and I are at some very sketchy laundrymat in Cherokee, OK. There is no
one here and not even employees here watching the place. The bathroom
is locked. A few machines dont work. Theres an old Dr. Pepper machine
next to me and also one of the washing machines is violently shaking
around as its rinsing. We need to do everyones laundry so it takes
awhile, but it gives us time to chill and hang out. And do things like
update my blog. As you can see, we carried in 31 cyclists dirty
clothes in two tarps (one dryer ok clothes and another for non dryer
(like our jerseys))
Anyway today was very different day. But, as it were, it turned out
very well for me. We had a 70 mile strech on one road today and the
headwinds were KILLER. I mean this was probably one of the hardest
riding days because the wind would literally throw you off your bike.
If you had no hands on the handlebars, you would get blown of the
road. It was harder than climbing a mountain. In any case, hard day.
But then came a wonderful man by the name of Butch Phillips. This is
our story.
Butch's son is a rider on the Central US route this year. Mr. Phillips
plans on driving his VW bus to Canon Beach on the west coast meet his
son when he gets there. But until then, he found out that our trip was
coming near his town, so he decided to stop by our lunch stop and
bring us ice cream and cold drinks. He found us himself and did such a
great thing for strangers, and then he went a step further.
I was biking after our first lunch, at 32 miles and it was so
difficult to pedal because of the wind. I pushed too hard on the pedal
and then poof, my chain broke and my back derailed flew off (see? I
have calves of steel). Unfortunetly this meant my riding for the day
was over so I had to call the van to pick me up. A bummer, sure, but
it was a crappy day for riding anyway..
The real issue was finding a bike shop in the middle of nowhere (where
we are) that carried a specific part for my bike and was able to fix
it. Long story short, mr. Phillips found out for us that a bike shop
with the right stuff was 70 miles the other direction about an hour
and a half away. Amy, the van driver for the day, could have driven me
there but it would have really messed up the day for our whole group.
So Mr Phillips said he would drive me. This man, this gracious man and
wonderful human being, and his dog Toby, had lunch with me, got me a
tshirt from Eskimo Joes, and helped me deal with the repair funds. He
then drove me to Cherokee, about 140 miles away now, and brought me
back with the rest of the group. I had an awesome day and learned a
lot about him.
I can not thank him enough and that is why this post is dedicate to
Butch Phillips.
I may have arrived at our host in a different fashion, but hanging out
with the car dealer/part time sheriff/and storm spotter (all Mr
Phillips) made it a fantastic day.
You might not hear the same thing from everyone else though heh...
They're pretty grumpy with cycling because it was such a tough day and
we have 90 miles of the same tommorow. Life works in strange ways
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