OBS Fall Fling
2002
Roman Nose State Park
Once again the Oklahoma Bicycle Society strikes with another great cycling
weekend. This time it was the annual Fall Fling campout at Roman Nose State Park
with a trip to Canton for lunch on Saturday and the typical Pot Luck Dinner that evening.
On Friday ten of us adventurous types camped out. Jim "Legs"& Laurie "Tabasco Queen" Allshouse, Johnnie & Diana Lerma, Rolf "Butter Man" Jacobi & his girlfriend Laverna, myself (my wife, Marsha, came up Saturday), Moni Neville, Glenn Chamberlin and Dannie Lamb. Rolf made the trip by bicycle from Choctaw, about a 102 mile ride through El Reno, Calumet & Geary to the park. Moni, Glenn and Dannie made a self contained ride from Yukon, leaving from Moni’s favorite place, Braums, about a 70 mile ride.
Around 4:00pm Jim decided to see if he could find the self contained threesome. Not knowing their route he never found them, but 30 minutes after he came back you could hear Dannie and Moni coming up the road. In the mean time, Laverna shows up, ask if we have seen Rolf. No we haven’t, and off she goes in search, because he has no lights. The rest of us decide to start up dinner--some pretty good potato soup and hot rolls warmed in a Dutch oven on the camp fire. Man is that Johnnie good at campfires and making walls with trees, ropes and tarps. Just about to wrap up the dinner when Rolf comes rolling in around 7:20. Well, Laverna found him just south of Watonga, gave him his bike lights and sent him on his way while she shopped in Watonga for supplies (we all think it was more of that women thing of just general shopping). We get some hot soup down Rolf and Laverna, clean up the dishes and gather at the fire for more good stories.
We all get to hear the great cycling trip by Rolf. Somewhere before Geary he checks his bike GPS, thinks he is near Woodward and worriers he zoned out and rode by Roman Nose Park. Between Geary and Watonga he sees what he calls flat mountains (what we Okies call mesa’s) and by his words, gets turned on by the sight (maybe we need to check out his bike seat) when he realizes he is on the right path. Now it has become dark, and no lights, then Laverna shows up and saves his butt. The rest of the story becomes a blur and mostly non-repeatable as he has some more of that $8.00 a gallon wine that he is drinking from a Sonic cup with a straw.
Make our plans for the Saturday events and off to bed. Around 2:00am its looks like most of us are up, doing a potty trip and putting on more clothes, because it is COLD! I have a stocking cap on and Laurie says "Hey, I have one of those somewhere" and off she goes. Next morning Jim’s complaining because he did not get up and put more on (note to Jim, you will have to make that potty run when you get older, just part of nature, then you will need get out of that sleeping bag).
Finally it’s 6:00am and I get the coffee started, Jim and Laurie get up and we start breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast and jelly. Clean up the camp site, hide the food from the raccoons, change to bike clothes and check the bikes out. Ready to go. We then venture off to the day’s ride starting point just 20 feet past a low water crossing next to the camp site. We gather at a stop sign in Roman Nose Park and collect for a group picture of 21 riders braving the gray skies, 40 degrees temperature and a north wind at 15 to 20 mph. Now, we have not traveled 100 feet, then it’s the quarter mile climb out of the park. Sure glad we had such a long warm up ride before the hill. Reach the top, huffing and puffing along with the others who can’t talk, rumble along the pebble strewn park road then make that turn into the wind on our way to Canton for lunch.
Most of the morning ride I spent cruising along with Esther Goldsmith (better known as "Celeste the Fire Goddess"). Now if you don’t know Esther, hang on for some fun. All of our conversation hinges around food, and I soon discover that she had trouble making stew one night. To quote, "IT WAS BAD STUFF!" Never did find out all the ingredients so we could figure what the bad parts were. She sure put strange items in a stew--things I have never seen together in a pot. Now I have a new handle for Esther: "The Potty Princess". Really can’t remember how many breaks she took before lunch, but I do remember the bulldozer operator on one side road who had a good show and the guy in the dually truck flashing his lights. Just two miles from Canton and she can’t make it. Good barn on the left. Hold her bike while she stumbles through the goat heads, around to the back down the side of the barn with all the weeds. Can’t figure out why she went that way in lieu of the side with the concrete drive. When she returns, I decide to take a turn while Barry Acker and Esther spend ten minutes removing all the goat heads in her shoes and pants. Get her rounded up and off to lunch at the Tiger Inn Caf, which we overloaded as all 21 riders gathered there at once, along with and a group of hunters passing through town. Dannie said they did serve a great -pound cheeseburger, and several ordered the same based on the huge pile on his plate. During lunch something took place with Rolf, Jim and Dannie, and that’s where he earned the handle "Butter Man", not real sure we should pass on the details (more on that later around the night’s camp fire stories).
Moni, Laverna and Rolf decide to take the short ride and return to the campsite. Jim, Laurie, Esther and a few others take the long route back at a slow pace, with the rest of us hammering off on the long route. The fast paced peleton of 13 riders had outrun our ride leaders, but John Wente remembered where we were to make a turn, so he was elected leader. Big mistake! Missed the next turn and we had to loop back. He was quickly expelled from the leader function, and we returned to the idea of just ride along and hope we don’t run out of asphalt. Earlier the group had passed Dannie, so at our next corner we slowed down to check with him, not in sight, so we ventured on (later found out he took a different route). Half way back to Roman Nose Park and the group is spreading out up this long huge -mile grade, and we are catching up with Moni, Rolf and Laverna. I see a great BIG dog run across the road after them just before the top (why are they never on the downhill side?), then return and STAND THERE in the middle of the highway WAITING ON ME! On my left, here he comes at 200 mph, barking like crazy with big teeth. Get out the bottle of Gatorade and spray in his face, all I can hear is the sound of his claws scraping on the asphalt as he tries to stop, and I pedal as fast as I can over the hill. I catch up with the threesome and Moni asks "where are the rest", I huff out "over --- the hill --- coming --- up --- to the dog". We ride along for several minutes, while I recover, and no one else comes over the hill. Now we are thinking that dog ran in among them and they had a crash, so off I go to the camp to get a car and return. Hard as I can for 6 miles, make the dash down that pebble road and the great finish hill, blast through the low water crossing, sail into camp change my now water logged clothes, take a potty break, lock the bike up, grab a drink and just get into the car when John Lerma shows up. Seems as if Johnnie was ahead of his wife and turned back to get her by the dog just as the owners got it back inside the yard, and the rest had stopped because Beverly Jaquez had a rear tire go flat, fixed it, then discovered the front was flat also (typical bike flat, how many can get their hands in the effort, this time something on the order of eight). This group arrives and I find out they missed the great dog race enjoyment, now we wait on the slow bunch.
Jim, Laurie and Esther finally come in and we hear from Laurie that she was having a very difficult time pedaling for a couple of miles, convinced the others to stop because she thought her legs were gone, then Jim found a very low tire on the rear (note to Laurie, when it gets hard to pedal look for something wrong, it’s a lot better to blame it on something than yourself). Their slow return was also attributed to being with "The Potty Princess". Did not get a count on the number of stops--Jim ran out of fingers. All were very disappointed in that they detoured on the route Dannie took, missed the long grade and big dog, but forgot to put it on the route map or tell anyone else about the nice flat route (see if I give you guys a map on a ride I organize--might just send you down the wrong road). OK, enough griping, time for a shower and some hot coffee. Sometime during this great mess my wife shows up and claims she is late because she was lost, couldn't get anyone’s cell phone to answer and did not understand that we were camped in the bottom of Roman Nose Park (I believe she did that women thing of shopping in Watonga).
The camp grounds we stayed at happened to be a day camp area, but the Park Rangers reserved the whole wonderful space just for us (did clean it every day, and packed it with toilet paper). Our normal biker luck--showers but NO HOT WATER! Dannie doesn’t care, dives right in with a little yelling, the rest decide to car pedal to another shower location. I am the last to go and just as I arrive, guest what, out rambles this BIG hunter with muddy boots. Whole restroom facility floor is covered in mud. Danced around looking for a dry place with no mud after my nice hot shower. Sat on the sink to put on my socks and shoes after washing my feet, twice.
Eighteen of the day’s riders gather up for that awesome (Moni word here, mine too!) OBS pot luck dinner, with more food than people, Esther’s jambalaya, Jim’s oil field beans, Donnie Dobson’s Mexican dish, John Lerma’s great Dutch oven cooked cherry cobbler and all the other fixin’s, then wade through the pile of deserts three times (was that Rolf wining like a pig somewhere).
Had our fill of food, now its time for that BIG HOT camp fire. Johnnie works his magic with the wood again and Moni drags in half of a 30 foot tall tree. Everyone finds a spot and the day’s events are rehashed. Tom Russell keeps poking the fire, ashes go everywhere. Laurie reads my Tour De Trees article (if you have not read it, see the OBS web site under Tour Tales). Someone tries to lure "Celeste the Fire Goddess" out of Esther. She mumbles and stalls then says very loudly "you think you can just turn me on and off like a faucet?" and that this fire is not worthy enough. We get to the good stuff about how Rolf got that "Butter Man" name. Now after Rolf has had several beers and has come up with more of that world famous wine (we think during his shower trip he quickly drove to a booze joint in Watonga 6 miles away, he was sure gone long enough), and Jim’s spiked his coffee this story gets funnier. Seems as if during lunch, Laverna wanted to cut short on the ride because her rear was hurting, and the conversation turned to butt cream. Jim reached for the butter and told Rolf to apply some, it might work. Well one thing lead to another and all of the rest of the conversation we can’t repeat here, but trust Dannie and Jim, the name fits Rolf.
"The butter man can, the butter man can, if anyone can, the butter man can"
Now the group knows that I will make notes about our rides, so most of the tales turn to mild stories about other rides. Moni and Rolf have a very long conversation in German that had to do with Rolf’s mother, and laugh a lot, probably at the expense of all the others (most of them were laughing too, but I don’t know why, no one else speaks German). The evening tales wind down and everyone plans for tomorrow’s event, the great breakfast ride to Okeene, and then we make our way to bed.
Oh, did I mention it starting Raining about Midnight!
Morning arrives with lots of the wet stuff, so heavy we can’t make coffee, just change clothes and pack away all the tents, cooking equipment, bikes and various other wet stuff.
Get it all packed in the car and, just like Tour De Trees, car was half full when I got here, now its up to the roof. Still can’t figure that one out. So in a cloud of spray, off go 17 of us, car pedaling to Okeene for breakfast. During the Oklahoma Fall Bike Fest weekend rides, Laurie and Jim had stopped at this restaurant called Silly Willy’s and thought this was a perfect place. Only problem, they are not open on Sunday. This doesn’t deter Laurie. She calls them up and they agree to open if we can have a minimum 15 people. Here we are, maple-flavored coffee is ready; the place is all ours, and anything we want for eats. "Legs" needs to quit his job at the capitol and open a caf. He did a great job of keeping the coffee served, handing out silverware an just being himself! WOW did they serve some excellent food! We will go back! Looks like next year’s ride will revolve around this caf--something about they might do a catered pig roast after Saturday’s ride.
Hope to see all you wonderful bicycle riders for the OBS FCR rides on Saturdays, or Wednesday evenings at Lake Overholser for the winter season. If not, see ya’ down the road. Stay upright and join us at the next GREAT OBS ADVENTURE! Oh, by the way, we have decided that if your name is Jim or John you will not be admitted to OBS unless you have a good nickname we can call you. Too many are responding to these names now!
Ride fast, ride slow, who cares; just enjoy the view and live a longer and healthier life.
Jim Bean
Oklahoma Bicycle Society:
Fall Fling 2002
created by John Wente
last modified:
February 18, 2007
URL: http://www.OklahomaBicycleSociety.com