We're OKFreeWheel bound

OKFreeWheel is a cross state week long mass bike ride from the Texas to Kansas border in the heat and humidity of the Oklahoma summer.

Nutso x 1000...I'm right there with you.


Even more nutso when my lovely 40-something wife announced that she was considering doing it, was using her birthday check present from my Mom to get a road bike, and wanted me to document the entire process on video for her, from bike purchase to final collapse at the Kansas border.

That was a mere 6 months ago. Since then, she's trained and rode and shopped (oops, I mean, "outfitted herself in the appropriate biking attire") and agonized and fought against the Oklahoma wind and shopped ("acquired the required biking gear,") and changed a flat and shopped (ibid) and attended most of the FreeWheel seminars and shopped and bitched about how fast the start day was approaching and sweat and shopped and well...shopped.

So here we are, on the eve of the start date. Her mind, body, and spirit may not be fully prepared for the onslaught of physical tediousness and tension, but her wardrobe is ready, her outfits are set, and she has every doohickey, tool, gadget, bag and bottle that she'll ever need, ever, ever again.

Macgyver should be so well prepared.

Her duffel bags are not packed, the tent has not been seam sealed, her bike has yet to be picked up from the shop where it is being tuned up, and the laundry room is running in overtime since we also have to pack the girls up for their 9 night stay at Club Grandparent.

But somehow we'll be ready. Somewhere we'll be set. And sometime she'll hopefully come to her senses.

Six months later, it still seems like a nutso x 1000 thing to do.

But do it she will, struggle she might, and following her in my car I'll be, documenting her journey with my 3-chip video camera, a wireless lavalier mic hanging on her lapel, and a custom mounted Sanyo HD micro video camera riding shotgun on her handlebars.

Needless to say, I won't be blogging during our journey, but I'm sure I'll have more small town moments to report on, as we travel through some of the smallest towns in the state, in a most unusual (at least for these parts) mode of transportation.