Another wonderful weekend gone by

Ah, April is passing me by way too fast. In between colds, paper stress, and odd weather, April hasn't seen a lot of riding. The weather gods were on my side a couple of weekends ago as I was able to ride over to Lake Lugert...or Lake Altus as I tend to call it. Yes, I will rename things, places, and people. I was also able to bless the Wichita Mountains with my presence. If that's not the recipe for an awesome weekend, then I don't know what is. 

On Saturday, a rider from OKC was planning on coming down to ride through the Wichita Mountains before heading to the Quartz Mountains. Perfect opportunity, I thought, to get my newbie rider, who bought the Harley a little while ago, an opportunity to feel what it really means to ride. This ties in with my strong belief that anything under 50 miles is not a ride. Granted, lately my rides are in the 50-70 mile range. Somewhat depressing, I agree. The meetup time was flexible and the location was set for Mt. Scott. My friend got off to a little later start in OKC. I found it a little tricky trying to figure out when to leave or tell the Lawton rider to meet-up since I didn't really know a time. When in doubt, just bombard; I played massive text message notification specialist keeping the Lawton rider up to date. After which I was told I did a better job on status update than Dallas/Fort Worth airport. Not sure if that was a compliment... When in doubt, always accept such comments as compliments. 

The weather report stated something about temperatures in the upper 70s and lower 80s. I don't know why I'm still persuaded by such lies; nevertheless, I wore light layers and my summer Icon jacket with the lining. I did regret this choice once I realized that even lower 70s was not going to happen. I left a little earlier so I could continue my boycott of a specific gas station. Lawton rider pulled in to the parking lot shortly after I did. Sometimes life just works out that way when one doesn't stress over things. As we chatted and got ready to leave, the OKC Buell cruises by us. Perfect, I'm not going to be late for one. I figured we'd meet in the parking lot on Mount Scott, which is why I was surprised to find OKC digging through his millions of saddlebags right at the base and in a turn. After the surprise diminished and bugged-out eye to brake-hand reaction was implemented, full brakes were applied...and all went well. I do have a way with brakes.

To make the weather situation a tad bit worse, the wind picked up. I don't know what happened to my layering skills, but they seem to have done gone and left. OKC had his breakfast sitting on top of Mount Scott in good company might I add. I thought of doing the same; however, that seemed like a lot of unnecessary extra work. Laziness, eh? From Mount Scott we made out way to Roosevelt, OK (see Cold Springs...sort of). We took a short break to fuel up and have some coffee. Meanwhile the battery of the Buell was being sucked dry, lawnmowers were driven to the gas station to be fueled, and an Indian (the country) bus with tourists pulled in. All in a short  of time in a small Oklahoma town. I never expect small towns with nothing (no Main Street, or town square) to be so full of interesting things.Who would have thunk that one could hear four languages (German, Indian, English, and Oklahoman) in such a God forsaken town? Ah, to be proven wrong on a frequent basis...

Yup, all the juice was gone. There was none left to be had. How a battery can be so sick of life (or us), I do not know. How to rectify the situation? Brainstorming time. The guys thought while I watched. My forecast for thinking was mostly cloudy with 5% of brainstorming success, so I let it be. Two solutions presented themselves. We could try push starting the Buell or we could jump-start the Buell. I certainly didn't have any cables, and OKC with all his saddlebags, backpacks, and tank-packs didn't have any either. I guess he's not Mary Poppins after all. That was quite a shock to find out; I might need therapy. 

Push starting it was! Lawton and I watched once as OKC tried it himself. Maybe that was a little cruel (there's that hindsight again), but it was worth the amusement. We then decided to help. I didn't bother taking off any gear because I thought the benefit of the doubt might play in my favor. In all my blueness (blue helmet, blue jacket, blue jeans) and pink laces, OKC and I pushed and chased after the Buell in the gas station parking lot. We ran from one end to the other with little success and an out-of-breath blogger. As I was gasping for air, we opted to try once more. We pulled the Buell back to the other end of the parking lot for another try. OKC sitting on his dead steed, and Lawton and I fully clad in armor began the journey to the other end. Lawton has way longer legs than I do, and it was like an ant trying to keep up with a giant while trying to hold on to the Buell to avoid a face-pavement boxing match. My dragging along behind the machine probably didn't help. Then again, my deadweight dragging along couldn't have been worse than the saddlebags...the saddlebags! We should have unloaded the pack mule! I would have been a good sport and offered to try once more (that must be the stubbornness people keep referring to...), but the others saw no use. 

Plan B. It's always good to have back-up plans. Since none of us actually had jumper cables, we began asking everyone who came to the gas station for a set. It's either very shocking how no one carries a set of jumper cables (in a farm town, really?) or how unwilling small town folks are to help. Which was it? I don't know. It looked like more brainstorming was needed. I sat this one out, too. Turns out physical exertion decreases brainstorming success, so I stuck to watching all the pretty cars drive by. The guys went into the gas station and asked the clerk if she happened to have any jumper cables. They were back out so fast that I didn't need to ask what happened. She did, however, mention that we could buy a set. After 10 minutes of contemplating and not wanting to buy, our German Lawton rider disappeared back into the gas station. Five minutes later, the clerk came out of the glassy doors where she probably amusingly watched us desperately run from one end of the parking lot to the other closely followed by a grinning German. I don't know how he did it nor do I think I want to know (ignorance is bliss), but he managed to charm the clerk to check in her car to see if she did have her set of jumper cables with her. Something she hadn't been willing to do 5 minutes earlier... How d...Nope, don't wanna know. I have no idea how he did it, but can I get me some of that? As our luck would have it, she didn't have any jumper cables. Charmer that he is, he bought the jumper cables, we jumped the Buell off of Blueberry, and then he returned the cables. Those Germans do have some skills and Roosevelt was left with another unique impression (German charm) for the books.

We cruised through Blair on our way to the Quartz Mountains which is where we went our separate ways. Lawton and I checked out the beach and the resort. I was ecstatic to find a marble in the sand among the millions of rocks, bottle caps, and weird things close to the water. Since water levels have receded so much and with the thought 'who plays marbles these days?,' I've convinced myself that the marble dates back to the range of 1900s-1950s. The fact that the marble also looks much like the marbles we found on the farm dating from that time, only seals the deal. What does it mean when you find your marbles instead of losing them?

Click here for the WGR Facebook album.

Explore OK trial run

It was a busy day. Especially since someone could not stay away from the car show in Medicine Park. Guilty! But, it was worth the rush because I got to see some sweet rides (go back a post or two). Anyhow, yours truly came up with the idea of doing history tours in Southwest, OK. Yes, sure we may not have as much history (time-wise) as wherever Plymouth Rock is, BUT we have a rich history nonetheless. State history may only be a century, but the Native American history goes back many centuries. And, of course, let's not forget the not so up-and-up history provided by the outlaws, gamblers, and fortune hunters back in the day. Southwest Oklahoma also has a loud military presence which I'm reminded of on a weekly basis when my windows and pictures rattle like in Mary Poppins. Yes, that's  one of two things I remember about the movie. One, Mary Poppins had the coolest bag ever. I mean, who wouldn't want a bag which could carry a motorcycle and apparently not weigh a ton? Two, the family always had to hold the valuables down when artillery was expected. However, they had it down to a science. Fort Sill hasn't given me its schedule. I wonder if they even have one. Maybe they ought to watch Mary Poppins...

 The Loop:

• Huckleberry Barn
• Victory School #43
• Saddle Mountain
• Cooperton
• Babbs Switch School Memorial
• Hobart
• Quart Mountains

Victory School #43

Over the years, I've ridden to many interesting places; Sometimes only to make a mental note to come back to check it out, sometimes with the opportunity to explore and be questioned by the local police. I've received a lot of comments and interest in the wheres (location) and whats (history) so together with Stone Turtle Ranch I decided to try my luck as tour guide. It was the first, of what I hope to be many, what I'm calling Explore Oklahoma tours. 

Our second stop was the old Victory School #43 building. It's interesting that a stretch of road barely 20 miles long had three schools in the early 1900s (Meers School, Victory School, and Saddle Mountain School). Victory School, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society, is believed to have had a teacherage (a house for teachers) when teachers usually lived with families who lived in the area. The one-room school house offered knowledge to the kiddies from 1902 to 1946. Teacherages were usually found in school districts prior to 1915 and at schools with two or more rooms which makes the fact that Victory School #43 had one kind of unique.

Stop four was in Cooperton. I now know, thanks to Hobart's website, that the sign advertising Saturday Nite Dance is a current thing. So if you find yourself in Cooperton on a Saturday night, have no fear! It's kind of sad when a town with a population of 5 (okay, maybe 15) has more to offer folks than Lawton. Funny how the world works. Drove down Main Street...not much to see there but the bank. And we found this gem (see picture below). It looks to be an old church. Love to have additional information should someone possess it! If I stumble across it in my research, I'll post it.

Additional pictures can be found on my Facebook page.

Tucked away in Cooperton, OK