First bike ride of April, no foolin some weird stuff went down

So yesterday (April 1) Jerry and me decide to throw the bikes on the car and get outta the burbs so we can do a long one in the country. Head up to Sherman, hang a right, park at the little town of Bells, TX.






Jerry always has to stop and take a leak. Cuz he's old.
At least, that's what Phillip said, but Phillip wasn't on this ride because his bike gets flats on gravel roads.



No traffic, Spring day, tailwind. Happy bikers.



This is Jerry being happy.





Head north, nice little tailwind and it's all downhill to the Red River. Cross at the Carpenter's Bluff Bridge (very cool stuff, google it for history).










After a brief detour into downtown Hendrix Oklahoma (Jimi wasn't home), we hang a right, er left, whatever.

After a wrong turn (my fault) and a flat (me again) we head down past Kemp on Kemp road, which is a cool little gravel up and down winding around.






And according to the map, Kemp road goes thru to the East and hits Hwy 78. But not according to the dead end sign and the 2 old ranchers who tell us the bridge has been washed out for years. Oh well, standard country road weirdness.

So, u-turn. Head back up that hill that was so much fun going down.

Jerry is slightly less happy now that we have to u-turn and go back up that steep gravel hill. He hates, in this order, hills, u-turns, communists, and hippies.




About that time my pedal is acting funny. Kinda jiggly wobbly. I go to pull my foot out to look at it... and the whole pedal comes off. Not good. Seems when I lubed and adjusted the bearings this morning, didn't quite put it back together right. Sheesh. So I go back down the road looking for small part (fat chance). It's still ridable but definitely not full power. Weirdness #2, self inflicted

I come back to see Jerry throwing rocks at something on the side of the road. And he looks serious. Come to find out it's a feral pig. Yep, small black little piggy on the side of the road, clearly injured, his back legs don't work. He's in pain, you can tell. We guess he either got hit by a car or shot by somebody.

He can hear us but not see us (We're standing on the other side of a one lane gravel road with bicycles, wearing bright jerseys. This tells you how well feral pigs can see). Watch the video and see if you can hear his teeth snapping when Jerry moves near him.





Eventually rancher #2 comes along in his pickup and we apprise him of the situation.

He gets his rifle out of the pickup and dispatches the pig with 2 poorly aimed shots.

(if you are surprised by any part of that statement, you have never been to rural Oklahoma)

Oh well, rest in peace little fella.

Back on the bike. I pedal gingerly, making really smooth circles because if I dont, the broken pedal slips right off the spindle and it's hard to get back on. Jerry just looks at me and rolls his eyes because now we have to head back instead of the long ride we both wanted.

Retracing across the bridge, back the way we came.


That bridge is really super cool, huh? Which means you better get there quick, no doubt some well meaning bureaucrat somewhere has plans to replace it with a 200 million dollar high speed soulless concrete wonder.

Jerry spots a little turtle in the road, rescues it (but not until he first takes it for a high-speed low altitude bombing run). What a guy. First the pig, now the turtle. That's major karma points.







Remember earlier I said "downhill with a tailwind" ? Yeah, and now we're going the other way. Sucks to have a broken pedal now.

Finally we get back near Bells. The last couple miles are on wide open flat straight highway, and Jerry's been telling me how he's gonna smoke me at the city limit which is slightly downhill and you can see it for a mile at least. So we get close, as I'm limping along on one and a half pedals, he looks at me and says, "ok, bye now"

Ha... I've been playing possum. He gets a couple lengths on me but I'm in the big ring and winding up slowly (carefully) just keeping him in range. It's a slight headwind and he went long... I'm winding up, here comes the sign, I stomp on it and start coming around him... I got it... until my pedal falls off and Jerry rolls across by half a length. Bastard.

That's it for the April fool's ride. This is all true, though I wish it weren't.

We're going again next weekend. I'm bringing new pedals.