Merrill leaned back in a chair at the Lake Tenkiller Association offices, packed with soggy bicycle riders. Outside, thunder crashed. Wind-driven rain whipped posters that had invited riders to what had been a lemonade stand.

Jovial volunteers served up coffee, doughnuts, cookies and sandwiches.

"Anyway," said Merrill, "this man and his wife insisted, I mean, INSISTED that all of us come inside." He pointed around to a group of six teen-age boys and girls. "We were all wet and hungry - but they made us sit down in their house and get warm and tell them where we were from. They didn't even know who we were, but they were all worried about us."

Friday, rain again drenched the hundreds of FreeWheel riders, interrupting - even ending - the adventure for many, but adding to the challenge for a few stalwarts.

Day-long showers and thunderstorms began around dawn. For hours, as many as 300 loitered at the Stilwell Kiwanis Club's FreeWheel pancake breakfast in the middle school cafeteria, peering drearily out at the continuous downpour.

Undeterred, about the same number pushed out into the storm, their minds intent on completing the 77-mile trip through the Cookson Hills to Muskogee's Bacone College. About half made it.

The day's major casualty was to be an enormous lemonade stand at Blackgum. There, owners of McQuick's Grocery had prepared a bout $1,000 worth of watermelon, hot dogs, fast food, soft drinks and souvenirs.

The few determined riders who made it to Blackgum were stopping for nothing - their heads down, their eyes squinting to keep out the rain.

"This won't put us out of business," said one owner as he watched a line shoot past. "But it sure is a shame."

On the lawn, workers in concession stands waved to the unseeing bicyclists.

Miles back, FreeWheel's big "sag Wagons" from MK&O bus lines, the state department of transportation and the Oklahoma National Guard gathered loads of soggy riders who were not so resolute, then dropped them off at the lake association headquarters.

The association had peppered the hills between Stilwell and Cookson with signs in clever verse, inviting the first 200 riders in for a free brunch.

"Oh, we ran out a long time ago," said association official Mrs. Erma Welch at 10:30 a.m. "We've bought all the buns that the grocery here had. Our volunteers keep saying 'Here's another $10, go get some more doughnuts.' "

In Stilwell, First Methodist Church buses, a city pickup and a cattle truck were recruited by chamber of commerce president Mark Hodson to haul riders and bikes into Muskogee.

"We had fun on the buses," said Tulsan Stephanie LaFevers, 25. "They took us up to see Fort Gibson stockade and we stopped at all the historical markers."

Another bus from Bacone College began gathering riders from the Muskogee end and took them into Friday's campgrounds.

"People started bringing riders in trucks and cars and said they were going back to rescue more. We could see they needed some help," said Bacone staffer Monica Housely, who had worked for months with staffer Dottie Witter to prepare for riders.

"I was glad I was wearing my bike helmet," said Tulsan Bob Hall-Hensley, 53, who kept riding. "It was raining really hard, then all of a sudden: BOING!! BOING! I was being pelted with about three-quarter-inch hail."

The Rev. Jack Okon, 38, a Catholic priest from Enid, took shelter several times as he made his may to Muskogee.

During one wait, he went up to a farmhouse to seek shelter and was summoned into the family's storm cellar, where he and other riders waited until the rain slackened.

By evening, FreeWheel's ranks were obviously decimated.

Three days of rain had been enough.

FreeWheel ends Saturday at 1 p.m. at Broken Arrow's St. Anne's Summer Festival.

Saturday is the easiest day on the route. It's the shortest - 44 miles - and there are no worthy hills.

Riders generally leave the campgrounds anytime they please between the crack of dawn and 8 a.m.

Come to Muskogee's Bacone College and escort your secretary and all the other lackadaisical hundreds to Broken Arrow.

Or 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. join the parade in downtown Porter and ride along 21 miles to the Summer Festival.

Or 9 a.m. to noon, show up in downtown Coweta and ride 14 miles with us to the Summer Festival.

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