FreeWheel
2001 Diary* |
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Introduction There were about 1,000 participants in the 23rd annual FreeWheel bicycle ride across Oklahoma. There were about 25 from my hometown, several belonging to the Red Dirt Pedalers bicycle club. This was my first official time to ride in FreeWheel. I thought it would be great to celebrate my first year of returning to cycling by riding over 400 miles in beautiful eastern Oklahoma and living out of two duffel bags and a rack bag, and the kindness of any stranger who would accept US currency in exchange for a good meal, Gatorade, PowerAde, Yoo-hoo or Chocolate Soldiers, or any other food. I rode along self-supported on day-5 last year from Cushing to Perry. That trial size version got me hooked. My goal for the following year was to ride in FreeWheel 2001. With that goal in mind I rode a bicycle in several one-day tours and in all kinds of weather conditions so that I would be ready for this year. It was worth it. I saw a lot of bicyclists I had met before and I met a lot of new friends, I saw more bicycles than you can shake a stick at, and I took about 930 digital photographs. I rode all 400 miles plus 54 more on a Day-0 ride to Paris, TX and a Day-7 ride to Missouri. After riding a bicycle over the Kiamichi and Winding Stair Mountains, I now consider Payne County, where I am from, to be FLAT. It took me about a week to print out my photos and write captions for them. Out of about 930 photos, I selected about 400 photos. Copied them onto a CD and sent them to Scott Campbell of Desert Rose Design so that he could put the photos on the FreeWheel 2001 website to be shared anyone who might be interested. The pictures, when viewed in order, are intended to show my FreeWheel experience and allow the viewer to ride along for the week. I know that my photos and ride reports will leave out people and events that are worth mentioning. It's hard to be everywhere with everyone on FreeWheel but it sure was a lot fun trying anyway. I tried to have a lot of fun, be very flexible, and patient. We had a saying in our camp, "Any other time this [whatever] would annoy the (heck) out of me." But since it was FreeWheel, we enjoyed it all, even the "Texans" in Honobia singing our favorite warm up song 1-2, 1-2, 1-2. I think we have a great State and there is no better way to see than by bicycle with a thousand of your best friends. It was a good experience for me and I look forward to riding in next year's FreeWheel. David Kincannon | Intro | Day 0 | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | *Originally
published in the July 2001 Issue of Wheel Issues - |