Dirt Road Cruisin'

There's nothing better than a girl, her motorcycle, and a cup of coffee. Okay, so it would be nice to be able to enjoy the coffee somewhere else besides the end of my drive way, but hey, I know how to compromise...Occasionally.  

It was yet another gusty day in Oklahoma. My road the biggest mess yet, it was time to get out and away from the dust, construction, and tar. I grabbed my keys, camera, biscotti, hopped in the car and skidded out of my driveway. Luck was with me because there was still a tiny strip of gravel to coast on. Tar truck in my rear view mirror, it was time for an adventure. I pretended I was off in jolly ol' England as I drove down the wrong side of the road. Can't believe I forgot my tea.

It was a dirt road kind of day. Dirt roads are awesome. You know, as long as you don't live on one or you have some off-road tires on your bike. These last couple of weeks, my road reminded me of the gravel road that leads to Loveland, OK. My luck, they must have just dumped an extra load of gravel when I had visited Loveland. I do believe those were the longest 5 miles of my life. It's kind of funny, because just when you think it can't possibly get any worse, the county proves you wrong on your own road. My road was worse than the road to Loveland. The town not the land of love, although it would be fitting for that road would be bumpy. Where was I? Oh, yeah. Dirt Roads. Awesome...because there's usually little traffic, old farm houses, and no one can fuss at you for driving like in England or hogging the road. Not that I would do either of those.

I coasted over to Apache and turned by the abandoned dairy barn or warehouse. That's when I found out that Apache is a lot bigger than I gave it credit for. Some pretty cool houses, not like those cookie-cutter houses taking over the world (suburbia and the country side). Speaking of Apache, they now have a coffee shop, that Cache Creek Coffee. Open Mon-Sat for all you coffee junkies in the Apache/Elgin area. I don't know how I managed to bypass it yet again. After I had even remembered to pack my biscotti.

Some of the dirt and gravel roads break Oklahoma's straight road standard. Going 25 mph really puts the world into perspective. Turkey waddle by, donkeys say hi, and you run across people who wander down the road picking wild sage. When I saw the donkeys (the plural ought to be changed to donki), the brakes were slammed. I donkey-whispered it up. The donkey life is hard, yo. Since I couldn't figure out how to fit a donkey in my car, the adventure continued. Graffiti was also found. Apparently there's a graffiti battle on a bridge somewhere out there about who the real savages are. So if you're a real savage, you might want to settle that dispute. And, if you're reading this, read some books and let's see some meaningful quotes. Not that I'm encouraging vandalism, but, hell, if you're already gonna do it, make it art. Think I'll have to leave some philosophy books at the bridge...should I ever find it again.

There may not have been coffee, but I figured cruisin' down dirt roads with my windows down solicited a biscotti. It was officially a biscotti moment. For the law enforcement reading this, no I didn't blow through any small town stop signs...

Eventually I was somewhere I recognized. However, a double wide was being transported in front of me, so I just turned onto the next gravel road I found. It eventually turned into a red dirt road. Before I new it, I was sliding down a bumpy, steep, curvy hill. Half way down I saw a bunny and an awesome cactus (they're blooming by the way). With that no traffic thing, you almost don't have to look behind you when you stop on weird curvy, hilly roads. Love that red dirt found north of Lawton. It's just beautiful! But, I've always had a thing for dirt. Probably the only relationship that's ever been mutual. Don't know how I always manage to get covered in mud. Probably ought to grow up and halt the mud fights.

Main Street in Fort Cobb was buzzing. The cafe was open, there was a town sale, and my time was running out. Cruised past the double-wide transporter stopped for lunch and/or rummaging, and hitched a left (the other left!) to Nowhere. Bought my flame-retardant juice and tried to hook my road tripping buddy up with a bumper sticker. They were all out. My constantly bringing touries out there has finally caused a shortage. However, you can still look at the stop sign without a road. What an attraction, right?

So the whole point of my little adventure was to check out a theater in Carnegie I've been wanting to check out for years! Yeah, years. A while ago I heard that Carnegie was the home of the oldest running theater in Oklahoma. 
AH! Coffee flood! Thank God my computer appreciates coffee as much as I do. Anywho, this theater, the Liberty Theatre, was built in 1915! I know, I was amazed that OK had that kind of technology, too. They still have the original ticket booth, too. Even though, Main Street has some buildings which are abandoned, they still have this flare of the past, back when style was still important and metal shacks weren't considered classy. You can just see the ladies of the 40s and 50s walking down the sidewalk window shoppin' in their pencil skirts. There's this one little town I know of which consists of almost nothing but metal buildings. Taste took some weird turn for the worse over the years, I guess.
Yes, Carnegie was named after the industrialist Andrew Carnegie. I hope he was invited to the town-founding party. I've covered most of the highlights of Carnegie in Thursday's video, but just to recap: Awesome Main Street, Theater, Diner, Newspaper (printing since 1904!), Public Library, and Mural. I love seeing small towns which are still relatively self-sufficient. Where chains haven't pushed out small businesses only to close and force people to drive to the next town for groceries. I'm relatively new to all this social media...stuff. But, as I was browsing Twitter to see if Carnegie had a profile (some small towns do), the only thing I found having anything to do with Carnegie was a news story from February. I'll share it just because I thought it was amusing. Funny that you can be arrested for something in one state that's legal in another state. It's like visiting a different country. Although, this person probably would have experienced some issues elsewhere due to the place of consumption.

The story just mentioned that the police department dispatcher in Carnegie was arrested. Ironic, right? This person was arrested for allegedly smoking pot while at work. I don't know about you, but I feel safe and well informed in the case of an emergency. "Chill out" usually is pretty good advice, though. 

For those of you who loved that 90 degree corner south of Carnegie on hwy 58, I hope you really leaned into it that last time you rode it because it is no more.

I'll leave some pictures in a new Facebook Album!
This blog is brought to you by the lovely (biased opinion, we know) Stone Turtle – Lodging, a small family owned and operated hotel / lodging business near Lawton, Oklahoma, Fort Sill,  the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, Meers and Medicine Park. Yeah, that’s right we’re a small lodging business close to all the awesomeness Oklahoma has to offer!!

An Impromptu Ride

On Friday I met up with a rider who's always nice enough to let me know when he's riding. He even has this habit of asking if I want to join (imagine that). So after the "Are we riding?" question, we decided to meet up in an hour. When I get there, his friend's already there waiting. Eventually after getting gas, lunch, and bs-ing with his friend, the other rider rolls in. First time I've not adhered to my 5 minute wait policy in years. If you're not there in 5 minutes, I won't be there either.

Awesome weather for a ride...if you were wearing synthetic gear. I was quite cozy in my Ballistic 5.0 pants with long underwear. That and winter riding gloves (how did I ever live without them!?!), and it's like riding in Florida sunshine even with the gusty gale common in Oklahoma. The windy city sure ain't got nothin' on us. We did a general 100-mile loop starting out in Meers to ride HWY 115 north. We did it just before they closed off HWY 115 to do whatever construction they're now doing. There goes my Meers and Saddle Mountain cemetery plans. 

I don't think my riding buddies had ever been on that road (not really explorers those two, but not everyone can have a job as an explorer like me). First corner comes up; I look in my mirror to see one of guys take it too wide. He reacted fast, straightened out his Harley, and did a little off-roading before rejoining us on the paved street. I'll admit, it was a pretty sweet save.We continued on- enjoying the weather, the scenery, and the ride. I love riding with people who ride to ride not to do moronic stuff. That last curve by Saddle Mountain is a doozy. It has an odd inclination and usually has grit or water on half of a lane. Creeped around that very slowly. Also, that last section (and I fear all of Hwy 115 may have the same fate) is only tightly packed gravel. I wouldn't be doing any track-style riding on it.

As we headed to Apache, I saw a lot of old barns I want to get on film. Some I've ridden by but were always hidden by trees. I love riding because I always notice something new. The Mobetta (mobetta than what, I always ask) building has long been transformed into a tanning salon in Apache. Because here in Oklahoma, we never see the sun... I think I'd rather get skin cancer from the sun than from whatever chemical reaction goes on in one of those weird booths. 

After Apache we went to Medicine Park because I had to go to the Post Office. Don't know why I didn't go in Apache. It's got to be that detour problem I have. While in Medicine Park I managed to convince the guys that they wanted to go hiking with me on Sunday since the others had bailed for the Saturday plans. I think I need to take some classes in guilt-tripping. 

Route 66...well sort of

A title of Pop's Diner would be more appropriate. So we had a meet and greet for the Riders in OK group; only 11 riders made the effort of meeting up at Pops. The 6 of us who rode out from Lawton logged about 280 miles. That's what I call a decent ride!  Had to take I-35 to help cut down on time (it was already a 2 hour ride one-way).

 

So we took the back roads up to I-35.

 

Pop's was CRAZY busy. And, since we couldn't agree on what to do, we waited forever on a table. Next time I will remember to back a granola bar. Yeah... my priorities before leaving the house were 1) coffee, 2) workout, and 3) check tire inflation (yes, I learned my lesson).

 

These two Lawton riders' bikes almost make me want to buy a chopper...I think I'd look like a dope on one, though. The bike on the right has some pretty bad-ass detail (see album).

 So after we ate, OKC and Lawton riders went separate ways. We caught I-40 (never been on this hwy) and rode out to Hinton. Finally got to see the other half of Hinton. I liked the first half better. With some more time, we could have taken the back roads to Hinton, too. But, time was fleeting. Had some riders who hadn't been out this way before so I had to take them down into Red Rock Canyon State Park. From I-40 and the hwy going through Hinton, you'd never guess such cool landscape existed.

Even got to ride through Apache's Rattlesnake Festival. I need to mount a camera holder on Blueberry somehow so I can take pictures while I ride (sounds safe, doesn't it?). We rode through Binger, Fort Cobb, and some other places where I usually would have wanted to stop, but, yeah...

More pictures are on Facebook!

OK Rider Meet and Greet

Destination: Blanchard

Miles logged: 170ish

Headed out to Blanchard for a Meet and Greet with some other Okie riders. Had some awesome food, drinks, and company. Hope to do it again soon. Got off to a late start, and stopped in Apache. Kind of lollygagged a bit... Which kind of made us a tad bit late...like an hour.

So on the way there we saw this totally cool old fire truck:

On the way back, we got on HWY 8. Hadn't been on it in a while. Nice hill country, and two fun sweeper curves that would be a blast to ride when there's day light to see through the turn.

Going through Verden, it's best to watch that you stay at the 35mph speed limit.